COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE ASTRODOME HONEYPOT PLAN, CHEAPER THAN DEMOLITION “If someone just gave me $50 million, I’d structure a perpetuity yielding no less than a 1.2% return (which shouldn’t be at all difficult when 30-year T-bonds yield a 2.85% return) and maintain the Dome FOREVER. I say this because I recall a Chronicle article citing a cost of $600,000 per year to maintain it in mothballs. That’s just not very much money. Unless there’s a pressing need to spend $140 per square foot to reclaim the land (which would be idiotic given that Astroworld sold its land for $17 PSF and that the Reliant Arena is also on the chopping block and would yield more land), then the only thing that could possibly make sense is to do nothing. Simply wait. Then . . . the first private concern that can pony up the cash to do something appropriate with the venue that will generate hotel and/or sales tax revenue gets to capture the $600k per year for themselves. I suspect that it wouldn’t take particularly long. And then the taxpayers come out AHEAD as compared to demolishing it and the politicians get to take well-deserved credit.” [TheNiche]
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Reliant Park
NOTICING THE ASTRODOME-ARENA BAIT-AND-SWITCH 
A major focus of the report on the future of the Astrodome endorsed this week by the Harris County Sports and Convention Corp. was a proposal to spend an additional $385 million to replace the neighboring 1974-vintage Reliant Arena. (That’s almost $115 million more than the estimated $270.3 million the team of consultants estimated it would take to raise the floor of the Astrodome and turn it into a smaller “multi-purpose” facility.) And of course, county budget officials are quick to shoot down the resulting proposed $523 million tax-supported bond issue for a new county building, even if the name “Astrodome” is attached to it. But a comment from Ed Emmett quoted in today’s Chronicle makes it appear the county judge wants to call the bluff: “‘The way it was trotted out, we’re going to re-purpose the Dome and we’re going to replace the arena with a new building,’ Emmett said. ‘If we’re doing that, why don’t we use the Dome for the purposes the arena was being used for? Because that would obviously cost less.'” [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Wikimedia Commons [license]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE PROBLEM WITH ALL NON-OUTRAGEOUS ASTRODOME REDEVELOPMENT CONCEPTS “I’m not attached to the Dome and I don’t know that many people are. When I read this report, like other commentators, I’m thinking . . . thats a lot of money for ‘another venue.’ My impression is that some of the really cool ideas have been suppressed by the Rodeo, which disgusts me. I think a lot of money might be well spent if you are building a unique facility . . . something truly different that would make me load up my family and go there just for that experience. . . . but I don’t want to spend a lot of money just to build ‘another venue’ . . . who’s real purpose is to somehow ‘save the dome.'” [dara childs, commenting on New Life — or Death — for the Astrodome, Now at a Discount]
NEW LIFE — OR DEATH — FOR THE ASTRODOME, NOW AT A DISCOUNT 
Notable in the options presented in today’s report from the latest group of consultants to study the future of the Astrodome: lower prices. The cost estimate for demolishing the vacant sports stadium has been marked down to $68 million from the $128 million cited in a 2010 study (possibly in part because the new figure doesn’t include retiring the debt the county still owes on the building). And turning the Astrodome into a multipurpose sports and exhibition facility (the top recommendation from the consultants at Dallas’s Convention Sports and Leisure) is now predicted to cost just $270 million, down from the $324-to-$374-million range cited in the same 2-year-old report. But the consultants also suggested spending an additional $385 million to replace Reliant Arena; they’d also like to get a private developer to build a hotel on the grounds of Reliant Park. [Click2Houston; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Candace Garcia
A 20-or-so-acre piece of the 104-acre part-time parking lot across the South Loop from Reliant Park formerly known as AstroWorld has traded hands, a developer tells HBJ reporter Jennifer Dawson. But the buyer hasn’t identified itself, and Dawson couldn’t get any of the parties involved to tell her who it is (Dawson says she spoke to 15 people to report her story). Who owns the remaining 80 or so acres of the giant parcel on the south side of the South Loop, between Kirby and Fannin, at the end of the rail line? At last report, a partnership controlled by Fort Worth’s Mallick Group, who bought it in 2010 for $10 cash — and a willingness to assume the previous owner’s $74 million loan.
But a consultant who claims to be involved in redevelopment efforts on the property would only refer to the owner of the main portion of the vacant lot as “an out-of-state land investor” — who has now, she says, created a master plan for the site. Heather Schueppert tells Dawson that details of a proposed mixed-use project — probably combining office, retail, medical and hospitality components — will be revealed quietly in the next couple of months, but won’t be unveiled to the general public for at least a year.
Houston’s 13th annual “What Shall We Do with the Astrodome?” media season kicked off yesterday with a tour of the shuttered facility open to local reporters and photographers willing to sweat a little in the no-longer-air-conditioned space, sign a release, and hold their noses. What was that offending scent? Teevee news reporters politely referred to it in their reports as “mildew” or a “musty” odor, but Swamplot photographer Candace Garcia calls it as she sniffed it: “The smell of mold was overwhelming,” she reports.
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE BEST IDEAS FOR REINVENTING THE ASTRODOME WILL COME AFTER IT’S DEMOLISHED “. . . Yes, it’s hard to find a profitable idea for it now, but if we tear it down, we could spend hundreds of years saying ‘Oh, why didn’t we just think to do this?’ Most buildings that we think of now as grand and historic went through a long time when people thought they were worthless. They came close to tearing down Notre Dame cathedral and Grand Central Station . . . and they actually did tear down Penn Station and the Abbey of Cluny. And looking back you say, ‘How was it possible?’ But almost all great buildings go through phases where it’s not obvious why it should remain standing. Better to hold off on the trigger finger.” [Mike, commenting on How Harris County Has Been Letting the Astrodome Rot]
Teevee reporter Courtney Zubowski follows up on questions raised by some recent photos published on Swamplot: Just how badly trashed is the Astrodome? The county claims to be spending $2 to $3 million a year to maintain the vacant structure, but apparently that amount isn’t enough to keep the place presentable. A burst 8th-floor pipe has drenched the Astroturf, seats are caked with dust, pipe insulation is frayed, and hung ceilings have collapsed on office space:
COMMENT OF THE DAY: COME BACK NEXT WEEK AND YOU’LL FIND THE ASTRODOME GOOD AS NEW “That’s not the turf . . . it’s carpet they put down for the Houston Rodeo after-hour parties! They use it every year! And the trash is because the rodeo just ended and they have not cleaned it up!” [snf, commenting on Comment of the Day: They Owed It to the Astroturf]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THEY OWED IT TO THE ASTROTURF “Man. They used to be so hyper-protective of that turf! I’m surprised it was left ‘out’ and not rolled up in the troughs. It’s probably too late now (anyone still care?) – but they should have cut it into little squares & sold it. Like the Rockets did with the Compaq Center court. Maybe the money could have gone to charity (it sure wouldn’t make a dent in the debt on the building!).” [cwize, commenting on What I Saw When I Snuck Inside the Astrodome]
When was the last time anyone saw the inside of Houston’s hulking, shuttered Astrodome? What’s it like in there, more than a decade since it hosted its final major-league sports event, and more than 5 years since its last bar mitzvah? A curious reader sends Swamplot the latest recon: “I was roaming around taking pictures at the Rodeo on Sunday,” writes the stadium snoop, “when I noticed the ramp down to the floor of the Astrodome was open and there was no one there. I walked down the ramp, on to the field and started taking pictures.”
HOW HARRIS COUNTY STARVED THE ASTRODOME 
It’s not that county officials weren’t looking for some big new thing to do with it, argues Cynthia Neeley. The big problem was they stopped taking care of it while they waited for the sports stadium’s grand new future to arrive: “Let’s add up just a few things: $18.8 million for the lease buy-out, $517,000 for repairs to qualify for temporary occupancy for the Rodeo, $3,210 for that final inspection and permit, $50,000 for a workshop to study future use of the Astrodome, $50,000 more for consultants to study the workshop study; grand total is $19,420,210. . . . Does it bother anyone else that . . . the Sports & Convention Corporation spent that whopping amount and we still have a building doing nothing? And that millions upon millions of potential revenue have been lost? And that whatever grand plan is in its future is going to cost us millions more? In 2007, the year before Astrodome was closed, there were only seven events in the building for a paltry annual net income of $103,596. Did anybody see ads that the Dome was available for lease for private parties or events? Were there promotions or incentives publicized? Did anyone know that you could have rented the field for a bar mitzvah? (Someone actually did, for a reported $15-18,000.)” [Culturemap; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Jeff Balke
THE CASE FOR A GHOST ASTRODOME 
“I’d say let’s be radical! Let’s strip it bare back to its frame and have out-of-towners wonder why it is so. It will minimize maintenance costs while keeping the footprint of the building. Thus, by only making it useless it may be the only way to save it. That way, we’ll buy some time to see how it can truly, purposely be reused AND don’t lose it to circumstantial interests along the way.
The ethereal nature of its bare structure will capture everyone’s attention. I imagined that for the people involved in its construction process, the shell in itself wouldn’t mean much, just another day at work, putting together bolts and plates. But to us looking at it 50 years later, facing the prospect of demolition for lack of good options, this shell becomes both haunting and evocative, that memory of a brighter future and at the same time, the challenge of not forgetting.” [Archinect] Photo: Save the Astrodome
Real estate developer Michael Surface, who as chairman of the Harris County Sports and Convention Corp. was in charge of deciding the Astrodome’s future for the first 8 years of its life as an empty sports venue, pled guilty this morning to filing a false tax statement and making a false statement to federal agents. As part of a plea agreement connected to corruption charges filed against him and Harris County commissioner Jerry Eversole, Surface will likely receive a sentence of less than 5 years in prison capped by less than 3 years’ supervised release and a fine of less than $250,000.
BOLD NEW CONCEPT FOR ASTRODOME TO EMERGE FROM DALLAS CONSULTANTS CONDUCTING FOCUS GROUPS, INTERVIEWS WITH BIGSHOTS A Dallas-area consulting firm known for its consistent recommendation that cities expand their convention space is expected to come up with a plan for what Houston should do with the Astrodome — before the end of the year. Willie Loston, who as executive director of the Harris County Sports and Convention Corp. has spent the last decade mulling over one proposal after another for the vacant facility, tells West U Examiner reporter Mike Reed that whatever the folks from Plano-based Convention Sports and Leisure propose “will resolve one of the thorniest issues involving public expenditures in Harris County.” Best of all: Loston says the new recommendations will somehow emerge from “50 to 75 interviews with education, community and business leaders, before moving on to focus groups.” Why hadn’t someone thought of this sort of approach before? The consultants’ $500,000 fee is being picked up by the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Houston Texans, the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo, Aramark Corp., the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority, and Harris County. [Boston.com; West University Examiner; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Candace Garcia
