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.
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Tag: Astrodome
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
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THEY COULD’VE PARKED THE SPACE SHUTTLE OVER THERE BY SECOND BASE “Why build a [hangar]? We finally had something to put in the Astrodome and we let it slip away.” [DanaX, commenting on No Shuttle Parking: Space Center Houston’s Innovative Garage Design Loses Out]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHY’D THEY LET THE ASTRODOME ROT? “. . . It doesn’t have to just sit there and waste our tax dollars, but unfortunately taxpayers are letting that happen by not pressuring the county to take immediate steps towards making it useful. Instead of doing nothing while waiting on what it will be in its grand ‘next life’ they should be getting it up to code, bit by bit, step by step so that it can be used, or at least parts of it be used – like maybe just the field – to start bringing in revenue. Before the doors closed permanently, a family paid around $18,000 to rent the field for a bar mitzvah. Don’t know how much director/producer John Lee Hancock paid to lease it for his movie Friday Night Lights (Sport & Convention Corp. wouldn’t tell me) but it wasn’t chickenfeed. If the county had been doing stuff like this all along the building would still be inhabitable and probably be at least paying for itself. It certainly would be a lot more attractive to potential investors. Taxpayers need to be pro-active and tell their commissioners to start fixing it up NOW and not wait another month or six months (at $300,000-400,000 a month) or a year! They should put that money to work and not down the drain. Taxpayers should show up at Commissioners Court and insist that the process to get the building operational, even in some small way, should start NOW.” [Cynthia Neely, commenting on How To Demolish the Astrodome: No Dynamite, Please]
HOW TO DEMOLISH THE ASTRODOME: NO DYNAMITE, PLEASE “. . . the Dome is also a mess right now, full of deadly asbestos, molds, a whole geological stratum’s worth of dust and who knows what else. But that nasty stew, ironically, may be its ultimate salvation. Although they blew up Texas Stadium for about $7 million, the figure for leveling the Dome is said to be in excess of $100 million . . .
Why so much? Even after the asbestos is removed, the tremors caused by imploding it could damage Reliant Stadium, so a ‘piece by piece dismantling’ will be required, explains Narendra Gosain, a senior principal with Walter P. Moore, the firm originally responsible for the Dome’s structural design. Walter P. Moore also consulted when San Antonio took apart the Hemisfair Arena, which Gosain calls a ‘mini-Astrodome.’
Explosives couldn’t be used on that venue, either, because of how close it stood to the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center.
‘The frame was the same, just much smaller,’ Gosain said, ‘and it required a very slow, painstaking process.’” [Houston Chronicle, via Off the Kuff; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Candace Garcia
Any explanation for why a county agency spent 10 years allowing the Astrodome fall into disrepair while haplessly throwing millions of dollars after a sequence of doomed and bizarre plans to redevelop it would have to focus on the thoughtful stewardship of Michael Surface, who presided over the Harris County Sports and Convention Corporation from 1999 until his resignation at the end of 2007. Surface’s trial on corruption charges isn’t scheduled to take place until this fall. But jury selection for the trial of his partner in the 5-count federal indictment, Precinct 4 commissioner Jerry Eversole, begins today.
County Judge Ed Emmett says he’s ready to move forward with that idea for renovating the Astrodome he floated a couple years back: turning it into a big open air-conditioned space that could be, you know, used for events and stuff. Emmett’s plan would require replacing the roof, maybe removing the seats, and spiffing up the grounds for indoor festivals. But he’s promised to work closely with the Harris County Sports and Convention Corporation — the same organization that’s favored far more complicated ideas for reusing the Dome over the decade it’s spent supposedly studying the issue. Emmett says he’s hopeful Harris County commissioners will have a plan ready within a few months; voting on a bond to pay for the changes could take place as soon as a year from now.
- Emmett: Dome should be saved as festival venue [Houston Chronicle]
- Coke, Hookers, Hospital, Repeat [GQ]
- Astrodome coverage [Swamplot]
Photo: James Harrison
COMMENT OF THE DAY: NAMING RIGHTS “. . . How ironic that the Astrodome is now called ‘Reliant Astrodome’ and suffers from an ‘electrical fire.’ Lame.” [David Beebe, commenting on The Short History of the Astrodome]
THE SHORT HISTORY OF THE ASTRODOME 
The Astrodome’s electricity was cut off today after a small transformer fire broke out in a vault on the stadium’s east side. After extinguishing the blaze, firefighters used fans to escort a domeful of smoke out the exit ramp. [MyFox Houston; previously on Swamplot] Photo: MyFox Houston
COMMENT OF THE DAY: CULTURAL EXCHANGE “If it’s any consolation, if there’s a scale model of the Astrodome outside of Beijing, it’ll probably get paved over eventually, too.” [tinyvoices, commenting on Out of the Way, Tiny Soldiers, Here Comes the Grand Parkway: Katy’s Forbidden Gardens Is Closing Down]
Having displayed a remarkable ability to minimize outside participation in the “open call” for Astrodome redevelopment proposals it conducted half a decade ago, the brilliant and methodical minds behind the Harris County Sports & Convention Corporation now appear ready to demonstrate similar mastery of the process of public-opinion polling. The corporation is counting actual votes in the online poll it set up last week, which allows website visitors from any country to choose from one of 2 kitchen-sink redevelopment proposals — or the garbage-disposal option pictured above. With 5,800 “votes” cast, longtime corporation executive director Willie Loston notes that the “save the Dome” options are winning by a landslide. But wait! Maybe they just haven’t been asking the right people?
To solicit more participation, Loston has asked some of Reliant Park’s tenants — the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, the Houston Texans and the Offshore Technology Conference – to encourage their constituents to take the survey.
Asked if that could be construed as an attempt to manufacture support for a more costly park makeover, Loston said he does not see it as an attempt to shape the survey’s outcome.
Note to contracted visitors: Local Zip Codes begin with “770.”
- ‘Save the Dome’ leads poll by a landslide [Houston Chronicle]
- Latest Astrodome Redevelopment Proposal Features Large Domed Space for People To Mill About, Wondering What To Do with Astrodome [Swamplot]
- Astrodome coverage [Swamplot]
Drawing of flattened Astrodome: Reliant Park
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WRITE-IN ADDITION TO THE NEW KITCHEN-SINK ASTRODOME REDEVELOPMENT PLAN “How about turning the Astrodome into the Smithsonian Museum of Energy and Power? Just like the National Air & Space Museum, it could collect the actual artifacts of the industry that calls Houston home and that plays such an important part in all of our daily lives. You could put a whole supertanker, a few notorious drilling rigs, some significant parts of an oil refinery, working solar panels and several generations of windmill turbines inside. Divide up the concourse spaces for offices (alternative energy business incubators, etc) Could be really interesting and also an appropriate use for the facility.” [SCL, commenting on Latest Astrodome Redevelopment Proposal Features Large Domed Space for People To Mill About, Wondering What To Do with Astrodome]
Charged with figuring out what to do with the Astrodome, those wacky folks at the Harris County Sports and Convention Corporation have at last identified a viable new use for the aging multipurpose venue. Their idea this time: turn it into . . . a multipurpose venue! Using a $50,000 budget granted by county commissioners, consultants hired by the corporation demonstrated the clear advantages of large-scale design by committee. One actual specific recommendation of the consultants’ report, issued yesterday: A feasibility study, which would — among other things — identify an “overall concept” for the project.
To help communicate their ideas for the space, both the written and PowerPoint versions of the report include several drawings that show large numbers of possibly confused people wandering about pointlessly in and around a revamped Dome:
SHOWTIME IN HOUSTON: HOW CHERRY DEMOLITION SURE WOULD LIKE TO SMASH UP THE ASTRODOME The last year and a half has been “bleak” for the local demolition industry, says Cherry Demolition’s Mike Dokell. But he’s eager to get his hands on the big one: “Because the Rodeo/Texans can’t use it, and due to the building’s design and current condition, it would be nearly impossible to do anything with the structure. I say wreck it. And, yes, I would want to be involved in the project. Most probably, explosives would be involved in the demolition to some extent. But, there are many features of the structure that would have to be taken down conventionally. The eventual demolition of the Dome would be quite a show, and we at Cherry would love to be part of it.” [Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot]
DYNAMO STADIUM APPROVAL WILL DRAW A LINE AROUND THE ASTRODOME Included in that Dynamo Stadium deal Harris County commissioners are expected to approve today: A new TIRZ for the Astrodome. “Fixing the Astrodome is not the purpose of the district, but a surge of development in the area could make the Astrodome more attractive as an investment and destination, according to development officials. There are no specific plans on what to do with redevelopment money in the Astrodome district or even an indication that any of it will be spent on the old stadium. County officials say it is not likely that redevelopment money would be used for Astrodome debt payments. Astrodome expenses are covered by a combination of hotel and car rental taxes, parking fees and concessions.” [Houston Chronicle]