Houston Chinatown Renovation Project News

The Asian American Business Council (AABC) held a news conference today to discuss the project of renovating Houston Chinatown along Bellaire Blvd. in southwest Houston. The news conference today discussed three issues that needs to be addressed to make Chinatown a tourist attraction. The three issues are:

Security
Beautification
Promotion

Security - Houston Chinatown will get increased security. A security guard in a marked vehicle will patrol the streets of Chinatown from Diho Square west to Beltway 8 and north to Harwin Rd from 10am to 9pm, 7 days a week. Property owners as well will increase their shopping center parking lot lightings and install cameras to help deter crime. The AABC will need private donations to fund this entire security section of the project. It hopes that businesses as well as Houston City Council will contribute to this project.

Beautification - Talks have begun in making Chinatown more eye pleasing and cleaner. Plants and flowers will be planted in the median of Bellaire Blvd. going east of Beltway 8. There will be remodeling of certain shopping centers, some of which have already begun. Houston Chinatown signs are also in the works to let visitors and tourists know about the area.

Promotion - Promoting Houston Chinatown and getting people to come using online and print methods. Houston Chinatown Web Portal is the main source to attracting people and promoting Houston's Chinatown. This promotional stage is still developing as the first two steps are being implemented.

We have all talked about bringing the Olympics and world events to Houston. Making Houston's Asian community a major attraction will definitely help us in the long run. Compared to cities like LA and NYC, we have a huge Asian population as well, but we lack the image and name. This is what the Asian American Business Council is trying to fix and this is why we need investments and donations to fund this project.

Kenneth Li of Century 21 Southwest, president of the Asian American Business Council, speaks about the Houston Chinatown Renovation Project. On hand were members of the business council from various Asian property owners and banks.
President of MetroBank, David Tai talks at the news conference about the need for private donations as well as from the City Council to help fund the project. Making Houston Chinatown a tourist attraction will benefit everyone involved.

About the Asian American Business Council
A group of local commercial properties owners and developers, bankers and business owners initiated a non-profit organization, with the goals to:
1. Improve the safety and coordinate the existing security;
2. Beautify the area;
3. Promote SW Chinatown/ New Chinatown to attract more businesses opportunities.
The first organization meeting was held at Hilton Garden Inn on August 30, 2005 and there were more than thirty participants from local real estate developers, real estate companies, banks, business owners and chamber of commerce to set up the goals, committees, and pledge more than $50,000 to start this program. Asian American Business Council, Inc. (AABC) was formed and the initial 9 board members were elected to serve with Mr. Dake Wang from Law Office of Lai & Associates as legal council and Anthony Choy, CPA as the accounting advisor.

The 9 board members are as follows:
Names (alphabetical order) Property/ Business/ Organization
Leeshan Birney Stone Mountain Properties
Jackson Chang Taiwanese Chamber of Commerce
Michael Chien Dun Huang Group
Michael Koo Chinese Community Center
Andy Lai Law Office of Lai & Associates, P.C.
C. K. Lee Southwestern National Bank
Kenneth Li Diho Square/ Century 21 Southwest
Shao Li Shi Wise Union
David Tai MetroBank