Houston's own wonder of the world will be getting a new life in the not too distant future.

Commissioners Court unanimously gave the go-ahead to a private firm's plan to spend $450 million reinventing the mostly dormant, county-owned Astrodome as a convention hotel.

The hotel is planned as a four-star facility with at least 1,000 rooms, a 2,100-space garage around two-thirds of the Dome's exterior, and restaurants, nightclubs and retail stores.

The entrepreneurs behind the project envision the facility as a destination attraction, with winding waterways and gondola rides.

With its vote, the court gave the Harris County Sports & Convention Corp. permission to sign a letter of intent with Astrodome Redevelopment Corp. No public money will be put into the project.

The letter of intent states that by March 2007, Astrodome Redevelopment must obtain financing and the approval of Reliant Park's tenants, the Houston Texans and the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.

Hotel construction would begin late next year at the earliest.

The county would lease the Dome to Astrodome Redevelopment for 50 years and give it an option to extend the lease another 20 years.

Astrodome Redevelopment would pay the county $2.5 million in rent annually and 2 percent to 3 percent of gross revenues.

Unfortunately, the approval forbids the operation of a casino in the dome -- and also bans sexually oriented busineses (I guess to avoid unfair competition with the adult bookstore across Loop 610 and all the local stripper bars).

But that also means that the world's largest emergency shelter will be out of commission.

As the county moved a step closer Tuesday to redevelopment of the Astrodome as a convention hotel, officials said it no longer will figure in emergency shelter plans as it did when thousands of hurricane evacuees arrived last year.

During future emergencies, other facilities, including the George R. Brown Convention Center and Reliant Center, will be the region's primary shelters, Harris County Judge Robert Eckels said.

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