New downtown park in the works

05:59 PM CDT on Tuesday, October 19, 2004

By Doug Miller / 11 News

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Houston Mayor Bill White has cut an important real estate deal for a new city-owned park. It will cost about $80 million and the mayor says most of the money will come from private sources.

The land on the east side of downtown Houston is open to the public, but it's privately owned by Crescent Real Estate.

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The prime piece of property sits across from the GRB.

They've called it the Superblock -- a prime piece of downtown real estate coveted by the city government because it sits next to the convention center complex.

A couple of years ago, Crescent offered to give this land to the city in exchange for another piece of prime real estate, the Compaq Center. But Lakewood Church won the high stakes battle for the Compaq Center.

And the future of this Superblock has been up in the air -- until now. After years of negotiating, Crescent Real Estate finally agreed to sell it to the city.

The mayor hopes to open a new park here in about two years.

"Jog or take a walk, take the kids, picnic, benches where people can have lunch," suggested Mayor Bill White.

"What it means to the citizens is, it means that park will be a park forever," said Bob Eury with Central Houston, Inc.

The exact sales price won't be announced until Crescent makes an official statement.