18th, 2026, and the time is 2.05 p.m.

I'm Mayor ProTam Martha Castex Tatum, the chair of our economic development committee meeting, and I'd like to call this meeting to order.

I do want to welcome all of our council members and staff and guests in attendance.

Um, Vice Chair Flickinger, uh, Councilmember Alcorn is in the chamber, Councilmember Ramirez, uh, staff from Vice Mayor Pro Tim Peck's office, staff from Councilmember Thomas's office, and staff from Councilmember Cayman's office is also here.

This meeting is open to the public and held per in person and virtually, and we're also broadcasting live on HTV.

Council members and staff, if you'll hold your questions until the end, if there are any questions online, you can put that in the chat.

Um, there are no members of the public who signed up to speak today.

However, if you would like to speak, there is a sign-in sheet um to your right on the front table.

Um, public speakers will have a chance to speak after the conclusion of the presentations.

Any questions that you may have can also be mailed to District K at Houston TX.gov, and we will forward those to the respective departments.

Uh, first on our agenda today, we have Casey Heprick, the director of planning and economic development downtown Houston Plus will present on the Main Street Promenade Outdoor Dining Design Guidelines.

Hello, how are you?

Hello, good.

Thank you for having me.

We are ready for your presentation.

Excellent.

I will wait for it to be pulled up so that I can guide you all through it.

While the presentation is being pulled up, uh I'll introduce myself again.

I'm Cassie Hoprich, Director of Planning and Economic Development for Downtown Houston Plus.

We represent the alliance of organizations focused on our urban core.

So the Downtown Redevelopment Authority or Tourism Three, the Houston Downtown Management District, as well as Central Houston Inc., uh, the legacy uh 40-year-old 501c6 organization uh here in downtown.

So, with that, um, we've had the pleasure of being before you all in the past to provide an update on the Main Street Promenade.

Um, today I'll be focusing on the forthcoming ordinance and specific elements of that ordinance that our organization will work with the city to steward.

So, next slide, please.

Quickly, I'd like to just recap the progress that we've made on Main Street Promenade.

Um, as you all might recall, in 2021, in the wake of the pandemic, uh, the More Space Main Street program was launched by the city in partnership with us to create temporary space for businesses to have compliant outdoor dining.

What we learned is that small businesses and residents loved it, and we agreed to work with the city to realize a permanent version of this project.

From there, with community engagement and detailed design work, we've reached a point as of last year where construction began on the project.

And we're happy to say it's progressing wonderfully.

What you can see here on the right-hand side of the presentation is an overview of where construction has been completed so far and where we are still proceeding with the project, working back from a completion of the project in time for the World Cup.

Um, but of course, the project will live on for decades to come.

Next slide, please.

In uh summary, in a nutshell, the work that we're doing is widening the pedestrian realm, um, improving street crossings, and overall supporting local businesses.

Um, but especially in our downtown where we have the urban heat island effect, and so we're very proud to be bringing a significant increase in trees, shade structures, as well as plants.

Um, and this project was made possible by funding from the downtown redevelopment authority as well as a Houston Galveston area council grant.

And as mentioned, we intend to complete the project by the end of May.

Next slide, please.

These are three photos to show you um the sort of the before the idea, the rendering, the image of what we intended to realize and and where we are today.

Um it's really exciting to see if you haven't been able to make time to walk out to Main Street recently.

Uh, we would encourage you to do so.

It's um quite lovely to see this project come to life.

Next slide, please.

As part of uh this project, of course, we are redesigning the right-of-way.

Um that's really lifted up here by the four big shifts that we talked about for the project, number two and four.

Uh number two and four, uh, we are realizing accessibility improvements for the promenade as well as the creation of more shade experiences as mentioned.

Part of these big shifts that have come out of the design also require a new approach to maintenance and operations.

So the first is how are we going to enhance the way we maintain this section of Main Street?

And the second is how are we going to realize this goal of placemaking?

We've built more space, but how do we tend to intend to steward it?

Next slide, please.

And that's where the ordinance comes in.

The ordinance that we've been working on with the city will allow for us to increase our maintenance and security services, treating the promenade much like we do the parks that we care for in our downtown, additional care and coverage along the promenade.

And we also have created outdoor dining guidelines.

We're creating more space for Sciwalk Cafes.

And because we have such an expansive space that we are creating on Promenade on the promenade, and we need to maintain pedestrian circulation or path of travel.

We've had to create specific guidelines for what those spaces can look like, what their footprint can look like.

And lastly, the ordinance will allow us to realize more programming and events and oversee licenses for third party events, just as we do in parks in downtown.

Next slide, Steve.

Next slide, please.

In terms of the ordinances area of coverage, we're looking at what we refer to as the Main Street Promenade.

So that is Main Street between Commerce or Allen's Landing and Dallas Street.

While construction is only touching primarily the section of Main Street between Commerce and Rusk, we as an organization had worked with the city years before to close down several blocks of Main Street for the creation of Main Street Square.

So this is why the ordinance is extending all the way down to Dallas Street.

We want to really link up the experiences that one we're constructing today and two that have been there thanks to investments of the past.

You also see here that the ordinance will extend to the side street slightly.

And that's because the nature of these buildings, a number of this the ground floor experiences or the buildings themselves wrap around the corner, and this creates for a simpler experience set of understandings for the properties.

Next slide, please.

The outdoor dining guidelines will offer four types of outdoor dining spaces for businesses.

As I mentioned, the promenade is creating a lot more space for people to walk and for these outdoor patios, bistro spaces to exist.

And because of that, we worked closely with our design team in the city to figure out what is the best way to maintain path of travel and other requirements that were put forth by life and safety agencies while also making sure we have that more space.

And then, of course, making it very easy and simple for small businesses to understand how they can utilize that space.

Next slide, please.

Quickly, I will just run through what those different spaces are.

So once we begin working with businesses starting in March, uh following the forthcoming ordinance coming to council, we'll be able to sit down with each and every business and explain to them what is exactly in front of them that they are able to utilize.

The first is a bistro space, so looking at the space adjacent to a property.

Next slide, please.

The cafe space would also be adjacent to the property, but a slightly larger space.

Next slide, please.

Outdoor room.

This is a something that I could reference the current configuration that was enabled by the Moore Space Main Street sort of 1.0 program.

If you can imagine in your mind, Finn Hall, they had uh sort of a temporary outdoor patio experience adjacent to the sidewalk that their um FB tenants were able to utilize for their patrons.

It's exactly that same type of experience.

We call it an outdoor room.

So it leaves the sidewalk open for folks to move up and down, um, and then that outdoor dining experience in the former roadway.

Outdoor room.

Next slide, please.

And then the interior extension, and this is really where we create something with a business adjacent to their space that complements an existing um portion of their interior footprint.

Next slide, please.

Again, because the Main Street promenade is creating so much new and unique space.

We have put together alternative configurations for tenant flexibility.

Here are a few examples of that here.

Next slide, please.

And here are several more examples.

One of the key points I would lift up with these alternative configurations is that we as downtown Houston, um, along with the city will be in a position to help businesses work together if they wanted to share an outdoor space, or if one business is totally uninterested in having any sort of outdoor patio, might the space in front of them in that outdoor room be utilized by their neighbor.

Um that's something that we also tested out during More Space Main Street 1.0, so there's precedent for this, and it's something that businesses are happy to see in the plan.

Next slide, please.

In addition to making it easy and clear to understand the opportunity for outdoor dining in front of one space.

We also have put forth outdoor dining guidelines for the fixtures and furniture.

Um, given that we'll be working with the city to execute sublicenses for these spaces.

We wanted to make sure that there are uh materials out there that are sturdy and reliable, given that there'll be um a new sort of heavy flow of pedestrian use of the space.

Um also having these guidelines guidelines will help the city to review these new distinct type of outdoor dining experiences.

Next slide, please.

So the next step since we've mapped them out with the city.

Um we're excited to create visible change in downtown for residents and visitors with this project, but really with this ordinance, it'll allow us to complete the vision of the project.

Um we're happy to see that the ordinance will ensure both public safety but also guidelines that will create um a comfortable, warm, safe experience for for visitors, residents, but also for businesses some clarity as to how they can take advantage of the more space.

And we look forward to to the ordinance coming before the council along with the guidelines and that will allow us to facilitate what we just went over as well as the programming and improved maintenance for the street.

Um it wasn't lifted up in the presentation, but I will add um my purview also includes economic development, and for the last year, we've had the pleasure of um reviving our storefront grant program, and so we've been working with small businesses right um along the main street promenade and around downtown on how they can best leverage these grants for building out their new outdoor spaces.

So we really wanted to be as supportive as possible for all the businesses, and it's been great to work with all of them.

That concludes our presentation.

Um please let me know if you have any questions.

Councilmember Ramirez.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Cassie, for the presentation.

Uh um have you all determined what what the licenses will cost?

That's still being decided.

Okay, and what uh what will you all rely on to try to figure that out?

We have precedent for the more space main street, which was a temporary program and there wasn't a cost for the license.

And then today, should an individual business want to go forth with securing a sewal cafe license, there's a set fee established by the city.

So as we work with the permitting agencies, we're sorting through what that cost would make sense to be.

And uh when do you think this will all be uh maybe complete is not the right word, but uh in time for the World Cup or the construction of the project is intended to be complete by the World Cup and confirmed with our head of capital projects that we're on track.

Um we've completed over half of the project at this point, um, and construction's been moving smoothly.

Great, thank you.

Councilmember Alcore.

Thank you, Chair, and thanks for the presentation.

I'm so excited about this.

It looks great.

I have walked down there and it's amazing.

So basically, these guidelines were were the any of the retailers and people involved in creating them.

I think you said may have said that and I missed it.

Absolutely.

We've we've had public meetings and focus groups with them flexible.

So this is all not going to be new to them.

But what so they get the license, then they kind of have to conform to these guidelines, right?

That they know about.

Correct.

And um for businesses on Main Street, this is expanding space for them, so that means more uh folks, more patrons for them.

So they're all they're all eagerly awaiting the now it's just kind of in the wild west, do whatever you want outside.

Okay, okay.

Thank you.

Yep.

Any other questions?

Can you talk a little bit about um on the map that shows the entire main street, like the side streets?

What what actually will take place on those on those side streets?

So, in terms of physical improvements to the side streets, those have not been a part of the construction plans.

Rather, those side streets will fall underneath the ordinance, and that's to allow for businesses uh or or properties that wrap around the corner to be included in the guidelines and not be confused by whether or not the guideline applies to half of their property or all of their property.

Um so we looked at the conditions of a number of the properties along the main street promenade, and they do wrap around the corner, so this provides clarity for the applicable footprint of the ordinance.

Okay.

If no further questions, thank you very much for the presentation.

We look forward to the completion.

Uh it does look great down there.

Thank you.

Uh and we think that so many of our business owners will take advantage of it and provide some additional space for Houstonians and our visitors to eat outside.

It's gonna be lovely.

We're excited.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Our next presentation will be done by senior staff analyst Andrew Busker with the mayor's office of economic development, who will present on a tax abatement proposal.

Mr.

Busker, thank you for being here again.

Thank you.

Um thank you all for having us.

We're ready for your presentation when you're ready.

Okay.

Thank you all for being here.

Good afternoon.

I'm Andrew Busker in the Mayor's Office of Economic Development.

Today we'll be discussing a tax abatement proposal for NRG Greens by U6 LC.

Next slide, please.

So the way this presentation will go, just like many other tax abatement uh proposals is we'll have some time to discuss the project and introduce the project to you all, and then we'll discuss the uh economic development tax abatement and how that's applicable to the project, and then we'll have room uh for questions at the end.

Um so I would like to, because energy um is a very technical company with a lot of um experience that is beyond just what our uh mayor's office of economic development can specialize in.

I would like to bring up uh Tony Schum from Kroll.

Uh he is the consulting firm uh representative for this project.

So Tony will go through the project and uh introduction uh for you all, and then I will um pick it up again to talk about the abe man.

Absolutely.

Members of the council.

So happy to be here today.

My name is Tony Shum.

I'm a managing director in our site selection and incentives advisory practice.

Um more broadly, Kroll advises companies on where to put major capital intensive projects that we feel as a composite that the target site in Houston is a very appropriate place for this proposed investment.

Uh in short, this would be a 455 megawatt peaking power unit that would be added to an existing power generation complex.

Uh and peaking power is different than base load generation or renewables in the sense that it comes on when there are times of grid stress.

Thank you very much.

If we could advance one, perfect.

Uh and it would provide power that is above and beyond the margin that is required to base load generation plan on the amount of electricity that ERCOT needs on any given day.

So uh they do a tremendous job of forecasting the electric needs, but what they don't know is when uh sun is going to shine, when when is going to blow, and uh when additional power and strain on the grid is going to be present from, say, air conditioners or heaters in the winter.

Um the proposed price tag of something like this is pretty uh high and getting higher as we go along.

The original price tag that we saw was closer to 300 million.

The uh estimated capex is now closer to 570 million dollars.

Um at peak, in order to construct this facility, it would take 250 construction jobs, so a healthy slice of construction activity would take place over two to three years.

Um, and it would generate 14 full new jobs.

So that would be net new to the existing power generation complex head count next door.

Uh it would take place on a relatively modest six acres uh inside Bellway 8 and close to highway 90 on Irene Road, and that space is currently unutilized by any existing improvements or development.

Um take place at the end of this year in 2026, and it would be projecting an in-service date of 2028.

So that would be the soonest it could put a commercially operable electricity on the grid.

Um state-of-the-art technology would be employed in these types of peaking units.

So General Electric 7H turbine, which is uh light years ahead of the uh legacy units that uh the state of Texas is used to that were created in the 70s and 80s, um, means greater efficiency, doing more with less gas, um, and the uh combustion turbine would result in much lower emissions.

So um that is a potential environmental benefit that is um I think welcome news when we all know that we need uh extensive sources of power to be able to manage new electricity on the grid, uh, extensive population growth in the greater Houston area.

This would be able to power 300,000 households when turned on and ramped up to full capacity.

So I think we all have uh broad memories of winterstormie, none of them pleasant.

So um sitting around waiting for power to come back on or shortening blackouts.

Um, that is something that this type of investment would seek to avoid.

Um as far as the decision making matrix is concerned.

Um, there is significant property tax exposure because of how Texas's advil and property tax system uh works compared to some of the other locations that are under consideration for this investment capital.

Um anybody that gets a property tax notice at the end of the year recognizes that we have relatively high advalorm property tax here.

Same is true for capital-intensive assets, but more so.

Um so we're looking at ways that we can try to defray that with state-level programs and local programs.

Um the local tax abatement that Mr.

Busker um referenced is an application that we turned into the city in September of 2005.

And then there would be several other complementary programs that the state has designed to induce new electric generation, specifically peak low generation within the state with SB6.

So these programs are all designed to dovetail together.

Um mechanics, but essentially what it is is it's a low interest loan that's offered by the state at 3%.

Um that is the real benefit of that is a stable rate.

It does not fluctuate like an adjustable rate mortgage, it stays flat for the entire term of the loan.

So that's the real benefit.

Um in order to uh try to figure out where this fits in the grand scheme of things.

Um the uh the the state of Texas has already approved that loan.

So this is really the final piece of the puzzle.

Um we see this as kind of a multi-legged stool.

If you pull away any of these potential sources of public-private partnership, um the pro forma needs to be completely reconfigured.

Um, and energy is a nationwide footprint of power generation and other investment opportunities.

So, what we're trying to get them to do um by virtue of securing these public private partnership agreements is find that reason to invest all that capital in Houston and not find a greater ROI somewhere else outside of the Houston region.

Um as far as the the two premises that we're bringing to council, um there are two main categories.

We say keep the lights on and keep the door open.

This is reflected by the state's comments around new electricity generation, um, reducing power outages for customers, shortening the outage duration for affected customers, and then preventing drastic cost increases to ratepayers.

That's exactly what you want in peaking power.

Uh the most expensive electricity you can get is peaking power, so this new asset would help keep those costs under control.

Uh and then as far as um the the city of Houston's ability to attract new capital projects, when you have projects that are considering the region, one of the first things they ask in the site selection industry is do you have adequate power?

Do you have water?

Do you have available land?

Do you have the right workforce, taxes, utilities, et cetera?

This helps answer one of those key components is we've got the power.

Um in addition to that, um these types of units are best designed and best deployed uh when there is tremendous grid stress.

So ERCOT would be uh welcoming assets like this with open arms to try to make sure that they're forecasting and adequately creating a margin around what we might need, not just tomorrow, but five years from now.

We could have a significantly different energy mix.

This helps meet that.

Um I did mention winterstorm Uri.

A couple of my colleagues and I lived in the office during winterstorm Erie.

We were extremely fortunate to make it there.

Um I've heard horror stories all over the state of Texas, and um the state of Texas's uh reputation was severely harmed by winter storm year.

So we want to make sure that we do everything we possibly can while we don't have those events um in the off years to make sure that we're planning for resiliency and uh the margin ahead.

Um we have uh essentially um a window of opportunity here, um, given that most of the equipment it takes to build a facility like this is long lead time equipment.

Turbines are in extremely short demand.

Um the the um electrical equipment and the lines and the transformers and the substations that you need to build to support something like this, all are years in advance.

And so if the WIS window were to close and this capital would be uh redeployed elsewhere within the NRG network, Texas would lose out on an opportunity to secure this today.

Um so our blueprint for success is we receive sufficient incentive support for the proposed project, the Greens by you uh sixth unit, sixth operating unit there.

Um the ROI target is achieved.

NRG's board can approve this, and the city of Houston receives new tax revenue that it was not counting on yesterday.

Um the uh lack of of sufficient incentive support from the state of Texas and from our our local partners results in having to go back to the drawing board, try to increase the ROI, and if the ROI is not there, then obviously the the board corporate report's got very difficult decision to make.

Um so that concludes my remarks.

Um I I think uh Mr.

Busker and and um uh Ms.

Tillotson have been incredibly gracious in uh evaluating this application for us, and we're certainly an open book and want to answer any questions that we can here at the end of the presentation or going onward uh for potential future action by the council.

Thank you all so much.

Thank you for the presentation.

Uh Mr.

Busker, you want to take it from here?

Yes, do you want us to open up for questions?

Uh, is your question for the the speaker?

Okay.

Go ahead.

Okay.

Next slide, please.

Okay, so now talk about the uh tax abatement itself.

Next slide, please.

So as a refresher, uh our tax abatement ordinances, chapter 44, Article 4 of our Code of Ordinances.

We have five different types of tax abatements currently.

And the one we're talking about specifically is the economic development abatement, which is section 44-127.

Next slide, please.

So the eligibility criteria criteria in a general sense is um an echo an economic benefit to the city as a whole uh projected to increase property value on that site by 1 million dollars uh or for certain census tracts uh $500,000.

Um then the project will create, retain, or prevent the loss of permanent jobs.

Uh and then within that ordinance as well, it gives us some flexibility to go up to 90% of an abatement.

Um and then uh the ordinance also requires a certain amount of community benefits that are all negotiated with the company based on the project and what's realistic.

Next slide, please.

So this project in particular is pretty unique for our office.

Um we traditionally have a tier structure on different projects that we're focused on.

Um uniquely uh this project doesn't fit into our normal MOED priorities.

That doesn't that doesn't mean that it's a bad project by any means.

In fact, this is a fantastic project.

The uh what makes this unique really is just the investment amount, um, the scale of this project, uh, what lasting impact it can have to the community and the regional grid.

And so here, uh, you know, economic development is limited without reliable energy infrastructure.

So as we see more investment with more people coming here with discussions of um you know AI and data centers that are in different parts of the state, all of that impacts the grid.

So the more ways we can increase the resiliency of our grid, the better.

Um top of just that general investment, um the site is specifically in an enterprise zone, which is an area designated by the state to try and bring in investment to that area.

And then uh finally, you know, we want to be good neighbors with our other economic development programs.

And so for this project to also be uh receiving um economic incentives from the state as well as from the school district, um, that shows that there's community-wide support for this on a lot of different levels, and so that's something that um our office takes seriously.

Next slide, please.

So looking at the site a little bit more specifically, um the as uh Tony mentioned, you know, the site is located in District I.

Uh it's northeast of 610 and just south of Highway 90 along Green Bayou, uh Green's Bayou Greenway.

Um, several um HED, sorry, several HCAD parcels owned by Energy formed the project site, and energy plans to create a new HCAD parcel specific to this project.

And so through that process, the proposed tax abatement reinvestment zone will comprise of only this project site.

So that's something that um is an ongoing process right now.

Uh next slide, please.

So looking kind of more at the nitty-gritty of the abatement itself, um, based on the project timeline, we're anticipating that the effective date in an abatement would be January 1st, 2029.

Um as far as the eligible cost of the project, we're looking at building improvements and machinery and equipment.

And so out of that 570 million dollar project cost, um the most impactful into property value increases we're looking at is about $328 million for building improvements and 174 million dollars for machinery and equipment.

Um significant amount of investment.

So according to that, then looking at our um abatements, we're projecting an estimated about uh one million uh almost 1.1 million uh for the first year of abatement, and the average annual abatement would be about 1.1 million dollars.

Um the full abatement term uh state law requires that we can't go longer than 10 years on an abatement.

So we're looking at about 11 million dollars, um 11.2, almost 11.3 million dollars, or 10 years, whichever is achieved first.

Now, because this is a unique project, uh there are some variances that come up with our uh economic development ordinance.

So section 44125 in our ordinance allows for variances of really anything except for the duration of the incentive.

So the first variance request that's related to this project is the ineligible property.

So in our economic development abatement, it's generally focused on uh what's happening on the site and the improvements happening on the site.

Because this is um improvements related to generation or transmission of electoral energy that's not consumed by the site itself, it's going out into the grid.

And so the first request would be to make this an eligible cost for this project.

Secondly, the other variants, because this project is located within an enterprise zone, uh there are um some location requirements and some um hiring restrictions based on that.

And so that's under Section 44127H.

And so here should be they're meeting the um hiring uh component of it of at least five jobs.

But they uh just had their sound.

Yeah, but they're uh requesting a variance uh based on the uh the residence of the enterprise zone, because as you can see, with this being a uh power generation facility, most of the enterprise zone does not have residences within city limits.

And then um secondly, economically disadvantaged as the term applies by the Texas Enterprise Zone Act.

The jobs, the 14 jobs created here are highly specialized for um the facility.

Uh and so that uh the by the nature of the work uh is unlikely to fit the economically disadvantaged based on the Texas Enterprise Zone Act.

So that's the other variance.

Next slide, please.

Here's our projection on um the abatement based on the information we have from um the company and the consultant team.

Um this projection, as you see, is about one point almost 1.3 million dollars over the 10 years.

Um the projection um is a model from our dish our traditional industrial projects.

However, it's our understanding that HCAD values energy infrastructure differently than traditional industrial improvements, structures, and machining equipment.

So our office is working with energy and crow and HCAD to further refine this projection to give you um a more accurate number moving on.

Um in past tax abatement proposals, I've usually shared a proposed council action timeline.

Uh due to the complexity of this project, I'm not providing that proposed timeline today, but our office will keep you all informed as we continue to move through that process.

So at this time I'll take any questions.

Can you go over the variances again?

Sure.

The first one.

Um I want to make sure I understand the the variance.

Okay.

The in Section 44127D has a list of all the types of property that HCAD records that would be in typically ineligible for a tax abatement through the city.

And that is designed just for the economic development abatement.

So whenever that was created at some point, that dichotomy was created between ineligible and eligible.

So here we're asking to um make one of those um ineligible cost lines an eligible cost just for this project, and the variance would only apply to this project.

Um any other uh project applying for an economic development abatement would still meet the standard requirements for Section 44127 uh E for eligible and D for ineligible.

So what would we need to change to make this an eligible cost for the project?

In the ordinance that would approve the tax abatement and the tax abatement agreement, um, there would just be a um language in that ordinance saying this is a variance that we recognize and we're going to approve that.

It would not be a separate action on top of the ordinance approval.

It would be within that one ordinance.

Okay.

And then the second variance is because of the specialization of the actual 14 jobs.

That's correct.

Yeah.

The um the 14 uh jobs that would be created under the additional.

So they're new jobs.

Um they are related to the ongoing operation and maintenance of this energy uh producing facility.

So they're highly specialized, um, they pay very well.

Uh and so because of the nature of this job and the the technical requirements needed to fulfill those positions, uh it warrants a variance for um the economically disadvantaged.

So is there a way to not necessarily waive um the residency and economically disadvantaged requirements, but um try to find somebody in the in that area?

Sure.

We um with uh with our community benefits portions of our tax abatements, we still include like good faith efforts to hire um within certain census tracts or certain areas of the project and those sort of things.

So we would still uh put those same good faith language in there.

Uh it's more so we don't want to um open ourselves up for an issue of if if we're using a term that's defined by the Texas Enterprise Zone Act, and then we approve this project and it doesn't meet that definition, we're opening ourselves up.

So we're the same.

But we are going to use a good faith effort to try to hire somebody from the from the area.

That's correct.

Yeah, but we just don't want to force them into a position that they can't achieve.

Gotcha.

Councilmember Flickinger.

Thank you, Chair.

Um I'm typically skeptical of a lot of these, and we have had some discussions in the past.

I think this is the best one you all brought forward.

I don't think it's even close.

Uh this does a number of things.

Uh first of all, it will generate a lot of property tax revenue, even though we're giving away a considerable percentage of the increment for the first ten years.

Uh this plant is going to last a long time, is going to generate a lot of revenue for the city.

And the really nice thing about it is it's not going to add a lot of cost to the city.

I mean, this generation plan is not going to require a lot of fire and EMS and police and that type of stuff.

So we're city is going to be getting a lot of revenue without a lot of expense.

That's fantastic.

Uh the location is good.

You've already got a generating plant there.

So, you know, any issues of NIMBYism, I think are pretty much off the board because it's already there.

Um, you know, and then the type of power that you are adding.

Um, in fact, uh I mean the State has made this such a big deal that they put a ton of money.

In fact, I think y'all are getting what, 330 million uh for of loan from the the State in these very favorable terms uh out of the fund.

Uh so you know the this is so important because the sun doesn't always shine and the wind doesn't always blow.

Uh so you need this power there.

Uh I think this is also kind of a cautionary tale for us.

Uh I mean, basically the program the State put into effect was required because the incentives given to wind and solar are so great that they can actually make a profit when the wholesale price of electricity goes down to zero.

And obviously you can't do that.

So the you know the state had to do this.

They had no choice.

Um really glad to see y'all are stepping up and doing this.

Also, the electrical generation will uh provide further economic growth with other companies in the future because the power is available.

So again, I I think this is by far the best one you've had.

Thank you.

Councilmember.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

And uh I'll second what uh my colleague said about that.

Clearly, there is a need for this type of power, and uh especially in the Houston area.

I appreciate the opportunity we had to meet Friday afternoon and get a lot of the questions answered.

And to uh Councilmember Flickinger's point, the abatement will last 10 years, but this uh plant of this kind, uh I believe you said could last 40 or 50 years or maybe even longer than that.

And so during during the the bulk of that period, uh the city would be collecting tax revenue, property tax revenue from the um from the property, which currently uh is not very valuable because it's it's not developed, right?

Yes, sir.

So I I do see this as a benefit to the city and and like my colleague, I'm skeptical of a lot of these abatement uh proposals that are brought to council.

I I do have a question regarding the variance is requested and and and specifically the one on subsection seven.

So so this type of project, the improvement for the generation or transmission of electrical energy not wholly consumed by a new facility or expansion is not normally allowed.

And I don't know if you can speak to Andrew why this type of project would not normally be allowed under the guidelines.

So currently under under the guidelines, being a power generation facility, the purpose of its um of its creation and function is to send um the transmission of electrical energy outside of the facility where so say if we had a manufacturing facility that then added wanted to say I don't know, like solar panels on top of their building or something and include that as part of their building improvements, if that solar panels energy was only going to stay on-site and never even connect to the grid, that could be an eligible cost.

But if they were connecting to the grid and any power was not going to be consumed by the company and was going to go into the grid, that would not be eligible.

So that's that's where that differentiation would apply for manufacturing.

But then here, the nature of this is to bolster the grid.

And right now we don't have a clean ordinance or clean tax abatement focused specifically on that.

So the economic development ordinance is the best fit, but in order to still fit it, we have to make some variances.

Okay.

Well, I think clearly uh the addition of the power generation would benefit the entire city economically.

So I'm I'm supportive.

Councilmember Alcorn.

Thank you, Chair.

Just adding to that, um, I appreciate your briefing me on this, and and uh you know, got my questions out answered, and I I think we're in agreement that we need we need more power in the in the state, and this will be a step in the right direction.

Thank you.

Any other questions, colleagues?

If not, thank you very much for the presentation.

Um we will carry on.

Uh thank you, Andrew.

We appreciate you always giving such good information and thank you for being here.

Thank you all very much.

Thank you.

We didn't have anyone that signed up um prior to the meeting to speak.

Is there anyone here that would like to speak?

No one else signed up.

All right, colleagues, then we're gonna give you back some time in your day.

Uh before we adjourn, I'd like to let everyone know that our next scheduled economic development committee meeting is March the 18th, 2026.

If you're interested in receiving information on the economic development committee meeting, contact the district K office at District K at Houston TX.gov.

And the time is 2.46, and we are adjourned.

Thank you for coming.