- NFL Wants Up to $50M in Luxury Box, WiFi, other NRG Stadium Upgrades for Super Bowl, but County Officials Not Interested in Paying for Them [Houston Chronicle]
- More Renderings of Kirksey-Designed Wilshire at River Oaks District Condo Tower Pelican Builders Is Planning for Former Westcreek Apartments Site [Culturemap; previously on Swamplot]
- National Apartment Monitoring Service Finds Houston Month-to-Month Rent Growth Slowing Down in Houston [HBJ]
- City of Humble Establishes Downtown Improvement Program [HKA Texas]
- Lake Houston Area Boosters Talk Up Development in Their Region [HBJ]
- El Tiempo’s New 1308 Annex on Westheimer To Open April 20 [Food Chronicles]
- Ula’s Mexican Restaurant To Open on April 27 in Former Coppa Spot at 5555 Washington [Food Chronicles]
- The History Behind the Midtown Sears on Main St. [Houston Chronicle]
- Landscape Architecture Firm West 8 Selected To Create Master Plan for Houston Botanic Garden on Glenbrook Golf Course [Culturemap; previously on Swamplot]
- Houston B-Cycle Wants To Add 71 Stations, 600 Bikes Over the Next 2-Plus Years [The Highwayman]
- The Worst High-Water Spots in Houston for Roadway Flooding [Houston Chronicle]
- City Has Reduced Pothole Repair Backlog By 1,000; Still More Than 2 Months Behind Incoming Requests [Houston Chronicle]
- Hermann Park Installs 20-Ft. Tall Sail-Like Sculpture by Yinka Shonibare [Houston Chronicle]
Photo of St. Emanuel St. mural, East Downtown: elnina via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
“Of all the projects we have ever built in Houston, The Wilshire is destined to become the most significant landmark building developed by our company,†Pelican Builders principle Robert Bland says in a statement.
That building looks like about a dozen condo towers built in the Wilshire corridor of Los Angeles in the 1990’s. No trend setting, landmark architecture in this one. Houston architecture remains bland. I miss the days when Hines hired good architects to design his office buildings around this city.
new proposal, let’s just demo BOTH the astrodome and NRG stadium at this point and call football over with.
“We acknowledge local concerns regarding the energy industry and its impact on our market, but we have been advised this will be a brief period of correction specific to the energy industry.” OK, buddy, good luck with that. The Wilshire is just one of several pricey condo/townhome projects being built between Weslayan and the Galleria that may go begging for buyers when they’re finished. Hope he has the money to ride out the downturn, which most analysts now say will not be “brief.”
Who cares about the Super Bowl coming to town? $50M to upgrade seats that none of us will ever see is a huge waste of money. Upgrading WiFi at least makes sense since it can be utilized by all attendees.
with $5 million they could provide wifi to the entire inner loop.
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for the access points you are going to spend about $15 per guest accessing the wifi (an Aruba AP that will cover about 50 people will set you back about $750). When they’re configured right they can manage connection loads very well (50 people connected to one AP, the system will recognize and shift 20 of them to other less used AP in range). So figure $1 million for the actual access point hardware, then a $20k server or two to manage all that. cabling, POE, and install, MAYBE call that another million. so where’s the other $3 million going? There’s no way it costs $5 million to wifi the stadium.
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and that’s the smallest portion of the cost.
No doubt there will be a favorable economic impact from SuperBowl LI, but Harris county taxpayers should not be burdened with the cost of upgrades demanded by the NFL. Why was this not explicitly defined contractually as part of the bid award? The owners should pay – they will reap the rewards.
“The Super Bowl bid agreement hammered out in 2013 promises that NRG’s WiFi will be up to 2016-17 standards …” yet “Sargent said the NFL has never said NRG needs $50 million of work. Furthermore, she added, “We, as hosts, did not agree to anything” up front related to the luxury suites. ” …
This is such political bullshit. Hopefully these organizations will be subjected to detailed audits to ensure spending is above board. Too much opportunity for favoritism / cronyism.
updating the wifi is a no brainer. it sucks that you can’t use your phone at games/concerts.
To hell with the NFL.
Regarding the Sears on Main: “Of course, one person’s calm vibe is another’s moribund store. Casual observers sometimes don’t realize that this Sears is even open. As Jackie C wrote in 2014 Yelp review of the location. “WAIT, this place is open? I live right around the corner and have been making bets that its closed.””
I use that store, and when I drive by I can’t believe it’s open either. Wonder if Sears corporate office knows?
Sick of paying taxes to line the pockets of the NFL. It’s simply un-American.
actually, subsidizing sports leagues and their corruption is as american as apple pie.
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The NFL is a tax-exempt organization (that is clearly out of place with all other organizations under 501c(6)), runs an operating profit of 9MM with 326MM in program service revenue, spends 20MM a year on lobbying in washington and provides goodell with a 40MM bonus on top of a 4MM salary. That’s just the NFL though, it doesn’t get any better when you look at financing and expenditures from the college down to junior high levels.
RE: The high water spots. WHAT? No mention of portions of Allen Parkway? Or I-45 and Tidwell? Gulf Freeway and Tellepsen?