Houston, Texas real estate development, home buying, landscape, and design

7 Comments

1. 1
   From SBV:

   Would you prefer that people with no CBD commercial real estate development experience make decisions regarding the best way to spur development and growth the same area?

   September 25, 2012 at 10:52 am
2. 2
   From Lost_In_Translation:

   SBV,

   I would just prefer that the city does not provide preferential tax breaks. Every business owner in the CBD contributes to the benefit of the area, why do newcomers get goodies? But that’s a different (although I feel more legitimate) argument.

   September 25, 2012 at 11:14 am
3. 3
   From Spoonman.:

   I would prefer that the government stay out of development entirely. That’s not its job.

   September 25, 2012 at 11:14 am
4. 4
   From commonsense:

   “They” would prefer such decisions be made by hippies based on wishful thinking, unicorns, and pixie dust.
   Having said that, government should definitely stay out of this and let natural market forces develop the area.
   Who’s to say Downtown SHOULD be developed and not dwindle like a product of a bygone era. In US cities, employment/business are becoming decentralized with diminished need for dense business core.

   September 25, 2012 at 11:50 am
5. 5
   From Jules:

   The City should not be giving over $37M in tax breaks to private developers at a time when the City is asking voters to approve a $410M in bond package including $57M for “general government”.

   And yes, why should newcomers get goodies at the expense of everyone else?

   September 25, 2012 at 1:36 pm
6. 6
   From TheNiche:

   Its unsurprising that commercial real estate guys should occupy a number of board seats for the Downtown Management District or for Central Houston, Inc. After all, they’re the ones that pay the taxes. If the expenditures improve downtown and cause their own property values to go up, then so does their tax bill. That’s pretty much the point. And if the rent is high, then you see more development too. It’s all good.

   September 26, 2012 at 12:41 am
7. 7
   From Jules:

   Niche, the $37M isn’t an expenditure by the City, it’s a handout in the form of tax rebates.

   Everybody who lives in the City pays property taxes, even renters via their rent because presumably the landlord would have to pass this cost down in order to make a profit (and renters actually pay more taxes because there is no homestead exemption on the property they rent).

   The property taxes I pay aren’t mine to do what I want with, why should theirs be?

   September 26, 2012 at 8:29 am