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Spaceport Houston Developments


trymahjong

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Under the agreement, which has yet to be approved, the city of Houston will pay up to $40 million for the facility to be built. The city will recover its investment through a 20-year lease agreement, officials said.

Why in hell is the city spending $40mil when this company could easily go out and bank finance the job themselves (or get a developer involved)?  I wasn't aware that our tax dollars are being used to fund commercial development....

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6 hours ago, tangledwoods said:

Why in hell is the city spending $40mil when this company could easily go out and bank finance the job themselves (or get a developer involved)?  I wasn't aware that our tax dollars are being used to fund commercial development....

Corporate welfare, the only welfare in America that's not demonized. 

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11 hours ago, jmitch94 said:

Corporate welfare, the only welfare in America that's not demonized. 

Your post and the prior one rather step on your point.  ;-)

In any event, it's a little short of "welfare" to lease a building out to someone at a price that will fully repay the costs (and at the end of the lease, the City still owns the land and the building).

Edited by Houston19514
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On 6/11/2021 at 9:21 AM, Houston19514 said:

Your post and the prior one rather step on your point.  ;-)

In any event, it's a little short of "welfare" to lease a building out to someone at a price that will fully repay the costs (and at the end of the lease, the City still owns the land and the building).

That’s assuming they stay in business and or hold up their end of the deal or even worse, aren’t granted more tax brakes in the future. 

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On 6/12/2021 at 9:40 AM, jmitch94 said:

That’s assuming they stay in business and or hold up their end of the deal or even worse, aren’t granted more tax brakes in the future. 

Even if they don't hold in business or hold up their end of the deal, that hardly turns this transaction in to welfare. The City would still not be giving the company anything.

And any hypothetical tax [breaks] that might be imagined in the future don't change the reality of this transaction. 

 

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On 6/10/2021 at 4:03 PM, tangledwoods said:

The city will recover its investment through a 20-year lease agreement

When it says the investment will be recovered, is that 2021 dollars or 2041 dollars? 

For example, $1 in May 2001 would be $1.52 in May 2021. So if that rate holds $40M now would be something like $91M in 20 years. (Someone please check the math)

  

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1 hour ago, 79ta said:

When it says the investment will be recovered, is that 2021 dollars or 2041 dollars? 

For example, $1 in May 2001 would be $1.52 in May 2021. So if that rate holds $40M now would be something like $91M in 20 years. (Someone please check the math)

  

Good question.  From the City Council minutes documents, it looks like the lease terms will actually provide for more than full cost recovery. First, at least in the first 10 years, there is a built-in escalator of 2.5% annually.

Second, the lease terms appear to add up to 145% cost recovery (plus the value of the annual escalators).  (2.5% per year for the first 5 years; 5% per year for the second 5 years; 10% per years for the third five years; and 11.5% per year for the fourth five years).

In addition to that, the lease will charge them an additional amount for the ground lease, based on a FMV set by appraisal.  

PLUS, the City has allocated up to $4 Million for planning and design.  If the company ends up not entering in to the lease, they will be required to reimburse the city for that.

Edited by Houston19514
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  • The title was changed to Spaceport Houston Developments
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A few smaller updates have occurred since early December.

With Intuitive Machines' and Collins' facilities under construction, Axiom's site is moving ahead in the planning stages and they expect to move their headquarters to the facility next year. Recently, Axiom awarded Jacobs a design contract for their assembly, integration, and testing facility's construction. The first pieces of the Axiom Station are expected to arrive in Houston from Italy in early 2023, according to Axiom's website.

https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2022/01/07/has-iah-spaceport-construction.html

https://www.axiomspace.com/axiom-station

https://executivegov.com/2022/01/axiom-space-selects-jacobs-to-construct-facility-at-houston-spaceport/

 

The spaceport was awarded a $5 million grant from the state out of the Spaceport Trust Fund for infrastructure development (SpaceX's spaceport in South Texas was also awarded the same amount).

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/space/article/Abbott-grants-10-million-to-spaceports-in-16773595.php

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9 hours ago, asubrt said:

I didn't realize they were using the old Fry's Electronics building. It's a good 10-15 minutes from the spaceport.

I believe it's temp space just because they're growing insanely fast and haven't started construction on their campus at the spaceport yet

EDIT: I wonder if they'll make use of the ISS model inside 🤔

Edited by texan
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On 1/14/2023 at 11:46 AM, texan said:

Correction: Axiom actually leased 270,000 sf at 600 Gemini.

Additionally, The Cannon is opening a 48,000 sf outpost in the same building and a 26,500- or potentially 53,000- sf location in 1150 Gemini. Great news for the Galveston Bay Area space startup scene!

https://www.bisnow.com/houston/news/office/the-cannon-innovation-hub-expands-footprint-with-pair-of-leases-and-more-to-come-117211

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26 minutes ago, toxtethogrady said:

There were rumors at one time that Embry-Riddle was kicking the tires on a possible Houston campus. I'm not sure that's still a possibility, but it would fit in nicely as part of the Aerospace Campus...

They had one in Houston a few years back but closed it. Either way I think the Spaceport and Houston will be in much better shape with the proposed partnership between Texas A&M, UH, Rice, and others.

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58 minutes ago, texan said:

New taxiway to begin construction this year and two large prospects are looking at the Spaceport for facilities.

https://communityimpact.com/houston/bay-area/development/2023/01/31/new-tenants-technologies-coming-to-houston-spaceport-in-2023/

Reading that article the spaceport has a lot going on than I thought. Is there any other major cities building out spaceports like Dallas Atlanta or any other Houston peer cities?

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20 minutes ago, kennyc05 said:

Reading that article the spaceport has a lot going on than I thought. Is there any other major cities building out spaceports like Dallas Atlanta or any other Houston peer cities?

There are other areas of Texas but not other cities. We're the only one in the state. It's fitting tbh 

https://www.faa.gov/space/spaceports_by_state

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3 hours ago, kennyc05 said:

Reading that article the spaceport has a lot going on than I thought. Is there any other major cities building out spaceports like Dallas Atlanta or any other Houston peer cities?

The Houston Spaceport is unique--it's intended to be more of a development/industry hub than a major center for spaceflight operations, at least not in this phase.

2 hours ago, j_cuevas713 said:

It's fitting tbh 

Indeed.  It's certainly breathing new life into what was a long dormant employment driver for the area.

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https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/inno/stories/news/2023/04/07/axiom-nasa-low-earth-economy.html

""The local economy is affected significantly because not only will there be jobs, but the amount of research and manufacturing that will take place over time will start to focus around the Houston area as well," Suffredini said. "There's a lot of testing and demonstration you have to do before you fly a system or [produce] a product, whatever that product might be."

Suffredini delivered his remarks at an April 6 press conference scheduled ahead of the May 8 launch date for Axiom Mission 2. The four-person mission will spend 10 days at the International Space Station researching the effects of microgravity and radiation on materials."

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https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2023/05/03/texas-southern-university-ellington-airport.html?cx_testId=40&cx_testVariant=cx_27&cx_artPos=3#cxrecs_s

"Texas Southern University is one step closer to achieving its goal of expanding its aviation training program thanks to a memorandum of agreement between the university and the city of Houston.

The MOA, which is for the development and lease of an aviation education facility at Ellington Airport, was approved during a May 3 Houston City Council meeting. The Houston Airport System will design and construct an aeronautical hangar, which will contain aircraft storage capacity, offices and classroom space, according to the City Council agenda item.

“The goal, quite frankly, is to make Texas Southern the school in the country when it comes to aviation,” Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said during the meeting."

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In the state budget released today, $350 million is included in it for the Texas Space Commission. $200 million of that is for Texas A&M to build a facility "adjacent to the Johnson Space Center".  I think the most logical place for this is the spaceport since there is already a plan for a university facility there. Otherwise my next guess is Space Center Houston land. The enabling bill, HB 3447 has not yet passed and is in conference committee. If it does not become law, this all goes away.

image.png.df95464802bd3ff6367d93d550c1b7aa.png

hb0001.pdf#navpanes=0

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On 5/25/2023 at 6:53 PM, texan said:

In the state budget released today, $350 million is included in it for the Texas Space Commission. $200 million of that is for Texas A&M to build a facility "adjacent to the Johnson Space Center".  I think the most logical place for this is the spaceport since there is already a plan for a university facility there. Otherwise my next guess is Space Center Houston land. The enabling bill, HB 3447 has not yet passed and is in conference committee. If it does not become law, this all goes away.

image.png.df95464802bd3ff6367d93d550c1b7aa.png

hb0001.pdf#navpanes=0

Status?

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16 minutes ago, Houston19514 said:

Status?

Both the state budget that includes the money for this (HB 1) and the enabling bill to create the commission and research fund (HB 3447) have been passed by the legislature. The budget is being examined by the comptroller and HB 3447 has been sent to Governor Abbott's desk. He was an early endorser of this plan so it should be a foregone conclusion that he'll sign them both/allow them to become law. We can hopefully look forward to planning and construction to commence on this massive facility in the next two years!

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17 hours ago, texan said:

Both the state budget that includes the money for this (HB 1) and the enabling bill to create the commission and research fund (HB 3447) have been passed by the legislature. The budget is being examined by the comptroller and HB 3447 has been sent to Governor Abbott's desk. He was an early endorser of this plan so it should be a foregone conclusion that he'll sign them both/allow them to become law. We can hopefully look forward to planning and construction to commence on this massive facility in the next two years!

I'm convinced in time  with the right decisions  The spaceport  could come to be for Houston  what the TMC has become.. it might not reach fruition in our life time but 60 to 70 years ... who knows

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