Houston breaks ground Tuesday on $31 million BARC adoption center on Buffalo Bayou
The Sabine Street Bridge at Buffalo Bayou Park, near the site of the new adoption center. Photo: Ed Uthman, Houston, Texas, USA, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Houston will break ground Tuesday on a $31 million adoption center for BARC, the city’s animal shelter, on a site along Buffalo Bayou just west of downtown. The building is meant to take about 125 adoptable animals out of the crowded shelter on Carr Street and put them where more people will see them.
Mayor John Whitmire is scheduled to lead the ceremony at 10 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 17, at 105 Sabine St., according to a city media alert. District H Council Member Mario Castillo, Houston BARC Foundation Executive Director Brittany Amend and BARC Shelter Director Jarrad Mears are also set to speak. Parking for the event is at the Buffalo Bayou Park Cistern lot and along Sabine Street.
What voters paid for
The money comes from a 2022 bond proposition Houston voters approved for building a new animal adoption facility. The center will cover about 33,000 square feet and house more than 125 animals, the city says. It is scheduled to open in November 2028.
The Houston BARC Foundation, the nonprofit led by Amend, raises private money and runs programs that support the city shelter.
The city also plans a dog park and a multi-level parking garage, with other amenities, on the same site.
BARC’s main shelter, at 3300 Carr St., will stay open. The point of the new building is to add capacity, not replace it. Mears said moving adoptable animals to Sabine Street would free up kennels for strays coming in.
“The ability to shift about 125 animals over to this new facility means that we’re able to free up kennel space for dogs and cats that our teams are rescuing from the streets and bringing to the existing shelter across town,” Mears said in the alert.
Why the location
The site sits by the Sabine Street Bridge at the eastern edge of Buffalo Bayou Park with the downtown skyline behind it. Mears said in the alert that the setting is the draw.
“This new building near downtown Houston and along Buffalo Bayou is centrally located and set against the backdrop of beautiful Buffalo Bayou Park and the Houston downtown skyline,” he said. “It is an ideal location for potential adopters, with convenient access for viewing and interacting with our adoptable pets in a recreational setting.”
Until the new center opens, adoptions continue at the Carr Street shelter. The city’s BARC page lists adoptable animals, hours and volunteer and foster programs.
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