http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/front/3315636 A 'village' plan for the Astrodome Investors want to turn landmark into a luxury hotel, complete with trees and a waterway By BILL MURPHY Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle RESOURCES THE ASTRODOME An investment company has obtained financing for a $450 million project that would transform the Reliant Astrodome into a 1,200-room convention hotel with a winding indoor waterway, county officials said Wednesday. The county, which owns the 40-year-old landmark that once was called the Eighth Wonder of the World, has yet to greenlight the project. But by obtaining financing and providing renderings and economic studies , the investment company convinced the Harris County Sports & Convention Corp. that its plan is viable. "If they can get it financed, that goes a long way toward saying that it can work," said Willie Loston, director of the Sports and Convention Corp., which oversees Reliant Park. The developer's proposal calls for nine acres of the Astrodome's interior to be reserved for trees, walkways, mill wheels and the waterway, which would be plied by tourist boats similar to the ones on San Antonio's River Walk. Astrodome Redevelopment Corp., the investment company, said the project's theme would be the Best of Texas, and it would feature buildings that evoked the state's past. A building designed to look like a historic Texas courthouse would be at the interior's center. "It literally would be a village under glass," Loston said. It won't happen unless Astrodome Redevelopment signs a letter of intent and Commissioners Court approves the project, said Mike Surface, chair of the Sports & Convention Corp. The company and the Sports and Convention Corp., he said, would be unlikely to work out a letter of intent before late this year or next year. Scott Hanson, president of Astrodome Redevelopment, couldn't be reached Wednesday. The question of what to do with the Astrodome has lingered since the Astros relocated to Minute Maid Park five years ago. Many Houstonians are sentimentally attached to the building and took pride in its being the world's first domed stadium. Because of those sentiments, county officials, especially elected ones, are reluctant to become known as the bureaucrats who razed the Dome. "It just has too much historical significance and emotional ties for the community," Surface has said. But the building is expensive to maintain and has become a bit of an albatross. The county has been spending about $1.5 million annually to host a few events there. Even if it were mothballed, the county still would spend $500,000 annually on basic operations. The county still is paying off bonds issued to pay for Astrodome renovations in the 1980s. Reinventing the Dome would be extraordinarily expensive. Building from scratch is typically much cheaper than doing a massive renovation, especially of an oddly shaped structure like a domed stadium. Astrodome Redevelopment's convention hotel would be four times more expensive than the city-owned convention hotel, the Hilton Americas, which opened next to the George R. Brown Convention Center downtown in late 2003. A number of large, well-known and well-heeled companies are investors in Astrodome Redevelopment. They include Oceaneering International Inc., a publicly traded firm working in engineering, science and technology; URS, a large architectural and design firm; NBGS International, a theme park developer; and Falcon's Treehouse, a Florida-based design firm. Loston said the hotel would be a boon to Reliant Center, the convention hall next to Reliant Stadium, helping draw conventions and meetings whose planners want a nearby hotel. The convention hotel would try to mimic the success of Gaylord's luxury convention hotels in Nashville, Tenn., Orlando, Fla., and the Dallas suburb of Grapevine. Astrodome Redevelopment's renderings show banks of buildings, some rising eight to 12 stories, along the walls of the Dome. The interior would include retail stores, nightclubs, restaurants and possibly a performing arts stage, Surface said. Astrodome Redevelopment Corp. initially considered building a space-themed amusement park, but rejected that idea for the convention hotel concept. Surface emphasized that at this stage, there's always the risk a huge project like this could founder. "While I'm optimistic and excited about the concept, you have to realize there are a lot of moving parts," he said.
I think this is as good an idea as any. I would be very sad if they tore the Astrodome down. They need to make it a multi-use like this, and right on the rail stop...might be a great thing. Would love to see a casino inside of it as well!!!!
I tend to agree. Its goal would be to help attract big conventions...something this unique would at least draw a "first look" from some of those groups. If the city and the venue did a good job hosting it, it would stick. Of course the benefit is that a conventioneer comes to town...can stay right there with entertainment and dining options...and is right on the rail line as well. I think this would work. And if it does, it could help introduce the rest of Houston to others who might not have a reason to come here.
Sounds like an economic distaster waiting to happen. I could see it being interesting for a few years, but I could also see the novelty wearing off quickly.
i hear ya. it can't depend on local business, frankly. it won't. it will be designed to meet the needs of business travelers, particularly those at conventions. you get 4-5 big conventions a year more than you're getting right now...and they'll be fine.
What a horrible idea. At least when it goes broke they'll have the set already to shoot for "KISS Meets The Phantom Of The Park II"
That is one silly ass plan, first of all it would compete against the two convetion centers we have recently built and there really isn't enough room to build a river walk inside the dome. It would be a little artificial mini-walk with none of the ambiance of San Antonio (every planning firm in the world wants to redo the River Walk, just look at The Woodlands). A casino would be great but it's against Texas State Law. Using it for HISD football with double headers on Friday and two double headers on Saturday makes some sense. Or it could be a big ol church!
I really don't think they are planning a 'real' river walk. If you've ever been to a Gaylord hotel you'd have an idea of a scaled down version, but its nice. I'm all for it. The dome is a straight up eye-sore right now. It really takes away from how nice Reilant is.
it wouldn't compete with convention centers..it would serve as THE hotel for the biggest convention center in town..the one at Reliant. it would be the competitor to the downtown convention center hotel...but frankly, the George R. Brown does not compare to the Reliant convention center. Reliant offers far more space for the bigger conventions. the big mega-conventions that Houston has tried to bring in will not go to George R. Brown. they will, however, go to Reliant. and this is part of facilitating that.
That plan is fine but boring. More hotels and shops. Great. Woo hoo. The best idea I heard was converting it to a full size indoor track/athetic facility. Houston is already one of country's hot spots for track and field. Being the only such track in the world, it would have been utilized pretty frequently on professional circuits. Maybe 6 pro-events annually. Then high school and colleges probably would use it an additional 20 times (for indoor track, outdoor track and summer track). But that went out the window when 2012 Olympics went out. It would have been the only such facility in the world and would have gotten world-wide attention as the premier track facility. It of course would need to incorporate other sporting events too but that wouldn't be too hard. Then it would have been utilized even more than 30x a year. If you also open it up for intramural usages too, such as soccer or wall climbing or whatever, it's year around usability could have been pretty high. That would have been a unique and positive way to utilize the stadium. But, that requires thinking outside the box. And in today's marketplace, I guess that doesn't earn enough $$$. It's all about the almighty $. Got forbid should we have an athletic facility, open to the public, in the nations "fattest" city (which I don't beleive, btw).
I agree. This whole idea seems bizarre. How long are you going to maintain the dome itself? And when you decide you finally want to tear it down after God-knows-how-long, what are you going to do about the hotels inside? Rip it down and use the space wisely.
I don't know whether or not it's a good idea, but I think it's one of the coolest ideas I've seen in a while. It would draw so many more people to Houston. Besides, couldn't Houston use one more tourist attraction? The renderings look nice to me.
I think it will work as long as you center all your visitors right there (you need a closer intl airport). You need a way to metro people there. Get some high quality restauraunts in there so the out of towners have somewhere to easily find a good meal. Do you guys have a rodeo drive yet? If not, this is the place to put it. There must be a large group of wealthy people willing to spend money down there. You can attract locals and big time shopping is the way to do it. When I was there it seemed liked there was nothing close to reliant for me to do. I wanted to spend my money, but there was no where to do it. Except of course at the strip clubs.
