HATCHING BABY BUSINESSES AT THE ASTRODOME 
One of those 19 private bids that the Harris County Sports and Convention Corporation didn’t quite get around to asking for and yet still received just in time for Monday’s deadline comes from entrepreneur Tim Trae Tindall, who suggests that the Astrodome might be the perfect environment to trap heat — so to speak — as a business incubator: Click2Houston’s Gianna Caserta reports that Tindall’s bid for this “one-stop shop location” would provide “consultants, restaurants, investors, IT support, and office space. There would even be an extended-stay area for visitors to have accommodations while scoping out the Houston business climate.” (Having investors there on the spot? Now that beats cold calling.) Tindall, who says he’s trying to raise the money to fund the project, seems to think that a fledgling business would be drawn almost naturally to the decaying Dome: “What we intend to do is seize upon the notoriety of Houston’s greatest landmark.” [Click2Houston; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Allyn West
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Tag: Harris County Government
COMMENT OF THE DAY: HOW TO KILL REDEVELOPMENT PROPOSALS FOR THE ASTRODOME — WITHOUT EVEN TRYING “So, a private group (Astros) comes to the County and gets tons of public funding to build the Astrodome. But, now, if a private group has a great idea to repurpose the Astrodome, they cannot suggest that it be paid for with any public funds or let the tax payers consider their ideas for use with public funds. Only the great wise elders of the County Commissioners who have sat on their hands for over a decade on this issue can propose a solution for the Astrodome that involves the use of public funds. The ballot measure had better have a ‘none of the above’ option.” [Old School, commenting on Headlines: League City’s Red-Light Cameras Go Dark; ‘Guerrilla Gardeners’ Bombard Midtown with Wildflowers; previously on Swamplot]
The Harris County Sports and Convention Corporation this week approved a June 10th deadline for all private proposals to redevelop the Astrodome. That’s a notable event not only because of the somewhat hurried timeframe, but also because the organization appears to have left out a possibly minor step: Formally requesting private proposals to redevelop the Astrodome in the first place.
If that sounds a little odd to you, rest assured this sort of oversight is entirely within character for the 13-year-old quasi-governmental body, whose major achievement has been to shepherd Houston’s most famous building on a steady path from viable sports, entertainment, and celebrity ball-shagging venue to decaying, moldy relic. Hasn’t the corporation been soliciting plans all this time?
COMMENT OF THE DAY: AND HOW WILL THEY SHIP IT TO THE WEST COAST? “Thought this nugget from the Biz Journal article was interesting: ‘The organization, which presides over Reliant Park, is scheduled to hold a board meeting on April 17. The agenda includes “(d)iscussion and possible action to approve a resolution regarding the future of the Reliant Astrodome†and “(d)iscussion of a nondisclosure agreement with the University of Southern California regarding a potential project related to the Reliant Astrodome.‒ Now what do those Trojans want with our Dome?????????” [DNAguy, commenting on Headlines: Voting on an Astrodome Plan; Making Art of Power Lines]
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]
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:
PICKING UP CASH FOR THE CHEMICAL SPEW How did Harris County government swing half a million dollars in cash from Shell Chemical? The company is turning over that amount as part of a settlement covering 5 unreported chemical releases between April 2008 and March 2010 at the company’s Deer Park plant on Hwy. 225 just east of Beltway 8. According to Harris County’s lawyer on the case, Shell Chemical also made an “important concession,” which will likely result in more advance warning of similar future windfalls headed our way: Shell says it’ll now alert the county’s local pollution control office, and not just state officials, of “pollution events.†[Pasadena Citizen]
FORT BEND PARKWAY WILL GROW SOUTH, STAY AWAY FROM THE LOOP 
The Fort Bend County Toll Road Association plans to start construction of a $20 million, 2.3-mile southern extension of the Fort Bend Parkway from Hwy. 6 to the Sienna Parkway later this year. (The Hwy. 6 underpass will cost an additional $20 million). Plans to to build a 3-mile-long northern extension the Fort Bend Parkway — from Rte. 90A through Westbury, so it connects to the southwest corner of the 610 Loop — have been on the books for more than a decade, but Harris County officials aren’t interested in building it. [Houston Chronicle] Map: HCTRA
Looking for a safe place to keep its voting machines after the previous storehouse on Canino Rd. was destroyed in a mysterious fire last year, county officials have at last found the perfect uh, match: a 1980-vintage tilt-wall car-storage facility owned by the estate of a billionaire plaintiff’s attorney who died in a car crash. No harm came to the $250 million worth of cars John M. O’Quinn kept in this warehouse at 11525 Todd Rd. after he was killed in an accident on Allen Parkway 2 years ago, but the building was available. One of 3 suites in the 123,930-sq.-ft. structure near the Hempstead Highway and 34th St. currently serves as the black-box home of the Houston Academy of Dramatic Arts. The county is paying O’Quinn’s estate $4.35 million for the facility, with some of that money coming from the fire-insurance claim. Also moving into the building, after a $2 million renovation: county tax assessor-collector Don Summers and his collection of old license plates and tax records.
- County voting machines find a home [Houston Chronicle]
- Warehouse blaze still a mystery and Police: O’Quinn driving nearly twice the speed limit [Houston Chronicle]
- Voting machine fire not arson [Houston Politics]
Photo: LoopNet
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]
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.
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:
FILLING OUT THE GRAND PARKWAY FROM 9 TO 12 O’CLOCK A vote in Commissioners Court yesterday authorized the Harris County Toll Road Association to start looking for consulting firms to coordinate the design of a wide northwest swath of the Grand Parkway, extending from I-10 West just east of Katy to a little past I-45 North. That’s a 39-mile stretch. The toll road, 180 miles in all, would help fill out Houston’s target map — by adding another ring. [Houston Chronicle]
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]
Whatever obstacles were standing in the way of county commissioner El Franco Lee agreeing to Harris County participation in the East Downtown TIRZ — the last piece of the funding puzzle needed for the Houston Dynamo to get its new soccer stadium — appear to have fallen. A number of votes will need to take place before construction can start on the site bounded by Texas, Dowling, Hutchins, and Walker streets just east of Downtown. But media reports indicate the long-stalled project now has sufficient government support to move forward:
The city and county have asked the [Harris County-Houston Sports Authority] to take over lease negotiations with the Dynamo, oversee the construction project and act as property manager upon the stadium’s completion.
If the authority approves the request, City Council is expected to vote on the agreement March 31, followed by a Commissioner’s Court vote expected on April 13. If all is approved as planned, the two parties would turn the land over to the Dynamo for construction on Oct. 1, and the stadium is scheduled for completion April 1, 2012, just in time for the Dynamo season to begin.
- City, county strike potential Dynamo stadium deal [Houston Chronicle]
- Icken: Dynamo stadium could be ‘done deal’ by September [Houston Business Journal]
- Previously on Swamplot: Deep Inside City and County Negotiations for an East Downtown Dynamo Stadium, Boxing Out Dynamo Stadium, Dynamo Downtown Dinghy: All Aboard, Quick! and A First Glimpse of the New Dynamo Stadium
Rendering of Dynamo Stadium: Populous
