Shared Value, Shared Cost

Sept. 22, 2014
Businesses are seeing the value of transit to their bottom line and sharing the cost to ensure they get workers, visitors and customers.

As we go to press with this issue, Congress heads to recess after passing legislation to provide short-term funding to the Federal Highway Trust Fund. I would imagine it's about what we all expected. A short-term stop-gap.

This issue’s “Best Practices” asked about your thoughts on the funding outlook for the industry and what is necessary, while our next issue will look at some of the specific innovative and creative solutions being used to fund projects.   

In Houston, Metro President and CEO Tom Lambert talked of such a project. The Uptown District dedicated bus lane project is being funded in part by the Uptown District itself.

I hear time and again from people at the agencies that they get requests from businesses, universities, associations, that those organizations want transit service to attract shoppers or students or visitors. And it’s normally left to the transit system to front the cost.

It’s refreshing to hear the increase in projects being funded by businesses and organizations that want transit, that realize the value of transit to their bottom line.

Reading up on Uptown Houston after visiting the city, it is the largest business center in the nation outside of a traditional downtown. The area features more than 24 million square feet of commercial office space, more than 7,100 hotel rooms, and in 2011 had more than $3.1 billion in annual gross retail sales. The great challenge for the area is getting employees there.

As for the area’s future, they are the ones saying mobility is key to its success. In addition to the dedicated bus lane project talked about in this issue’s cover story, the Uptown District also has other street improvement programs in place to reduce congestion and to make the area more pedestrian friendly by widening sidewalks, adding pedestrian lighting and improving landscaping.

The biggest question is how to pay for everything and creative partnerships are showing up more and more often. While it’s great to get project funding, even better is the message it’s sending to the community, stakeholders and lawmakers, that others are acknowledging transit helps them, it helps their business grow. 

Uptown Houston

14th largest business district in the U.S.

Approximately 2,000 companies 

More than 5 million square feet of retail space

 More than 24 million square feet of commercial office space

11% of the entire taxable retail sales for the city of Houston

31 hotels totaling more than 7,100 rooms

$274 million in hotel room revenue in 2012