With its new $107 million hotel losing money and a tight budget for 2024, the Conroe City Council voted against the $32.8 million purchase of 410 acres to expand the Conroe Park North Industrial Park.
In a joint meeting of the Conroe Industrial Development Corp. and city council Aug. 10, the development corp. approved the purchase of the land for the park near the Conroe North Houston Regional Airport.
The Conroe IDC is a nonprofit development corporation and operated under the supervision of the city council. The development corp. promotes economic development in the city and uses a one-half cent sales tax levied by the city to provide incentive funding to attract new and expanded business.
Conroe IDC Board Member Howard Wood, who also sits on the city council, was the lone nay vote. Board Member Chip VanSteenberg was absent.
To move forward with the purchase of the land, the Conroe IDC needed council approval but council voted against the purchase in a 2-3 vote with Council Members Harry Hardman, Marsha Porter and Wood voting against the deal.
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“I am concerned about unknown financial obligations CIDC may have due to decisions made by our previous council with the building of our hotel,” Wood said after the meeting. “I want to be prepared. I also want our city to be prepared if better opportunities become available. Just because we have money in CIDC funds, doesn’t mean we need to spend it right now.”
In June, council approved $5 million in unbudgeted operations cost for the new Hyatt Regency Hotel and Convention Center in Grand Central Park just days before it opened.
Later that month the council learned the hotel is expected to lose more than $1 million in revenue from low occupancy rates through March 2024.
Danielle Scheiner, executive director of the Conroe Economic Development Council, said the industrial park off FM 3083 is close to complete build-out.
The business park spans 1,655 acres and employs more than 3,000 people. It is home to more than 40 companies, including Ball Corporation and FedEx Freight.
The city expanded the park in January 2018 with the $23 million purchase of 610 acres.
According to information from the city, there are four tracts of land totaling 101 acres still available in the park.
