The Astrodome debacle (Houston, Dallas, Center: to buy, taxes, cost of)

[jeremy2788]

Thankfully Judge Emmett is not impressed with the parking lot idea.

Judge Emmett Not Impressed by Texans, Rodeo Plan To Demolish the Astrodome » Swamplot: Houston's Real Estate Landscape

[HtownLove]

Actually the list of options floated recently don't seem that pricey to me.

1. Multipurpose sporting Facility- $270 Million
2. Leave it alone- $2-4M in maintenance a year
3. Demolishing it $128M plus the cost of building a parking lot
4. Renaissance Complex plus Hotel $385M

Option's 1 and 2 seem like a steal to me considering today"s facilities can cost upwards of a billion to build.

[crbcrbrgv]

Sell it to the Harmony school on the other side of 610.

I assure you they have the money.

Possibly even in cash.

[HouTXmetro]

What is the renaissance complex?

[Dopo]

I bet it will be sold to another mega church for $5 million

[apm193]

Originally Posted by HtownLove

Actually the list of options floated recently don't seem that pricey to me.

1. Multipurpose sporting Facility- $270 Million
2. Leave it alone- $2-4M in maintenance a year
3. Demolishing it $128M plus the cost of building a parking lot
4. Renaissance Complex plus Hotel $385M

Option's 1 and 2 seem like a steal to me considering today"s facilities can cost upwards of a billion to build.

I think the demolition and parking lot would only be $29mil, at least according to Linbeck and Moore studies. The thing I find surprising is that we spend $3 million a year maintaining it, yet its currently not capable of hosting any events. I wonder where exactly all that money goes.

[stoneclaw]

They better not do something drab and boring like add another church.

Don't get me wrong, I mean no disrespect to church, but Houston is already known as a bible belt. We need more entertainment options and things if Houston wishes to become a world class city.

Too many good ideas have been passed up like the Grand luxury hotel, Movie Theater, etc.

If they save the Astrodome, I'd like to see something that could possible bring some excitement into the city.

[blkgiraffe]

This has fail written all over it. Reliant should have never been built there. It should have went near downtown. Astrodome should have been renovated and utilized years ago. It could have still been the host of the rodeo and crap and also more parking would be available.

Houston just amazes me with their great planning. Just amazing.

I'd rather let the thing stand and rot than to tear it down and get a parking lot.

[astrohip]

Originally Posted by HtownLove

Actually the list of options floated recently don't seem that pricey to me.

1. Multipurpose sporting Facility- $270 Million
2. Leave it alone- $2-4M in maintenance a year
3. Demolishing it $128M plus the cost of building a parking lot
4. Renaissance Complex plus Hotel $385M

Option's 1 and 2 seem like a steal to me considering today"s facilities can cost upwards of a billion to build.

#1--we have every facility we need, for all the major sports. What do we need another one for? And where does the 270MM come from?
#2--so we spend $30MM over 10 years to mothball it?
#3--that was a figure thrown out to scare off the "tear it down" crowd. It can be done for <$20MM easy. In less than ten years we make our money back, as versus ongoing maint.
#4--again, without government backing, no one will invest money in it. And really, who would stay there, except at rodeo time?

Originally Posted by Dopo

I bet it will be sold to another mega church for $5 million

That is actually a decent idea, except a church and Reliant are both used on Sundays. We need to find a use for the Dome from M-F.

Originally Posted by stoneclaw

Too many good ideas have been passed up like the Grand luxury hotel, Movie Theater, etc.

Sorry, not good ideas. If they were, someone would be lined up with their checkbook. Heck, even the hotels around it struggle at times.


The Reliant/Dome complex has one purpose--to host the huge facilities needed for trade shows, sporting events, rodeos, cookoffs, etc. Events that require massive facilities, huge amounts of parking, etc. It is very difficult to piggyback any other use. If this wasn't true, you would already see it being used for something else.

[HtownLove]

Originally Posted by astrohip

#1--we have every facility we need, for all the major sports. What do we need another one for? And where does the 270MM come from?
#2--so we spend $30MM over 10 years to mothball it?
#3--that was a figure thrown out to scare off the "tear it down" crowd. It can be done for <$20MM easy. In less than ten years we make our money back, as versus ongoing maint.
#4--again, without government backing, no one will invest money in it. And really, who would stay there, except at rodeo time?


That is actually a decent idea, except a church and Reliant are both used on Sundays. We need to find a use for the Dome from M-F.


Sorry, not good ideas. If they were, someone would be lined up with their checkbook. Heck, even the hotels around it struggle at times.


The Reliant/Dome complex has one purpose--to host the huge facilities needed for trade shows, sporting events, rodeos, cookoffs, etc. Events that require massive facilities, huge amounts of parking, etc. It is very difficult to piggyback any other use. If this wasn't true, you would already see it being used for something else.

On point one you are wrong. There are several facilities we don't support that metropolitan areas of similar size do.

We do not have a swimming complex. We do not have a track and field complex, we do not have a gymnastics complex.

The studies showed that there are many sporting events that that area can host if the venues were updated.

for number 2, I was never in support of that anyway.

For #3 the figure involves retiring the debt the city owns etc. The Debt alone is more than your $20 million figure so, I dunno where that number is coming from. The Lowest I have seen is $60M WITHOUT retiring the debt, and without even paving over the surface

#4 what are you talking about??? The Renaissance option is a combo option extending passed the Astrodome to Reliant Arena so that even more events can be hosted. Its a two plus deal for one. A steal if you asked me.

A church is a horrible idea. Who on Earth goes to Church?

For the Luxury hotel, you are thinking of it as a sporting hotel where you sleep in your room, then walk across to the park to catch a game. WRONG WRONG WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!
The complex proposed was an activity driven hotel where there is entertainment supplied. It wouldn't matter if there was anything going on At reliant, Reliant arena or teh Astrodome.

Why do you Houstonians just think of so narrow as in" the La Quinta across the street can barely fill its rooms bla bla bla, what makes you think another hotel would do well"
Because young Sherlock its not just boxes with beds they want to put up. They floated a themed hotel.