Posted on 03/22/2010 11:44:59 AM PDT by a fool in paradise
The city is poised to sell the former Compaq Center to Lakewood Church for $7.5 million, one of a string of real estate sales city officials hope to realize to help close a lingering budget shortfall.
City Council is scheduled to vote on the proposed sale Wednesday, which would end a 30-year lease signed in 2001 by the megachurch's leader and television paster Joel Osteen. Lakewood... made a lump sum $11.8 million pre-payment for the lease to use the 606,000-square-foot building — former home to the Houston Rockets — which sits on seven acres in Greenway Plaza area along the Southwest Freeway.
Under the terms of the lease, Lakewood had an option in 2031 to extend the lease by an additional 30 years, paying $753,333 a year, beginning in 2034, for a total of more than $20 million. City documents say the sale price represents the present value of those future lease payments and the residual land value.
Net proceeds from the sale will go directly into the general fund, which has an $11.9 million budget shortfall this fiscal year...
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
Houston PING
I see the new Mayor apparently has found a way to save Whites A** for the election.
Heck, the snake oil concession alone would cover that in six months.
Prosperity Theology.
Houston is home to two of the largest church in the nation. Lakewood is the largest church in America. Second Baptist Church is the second largest church, but flip flops with Willow Creek Church in the Chicago area.
a 15,000 seat arena for less than $8 mil....what a deal!
(not quite as good as the Pontiac Silverdome for $600K, but not bad)
The thing is, Second Baptist is a real church. The Osteen dog and pony show is something else. However, I really love the color-changing ceilings they have. They almost distract me from the apostasy I hear from the pulpit.
Cotton candy preaching. Leaves out the whole point of the cross and man’s need for redemption. I don’t think I have ever heard Mr. Osteen say the word Sin, Evil or Jesus Christ. Joel Osteen has unicorns in common with Obama.
I don’t understand how people can support this prosperity preaching but at least they aren’t as bad as Cindy Sheehan or the nanny staters.
Cotton candy preaching. Leaves out the whole point of the cross and man’s need for redemption. I don’t think I have ever heard Mr. Osteen say the word Sin, Evil or Jesus Christ. Joel Osteen has unicorns in common with Obama.
I don’t understand how people can support this prosperity preaching but at least they aren’t as bad as Cindy Sheehan or the nanny staters.
I feel that Lakewood Church is going to a motivational speaker from his preaching I have seen on TV.
Selling Assets to pay annual bills is not a good sign of a prosperous city.
But then having the city compete in the real estate market isn’t good either.
Selling off our civic venues to private interests also helps maintain the monopoly held by corporations like Livenation.
We don’t need “Redemption” anymore. This is now a Socialist nation.
Our bounty comes from government, not the Lord.
If the Silverdome were moved into the middle of the Sahara desert or the Pacific Ocean it would be in a better neighborhood and worth more.
The city is allowed to sell city property without a bidding process? You can bet that if the city does end up selling the Summit to Lakewood it will be several years from now after much litigation because they lacked the foresight to open it up to public bidding.
Lakewood has the property tied up until 2064. Who else would bid on the property?
On top of that, how can anyone know the future condition of the prperty in 2064?
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