Ralph Bivins’ Realty News Report Awards: The Notables of 2025

HOUSTON – (By Ralph Bivins) – We experienced our share of shock and awe lately. The mercurial tariff announcements stressed many of our small businesses, home builders, and the contractors erecting high-rise towers in the Texas Medical Center. Now, there’s the surprising upheaval in Venezuela and the subsequent unknowns facing Houston’s energy companies and the entire oil industry.

But 2025 was not a disaster for Houston. So, we’re announcing the Realty News Report Awards for 2025 – projects and trendsetters that stood out among the crowd.

Transformation of the Year – Main Street Promenade.

Cars will be banned on seven blocks in the north part of Downtown Houston. The lack of cars does not sound like a Houston thing. But the results could make Main Street a great place for humans. Construction is underway on the pedestrian-focused promenade. The Downtown Houston+ organization promises it will be finished in time to welcome the international tourists coming for the FIFA World Cup soccer games in June. Look for wide walkways, landscaping and shade structures, and sidewalk cafés in front of restored historic buildings. If the soccer fans love it, Houston’s tourism reputation could skyrocket overnight.

New Hotel of the Year – Hotel Saint Augustine

It’s a two-story hotel located on a site bounded by Loretto Drive, Colquitt Street, Mandell Street, and West Main – not the sort of drive-by credentials that would turn-on a McDonald’s franchisee. Hotel Saint Augustine, tucked away in the Montrose area, is no La Quinta Motor Inn. The boutique hostelry was designed by Lake Flato architects, a Texas firm with a portfolio of green, sustainable projects. The 71-room Hotel Saint Augustine, which has a $57 million price tag, consists of five small buildings and an elite restaurant nestled in the mature, heavily treed neighborhood adjacent to the Menil Collection museum buildings. The Menil is a partner in the hotel development with Bunkhouse Hotels. Greg Marchbanks, Bunkhouse co-founder, worked for Century Development early in his career.

Terminators of the Year – The Dome Demolishers

In The Terminator film, Arnold Schwarzenegger plays a cyborg robot that is programmed to assassinate a young woman who will give birth to a future leader in a resistance movement. No matter how many wounds and injuries the robot suffers, it continues to rise, never wavering from its mission – to kill the woman. It reminds me of the way that those who want to demolish the Astrodome never give up. The Texas Historical Commission designates the Astrodome, which opened in 1965, as a State Historical Landmark – the demolition advocates aren’t phased. They are locked-in, focused on demolition of the Astrodome – the embodiment of the city’s “can-do” soul that will never be extinguished.

It’s Houston’s most famous building – the first air-conditioned domed stadium in the world. A Gensler study showed that demolition equipment would burn 1.7 million gallons of diesel fuel just to crush the stadium into bits and then 17,707 diesel dump-truck trips would be required to haul off the rubble. The Dome Terminators don’t blink. A year-long Kirksey study estimates it would cost $55 million just to tear down the Dome. But the Terminators never give up. A new mixed-use redevelopment plan, financed in part by historic tax credits and private investors, could transform the Dome, the Astrodome Conservancy says. Nevertheless, the Dome Terminators are unrelenting.

I was asked recently: “Why do they hate the Dome so much?” Personally, I’d rather tear the 24-year-old NRG Stadium, which will need $2 billion in maintenance in the years to come.

The Dome, the NRG Stadium and the 350 acres around them are owned by Harris County taxpayers. It seems like the people – the actual owners – are sitting in the dark with tiny scraps of information while new county leases are being negotiated with the two major tenants – the Houston Texans and the Houston Rodeo. The existing leases seem to be tenant-friendly. In recent years, the existing Dome contract means the NFL’s Texans have paid a net rent of zero, after the contract’s incentives and rebates are applied, the Houston Chronicle has reported. Are we going to go that route again? Maybe some commercial real estate professionals could assist the county and the people’s interest as the new contracts are being negotiated right now.

Could we at least have some more transparency, please, before the wrecking ball rolls in to terminate this historic landmark?

(Commentary by Realty News Report Editor Ralph Bivins, Gold Award Winner for Best Column, National Association of Real Estate Editors.)