More big construction on its way.
Houston officials passed $2 billion in bonds to move forward with plans to expand the George R. Brown Convention Center.
The bonds – worth $250 million, $150 million, $1.3 billion and $300 million – were approved unanimously without discussion during the City Council’s Wednesday meeting.
Cash for the expansion will not come from Houston taxpayers. It will be fronted by the state’s portion of hotel occupancy taxes collected from visitors to the city’s hotels under a bill passed by Mayor John Whitmire during his time as a state senator.
The project was pitched as a way to “transform” the city’s downtown and East End while driving traffic to the convention center and surrounding businesses.
Officials have also said the expansion could help make the city more competitive as it prepares to host seven games in the FIFA 2026 World Cup and the Republican National Convention in 2028.
George R. Brown will be expanded to include a 700,000-square-foot GRB Houston South building that will house two exhibition halls, retail and restaurants. It will connect the building to the nearby Toyota Center through a 100,000-square-foot pedestrian plaza, effectively extending Avenida Plaza to Discovery Green.
Officials say the expansion will open in 2028, and remaining pieces would be completed by 2038.
See here, here, and here for some background. Normally, bond issuances require a public vote to happen, but there’s no mention of that here. I assume that’s because this is being financed by future hotel tax revenues and not by borrowing, which is usually how bonds are financed and the reason for the vote, and I assume that was the key to the bill in question. Please correct me if you know better than I do. The east side of downtown is going to be a mess for the foreseeable future, and I feel bad for everyone whose commute is about to be screwed up by all this. I hope the new GRB is worth it.