NEWS: 48 acres of the former Astroworld property sold!

[jedimaster1227]

http://www.myfoxhouston.com/story/20341457/2012/12/13/rodeohouston-to-acquire-48-acres-of-old-astroworld-property

 

The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo has roped itself a nice piece of land. It's entered an agreement to buy half of the Astroworld property.

 

"We've been trying to buy this land for years," says HLSR chief operating office Leroy Shafer.

 

The HLSR got its shot at buying it two weeks ago. It will pay roughly $43 million for 48 acres. That's half of the old Astroworld grounds. The property will have access to the 610 Loop, Kirby Drive, West Bellfort Avenue and Fannin Street. It includes the area with the pedestrian overpass.

 

HLSR plans to use it for parking, storage and maybe exhibitor space. It's unimproved now, but that might change. The organization can always turn around and sell it if they need to.

 

"We don't know where we will be in fifteen or twenty years," says Shafer. "But we need more property. It will allow us to control what gets built over there. That is the front door to Reliant Park. We're going to be here for a long time."

 

The deal isn't finalized yet, but Shafer says that could happen by the end of the year. He says this had nothing to do with the city designating the area a TIRZ. This was in the works long before that.

 

"At this point, we have a purchase agreement in place," said Shafer. "We're moving toward execution and closing."

 

HLSR will purchase the land from MHB Asset LP, a company based in Fort Worth.

 

"Strategically, I think it's an extremely big deal," said Leroy Shafer, chief operating officer for HLSR. "It allows us, number one, it's a long-term investment for us. It's a good buy. We got charitable considerations from the seller on this, so it was a good purchase."

 

The acquisition will allow the HLSR to address operating opportunities related to spectator parking and the possible relocation of support personnel, support vehicles, and logistical operations.

 

"It now represents a quarter of our investment portfolio," said Shafer, who in April 2013 will have worked with HLSR for four decades.

 

The purchase price of the land, after charitable considerations by the seller, totals $42,863,040, an average price of $20.50 per square foot.

[Jew]

Hope this means we will see more rides at the fair!

[robbalvey]

Isn't it funny how it looks today? If you didn't know, you'd never guess there used to be a pretty major amusement park sitting in that empty lot...

[robbalvey]

Actually, what's funnier is to go into the zoomed in mode and see it was taken while the rodeo was going on where they have two roller coasters and a log flume set up on the other side from where the park used to be! lol

 

LINK

Edited December 19, 2012 by robbalvey

[Mrlittle]

First off, RIP Astroworld.

 

Seems like every year the Houston Rodeo expands a little. So this should give them some more room to make the Carnival and Livestock show larger. I still wish Houston would just bite the bullet and blow up the Astrodome since it just sits there rotting. I'm sure with the Rodeo approaching soon ( like 3 months), they will probably won't do much with the land besides parking and some storage for now.

[TxChoice]

This is great! HLSR really needs this land. Will it be used for expanded fair rides area, probably not. But the parking in that area around Reliant/Astrodome is Horrendous for people with livestock trailers. I always dread the parking of my trailer there every year because the lots they send us to take our trailers to are usually a long ways away, and we're already in a not so great part of town. Having a lot here across the street is very needed since so much of the other usual parking areas are used for fair rides and other parts of the stock show experience.