Reliant Park officials have unveiled a $1.35 billion plan that would convert the Astrodome to a multipurpose convention and science center as part of a redevelopment that also would replace Reliant Arena and construct a hotel with as many as 1,500 rooms.
It, however, would not happen quickly as it would require public approval of as much as $900 million in taxpayer financing. Not only would the architects of such a plan not seek voter approval until at least 2012, but they likely would approach the public in phases for piecemeal approval to tackle the costs incrementally.
The plan is not a formal proposal, but the most ambitious of three options generated by a team of architects, engineers and facility planners over the past year with $50,000 granted for the purpose by Commissioners Court. The plan will be publicly presented at a news conference this afternoon.
The so-called Astrodome Renaissance would include convention space, a planetarium, a series of interactive exhibits that would allow users to simulate space and deep sea exploration, an alternative energy center and a movie studio.
Or, the Astrodome could be torn down.
Even that option likely would require a referendum on a bond measure to cover the estimated $88 million cost of demolition and conversion of the site into an outdoor plaza.
“The county does not have the financial resources for any of this,” Willie Loston, executive director of the Harris County Sports & Convention Corporation, told the Chronicle’s editorial board this morning.
On top of the project costs, the county, which owns the Reliant Astrodome, owes $40 million from renovations done in the late 1980s. Doing nothing still costs $2.4 million a year in debt and interest payments, plus an estimated $2 million in insurance, utility and other maintenance costs. Failure to act soon also would extend the use of Reliant Arena beyond the five to 10 years left on its estimated lifespan, Loston said.
Money to build or raze would not all come from bond measures. A redevelopment zone proposed around Reliant Park could raise money to improve the complex. Reliant Park leaders hope to get state legislation to reinvest a portion of sales tax generated by a hotel back into the building’s construction cost as an incentive for a developer. The Sports & Convention Corporation even will seek money from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to equip the Astrodome for use again as a shelter for Hurricane refugees as happened after Katrina.
