Commissioners Court approves extenstion for Astrodome redevelopment group
KHOU-11's Lee McGuire reports that Commissioners Court has approved an extension for developers to secure financing for the proposed Astrodome redevelopment:
The Harris County Commissioners Court approved an extension Tuesday for developers to come up with financing for a proposed $500 million renovation of the Astrodome.
Mike Surface, chair of the Harris County Sports and Convention Authority, said the entire project will be privately financed at no cost to taxpayers.
[snip]
“Well, I think anybody who looks at the dome will look at it and say, what are we going to do with it? But in this case, the Astrodome redevelopment corporation has a very definitive plan,” County Judge Ed Emmett said.
[snip]
The County Commissioners expect to have a new redevelopment plan to vote on sometime around January.
So far, developers have a bank interested in putting up the money, but they say it will take months to hammer out details on a financial agreement.
That financial agreement could prove fleeting. In the current financial environment, most institutional investors are not looking to finance shaky boondoggles.
It is interesting that our selected-not-elected County Judge is so enthusiastic about the project, but perhaps he doesn't want to be known as the guy who presided over the destruction of the old stadium.
In a related story, KPRC-2 notes that taxpayers continue to fork over a few million dollars a year while the utopians and pols dream of rides that make people say "wow!"
Meantime, the continuing cost of operating the dome is another concern. It costs approximately $2.8 million annually.
There's $30 million in debt still owed on the bonds.
That's just your money, taxpayers. No worries.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/11/07 09:58 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Sphere | Comments (4)
Previous Entry | Home | Next Entry
Trackback
Unfortunately, abusive spammers have forced us to disable incoming trackback pings. The Technorati link should list related posts. Feel free to drop us an email if you've linked a post and would like to let us know about it.
ADVERTISING
DISCLAIMER
All content © 2004-08, blogHOUSTON and the respective authors.
blogHOUSTON.net is powered by Nucleus.
Site design and Nucleus customization are by Kevin Whited.