The latest plan to save the Dome takes a step forward.
Still cheaper to renovate than the real thing
Harris County Commissioners Court moved forward on Tuesday with one piece of the Astrodome revival that needs to happen whether or not the park plan is achieved, according to County Judge Ed Emmett.
The court asked for an internal cost assessment for building two floors of underground parking, or a large underground storage facility, beneath the ground floor of the Astrodome.
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Edgar Colon, an attorney who serves as the appointed volunteer chair of the Harris County Sports and Convention Corporation, has been managing this undertaking. He estimated the task force of engineers, architects, designers, cost estimators and financial advisers has logged more than 200 hours on Astrodome conversion planning.
He said Emmett took the lead, and the late Precinct 1 Commissioner El Franco Lee also took great interest in the process.
Under the broader plan, the Astrodome would remain county property, and the park inside it would be a county park. The conservancy would help raise the funds for the project and assist in designing it.
By the end of June, Colon said, the plan for the conservancy’s structure and its role in developing an indoor park should be finalized.
But first, Emmett wants to address the more pressing matter of raising the floor of the Astrodome to ground level and making use of the 30 feet of space underneath it.
“My first goal is to put the Dome into usable condition, whether it be for the rodeo for their food court or the Offshore Technology Conference, or for festivals, gatherings or merely for picnickers in the park,” Emmett said.
“The Dome’s a building. We can’t just leave a building sitting there unusable.”
See here for the background. Basically, the plan is a public-private partnership overseen by a conservancy, similar to Discovery Green, but with more moving parts. Among the attractions of this setup would be the ability to fundraise as a non-profit, which would sidestep the need to put another bond issue before the public. I can’t wait to see what the structure of the conservancy will look like. One presumes the incoming County Commissioner (the Dome resides in Precinct 1) will take a lead role in getting this off the ground, and one presumes that Judge Emmett, who is known to want to retire after this term is up at the end of 2018, will want to have it well in motion by then. KUHF has more.
Let me guess…additional parking just in time for the Super Bowl. And at what cost to taxpayers?
I’d say the 200 hours spent on “conversion planning” is very insignificant. So basically they are saying that each one of the five persons utilized the equivalent of a single 40 hour work week to conversion planning. Whoop-de-doo.
“Indoor park”?!…classic Houston. Let’s bring the outside into the inside, but only if weather conditions are optimally low humidity and 72 Degrees F with zero chance of rain. Who is going to pony up the $$$ for air-conditioning, yearly maintenance, insurance, material upgrades over time, etc?
Time to tear this money pit down.
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