This sounds very cool. The century-old Sunset Coffee Building, looming in disrepair over Allen’s Landing at the north end of downtown, will become Houston’s “front door” with an $8 million public-private renovation set to begin in April. The three-story brick structure is boarded up, marked with graffiti, and has shrubs growing out of some second-floor [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Houston First’
Here comes the Convention District
We’ll see what this turns into. The newest vision for the eastern edge of downtown includes hotels and residential buildings in place of what are now parking lots. Officials also picture a bustling pedestrian scene where shops and restaurants line the streets leading to the city’s 1.2-million-square-foot George R. Brown Convention Center, which, too, would [...]
The Midtown arts deal
I have three things to say about this. A nonprofit group plans to build a community arts complex in Midtown with the help of up to $6 million in reimbursements from the city. The Houston City Council this week approved a tax reimbursement deal and the $2.5 million sale of 3400 Main, currently a parking [...]
Council approves deal to spin off Convention Center
Meet Houston First, which merges the city’s Convention and Entertainment Facilities Department and the Houston Convention Center Hotel Corporation, which runs the Hilton Americas. The corporation will not have to come to the council to get expenses approved. The unionized work force of the city department will become private-sector employees of the corporation. The corporation [...]
More on the city’s convention center spinoff proposal
This press release from the Mayor’s office about the proposed spinoff of the city’s convention business hit my inbox this afternoon: Mayor Annise Parker today recommended consolidation of the city’s Convention & Entertainment Facilities Department (CEFD) into the Houston Convention Center Hotel Corporation (HCCHC). The proposal, if approved by City Council, would provide the city [...]
Spinning off the convention business
The city is looking to get out of the convention and entertainment business and maybe make a few bucks in the process. The city’s Convention and Entertainment Facilities department currently runs the George R. Brown Convention Center and other city-owned venues downtown. A plan on its way to City Council next week would make the [...]