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Bank Of America Tower At 800 Capitol St.


barracuda

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My taxes paid for that parking lot you tailgate on and for the stadium in which the game is played in. Neither of which I have any use for, so that's a fair trade.

 

Yes, but that stadium also brings a crap load of business to the city and surrounding areas, which boosts the economy, and so on which I would hope you find a halfway decent use of your taxes. A major event like the superbowl comes to mind..... and with something like the superbowl, it has spurred a lot of projects in the Houston/metro area. As a HAIFer I would also think that some of the stuff going up interests you. 

 

And you're telling me you've never been to NRG for a rodeo, game, event or anything ever? 

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Yes, but that stadium also brings a crap load of business to the city and surrounding areas, which boosts the economy, and so on which I would hope you find a halfway decent use of your taxes. A major event like the superbowl comes to mind..... and with something like the superbowl, it has spurred a lot of projects in the Houston/metro area. As a HAIFer I would also think that some of the stuff going up interests you.

And you're telling me you've never been to NRG for a rodeo, game, event or anything ever?

That brings up a good question, which I guess I'll have to look into... Is the cost of a stadium justified by the outside business a super bowl brings... that happens every +10 years?

I also don't think the Super Bowl has created anything necessarily "going up". If you care to enlighten me about a project that went up soley because of the event, I'd like to know, in all sincerity.

I've been to the stadium a few times out of obligation (graduations), but never for a Texans game. I think it's absolutely ridiculous us tax payers have to fork out cash for a sports franchise with continued maintenance & upgrades while some people high up in a monopoly reap the benefits. But that's another story.

Just pointing out its hypocritical to talk about wasting tax dollars when it's really all relative. You have your football, and I get to hold on to the Astrodome until we find a use for it.

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Regarding the stadium, of the $442 million price, $284 million is being paid for with hotel occupancy and car rental taxes earmarked for use by the sports authority, with the remainder coming from tenant payments and user fees.  So, unless you are staying in hotels here or renting cars, your tax dollars aren't "being wasted" on NRG Stadium.

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Regarding the stadium, of the $442 million price, $284 million is being paid for with hotel occupancy and car rental taxes earmarked for use by the sports authority, with the remainder coming from tenant payments and user fees. So, unless you are staying in hotels here or renting cars, your tax dollars aren't "being wasted" on NRG Stadium.

Do you have a sources for that info? I would like to read up on that.

And is that figure for the super bowl or just annually for regular games?

Edit: FWIW I do stay in hotels here in town. ;)

Edited by Montrose1100
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Regarding the stadium, of the $442 million price, $284 million is being paid for with hotel occupancy and car rental taxes earmarked for use by the sports authority, with the remainder coming from tenant payments and user fees.  So, unless you are staying in hotels here or renting cars, your tax dollars aren't "being wasted" on NRG Stadium.

 

That is true, but if we hadn't raised those taxes to spend on sports, we could have raised them to spend on something else. Or the Sports Authority could have funded something like the bayou park improvements instead, which was one of the ideas originally thrown about at the time the sports authority was created (and then you wouldn't have needed a $166 million bond issue for Bayou Greenways). No matter what artificial walls you set up, they are ultimately OUR tax dollars.

Edited by H-Town Man
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It looks like they're getting close to finished for the time being.  There's a whole lot less stuff outside the building footprint every day; about the only thing left that was staged in the next block of Travis is the warning sign for the blocked off lane (at least this morning - for all I know it may be gone now).

 

In response to some of those whose knickers are in a twist over the previous building being replaced with a parking garage - nearly half of the old building was a parking garage.  It was the mid 50s equivalent of 601 Travis.  The only difference was that it was a bland box of low midrise infill housing the garage and back room operations for Chase's local predecessor that was faced in buff brick rather than a bland box of low midrise infill housing the garage and whatever back room operations remain for Chase that is faced in gray granite.

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It looks like they're getting close to finished for the time being. There's a whole lot less stuff outside the building footprint every day; about the only thing left that was staged in the next block of Travis is the warning sign for the blocked off lane (at least this morning - for all I know it may be gone now).

In response to some of those whose knickers are in a twist over the previous building being replaced with a parking garage - nearly half of the old building was a parking garage. It was the mid 50s equivalent of 601 Travis. The only difference was that it was a bland box of low midrise infill housing the garage and back room operations for Chase's local predecessor that was faced in buff brick rather than a bland box of low midrise infill housing the garage and whatever back room operations remain for Chase that is faced in gray granite.

Any sign the tunnel from Chase south might reopen?

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It looks like they're getting close to finished for the time being. There's a whole lot less stuff outside the building footprint every day; about the only thing left that was staged in the next block of Travis is the warning sign for the blocked off lane (at least this morning - for all I know it may be gone now).

In response to some of those whose knickers are in a twist over the previous building being replaced with a parking garage - nearly half of the old building was a parking garage. It was the mid 50s equivalent of 601 Travis. The only difference was that it was a bland box of low midrise infill housing the garage and back room operations for Chase's local predecessor that was faced in buff brick rather than a bland box of low midrise infill housing the garage and whatever back room operations remain for Chase that is faced in gray granite.

I'm not against the loss of this block, just the lack of a shiny cool building (and the astrodome). ;)
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Any sign the tunnel from Chase south might reopen?

 

Not sure - that particular part of the block (more or less in the middle) is hard to see from my usual haunts.

 

I'm not against the loss of this block, just the lack of a shiny cool building (and the astrodome). ;)

 

Patience, Grasshopper...

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That brings up a good question, which I guess I'll have to look into... Is the cost of a stadium justified by the outside business a super bowl brings... that happens every +10 years?

I also don't think the Super Bowl has created anything necessarily "going up". If you care to enlighten me about a project that went up soley because of the event, I'd like to know, in all sincerity.

I've been to the stadium a few times out of obligation (graduations), but never for a Texans game. I think it's absolutely ridiculous us tax payers have to fork out cash for a sports franchise with continued maintenance & upgrades while some people high up in a monopoly reap the benefits. But that's another story.

Just pointing out its hypocritical to talk about wasting tax dollars when it's really all relative. You have your football, and I get to hold on to the Astrodome until we find a use for it.

 

I don't have insider info on anything it as directly spurred, but it seems like there is a fair amount of construction in the area (main st.) there are two hotels going up (I think they're both hotels) and then I think of a rather decent sized venue in one of our suburbs that their substantial completion is in part driven by the SB because one of the sports juggernaut sponsors wants to use it as home base while they're here. Dangling a carrot like that helps move things forward quicker than it may otherwise have gone. 

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It looks like the tunnel connections are going to be resurrected in the fairly near future - the word is sometime either within the next few weeks or by the end of the summer, depending on who you talk to.  I was able to gaze down upon the northern half of the block today; there's plenty of slab in place that will eventually be the lobby floor to allow Mole People access to and from 600 Travis without having to be frightened by sunlight or rain.  There are also bunch of CMU walls up that can just as easily come down, both on the street and basement levels.

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Idk, how I feel about this "garage".

2.24 by Chris Rojas, on Flickr

(Sun reflecting myself on the glass :P )

2.24 by Chris Rojas, on Flickr

2.24 by Chris Rojas, on Flickr

2/24 by Chris Rojas, on Flickr

 

Until the fence comes down, I'll reserve judgement, they've taken down the cranes, but there's still lots to do, I think.

 

What I'm curious about is how are they going to work the tunnels with no building?

 

Maybe an open air atrium :)

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Maybe an open air atrium :)

I always wished there were a block in downtown that was a sunken plaza, with tunnel connections opening up to the open air plaza that would be surrounded on the sides by Below-Ground Floor Retail/Restaurants, with stairs/escalators up to the sidewalks at street level. A way to open up the tunnels to street level..

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I always wished there were a block in downtown that was a sunken plaza, with tunnel connections opening up to the open air plaza that would be surrounded on the sides by Below-Ground Floor Retail/Restaurants, with stairs/escalators up to the sidewalks at street level. A way to open up the tunnels to street level..

 

Such a plaza exists at Wells Fargo Plaza, 1000 Louisiana.  There is even one small deli nearby at the transition into the Land of the Mole People.

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Such a plaza exists at Wells Fargo Plaza, 1000 Louisiana. There is even one small deli nearby at the transition into the Land of the Mole People.

Thats just two staircases from the street going down to a tunnel entrance.. I was talking a full square block that's sunken down to tunnel level, opening the tunnels up green space/the outside.

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