GETTING CASH OUT OF THE HOUSTON PAVILIONS 
The Downtown Redevelopment Authority this week approved a loan of $3.3 million to the developers of the Houston Pavilions. But the mall’s developers likely won’t need to pay it back. According to a 2006 agreement that included a promised $14.3 million of TIRZ reimbursements and grants for the sleepy downtown redevelopment project, the developers would only receive the last $3.3 million payment once the retail portion of the project was 70 percent leased. At the moment — thanks in part to efforts by management earlier this year to prevent Books-A-Million from closing up shop there — the retail spaces are 62 percent full. Not a problem: The interest-only loan will tide the developers over until they can get their numbers up. Also coming to Houston Pavilions, as part of the deal: new outdoor eating areas and an HPD “special operations” storefront. [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Flickr user Scott DeW
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What on earth made them think people would want to go to downtown just to shop? The area would have been better served if they made more affordable housing in the area. Not everyone has a few grand a month to spend on the few places that are available in downtown.
It may be 62% full, but walking end to end, that place looks deserted. Nothing but boarded up stores that never were.
The Houston Pavilions are a joke. Walk around there at 8pm and the whole place is dead, you can hear the crickets. Maybe the only two things that do any real business are the House of Blues and the bowling alley, but the rest is nothing but a bunch of hipster retail outlets and a limited variety of overpriced food.
Thankfully there is always a steady crowd going through the Pup Squad Adoption Center on Saturday mornings!!
MC, I disagree. There are alot of people wandering around HP at night. Closer to 10PM than your 8PM timeframe, but just the crowd of people going to Pete’s is pretty massive from what i’ve seen. Once Gertner gets his place open, and a few more places open up I think it will fare pretty nicely. They really need some kind of external billboards/screens to advertise what is inside though.
If your development needs taxpayer funding it shouldn’t exist.
If that means there are a few ugly abandoned buildings, too bad.
Is that so hard?
I have been in there a couple times to check out Pete’s, and both times is has been completely deserted except for the piano bar crowd. Tons of boarded-up storefronts. You would have to be nuts to open up a shop there.
On a more serious and probably less popular note, I think that if developers are serious about getting a young, trendy crowd into downtown at night, they need the city to address the homeless problem. Not that there are any easy answers there, but just saying that the recent downtown revitalization is obviously failing, and midtown is starting to head the same way because there are a ton of sketchy ass people all over the place (especially at night) and it’s driving away the clientele that the businesses want.
/soapbox
Ohhhhhhh… I hope thems open a boobie store!
We need to invent a drinking game for comments. One shot for every time someone mentions the “homeless” as the reason things in this city flop. Chug a beer if “paying for parking” gets mentioned as a reason for not frequenting somewhere. BONUS: if someone mentions valet parking as a turn off, feel free to hit the crack pipe.
I hate to pay for the valet parking operated by the homeless! … does that count?
The design of HP sucks big time also! It is nothing more innovative than the 80’s Park Shops without the glass roof! It is not at all inviting from street level. If anything it’s too cold and sterile which IMO, isn’t a look that will draw the casual crowd. A more laid back approach with a brick or stone facade would have been a better draw, instead of all that pretentious metallic mess. Something similar, footprint/design wise, to CocoWalk or the Denver Pavilions would have been alot more inviting. Though extreme, I think they should pull a Marq*E and tear half of it down, opening the whole other remaining half towards Dallas.
HPD Storefront?. How quaint. Doesn’t exactly conjure up Norman Rockwell paintings.
@ eddie
the design is by the same firm who developed the 16th St. Denver Pavilions.
Exactly Eddie, and the Denver Pavillions is 100% better for any number of reasons. It is centrally located on the always busy 16th St. pedestrian mall, the design is inviting (Houston’s version is pretty banal!), especially with the big D-E-N-V-E-R lettering above, they have decent tenants, including a large movie theater, and perhaps most importantly (and least favorably for Houston), they have great weather — over 300 sunny days a year! Most people don’t park near the Denver Pavillions, they park further away and walk to it. Not going to happen in Houston, ever!