Home Care In Rosenberg, TX

ROSENBERG, Texas (KTRK) -- The mayor of Rosenberg is defending the decision to approve an Epicenter hotel tax deal that includes thousands of dollars worth of tickets and parking for city employees.

EPICENTER HOTEL AGREEMENT GOES BEYOND TAX DOLLARS

For more than a year, Rosenberg Mayor William Benton said the county has been talking with the city about an agreement to expand the Epicenter, just two years after it opened, by adding a hotel and convention center.

Documents show the project will cost $240 million.

The county plans to spend $170 million on it. To help with costs, they wanted the city of Rosenberg to allocate the hotel tax from the new facility to the project.

RELATED: Fort Bend County pushes plans to add a hotel and convention center near the Epicenter

A 30-year agreement Rosenberg approved. "

The city has nothing to lose, nothing to risk, and everything to gain," Benton said.

On page three of the agreement, it goes beyond the hotel tax. It mentions the perks the city would receive, including 10 club-level tickets and VIP parking.

"I'm not for that at all," Rosenberg resident Alvin Adams said. "You know what I'm saying?. Give it to the people in the neighborhood."

"They're giving all of the money, why not give them something? You know," Rosenberg resident Robin Heineman said. "Help your brother and sister out."

It's a benefit, Benton said, was added by the county.

10 FREE TICKETS WAS TOO CHEAP FOR THE MAYOR

Before approving the agreement, Benton brought up the number of tickets being offered. "I'm just wondering if 10 club tickets, that's a little chintzy on your part," Benton said during the meeting.

Instead of 10 tickets, Benton suggested 20. Why? At first, Benton suggested the council needed a plus one.

"Council, we can go, but don't bring your wife or husband," Benton said during the meeting.

Benton went on to say they needed more tickets for city employees. ABC13 caught up with Benton to ask about the tickets.

He said he was joking about the spouse's remark. Less than five minutes after the county agreed to the extra tickets, the council unanimously approved the agreement.

ABC13 asked him if he would've approved the deal without the tickets. "Of course. Yeah. Wait a minute. Do you think we're doing this for 20 free tickets," Benton said.

Benton said the city would receive the tickets, and staff would decide how to distribute them, not the council. However, when we asked if he would decline tickets, he didn't say no.

"The council is not in the habit of receiving free tickets to stuff," Benton explained. "We don't do that. However, if the tickets go to the staff and the staff wishes to give them to the council, that's their decision."

THE TICKET DEAL COULD BE WORTH THOUSANDS EVERY YEAR

Here's the breakdown of the ticket agreement the city received. Each year, the city receives 20 club-level tickets to five Epicenter events, including VIP parking.

The county's economic director told ABC13 that the tickets could be worth up to $100. He said there's no VIP parking right now.

According to the Epicenter's website, general parking is $20.

This means the deal could be potentially worth $12,000 every year.

DESPITE NO EPICENTER HOTEL TAX MONEY, THE MAYOR BELIEVES THE CITY WILL SEE A BOOST

The agreement approved by the Rosenberg council will prevent the city from collecting hotel tax at the Epicenter facility for 30 years. Money that could've gone towards tourism-related items.

However, Benton said the city may still see a boost in other ways. With a hotel and convention center, Benton said the county is expecting more Epicenter events. This could bring more tourists to the area.

Some of them, Benton said, may choose to stay at nearby hotels. The city could collect hotel tax from those facilities.

If the new Epicenter project includes a hotel, the city would receive sales tax money.

DESPITE THE DEAL, NOTHING IS FINALIZED WITH THE EPICENTER PROJECT

County officials tell ABC13 they're still working out financing for the Epicenter project. Despite Rosenberg's approval, they still need a private developer and ways to secure millions more.

However, they said Rosenberg's actions help. Now, they know the hotel tax money can go towards the project. An approval not just from the city.

It's an approval not just from the city. Last Thursday, the county commissioner also signed off on the agreement

For updates on this story, follow Nick Natario on Facebook, X and Instagram.

Layne's Chicken Fingers is opening its first new location of the year in Fort Bend County as the chicken chain plans for another year of rapid growth in Texas.

The new restaurant is at 28225 Southwest Freeway in Rosenberg. A grand opening event is planned for 11 a.m. Jan. 10, said owner Masroor Fatany, although customers have been flocking to the store since its soft opening Dec. 31. He said Friday that the location is a good one, with neighbors including Starbucks, Whataburger and the Fort Bend County Epicenter. The community has been experiencing rapid growth, which helps.

Beyond that, Fatany said the chicken brand has been well received in the Houston area since he opened his first Layne's location in Katy in 2021.

"At the end of the day, we sell great chicken fingers," he said.

Layne's opened as a single restaurant in College Station in 1994 and quickly found a following among students at Texas A&M University, who enjoyed the restaurant's chicken fingers, crinkle-cut fries and sauce.

The company, now headquartered in Frisco, did not expand outside of Aggieland until 2018, when it opened several corporate locations in the Dallas area.

Fatany, who started in the restaurant industry by bringing The Halal Guys to the Houston area in 2016, became the brand's first franchisee several years later and was awarded an exclusive contract for the Houston area. The Rosenberg location is his 10th Layne's, he said, and he is looking at opening several other locations in the Houston area this year.

As things stand, Layne's still has a much smaller nationwide presence than Raising Cane's, which was founded in Baton Rouge, La., in 1996 and also has a menu centered around chicken strips.

But the Texas-based chain has ambitious plans for growth. In 2025, Layne's grew from about 20 locations to nearly 50. It has opened locations in Ohio, Wisconsin, Virginia, West Virginia, Georgia and Utah. This year, the chain could double in size again. The company is aiming for "market saturation" in Texas; in November, the company announced a deal to open 44 additional locations in San Antonio, South Texas and West Texas.

Fatany says he sees great growth potential for the chain, even beyond its home state of Texas.

"In the next few years, you'll have a Layne's in every major city in America," he said.

Erica Grieder is a business reporter for the Houston Chronicle.

She joined the Houston Chronicle, as a metro columnist, in 2017. Prior to that she spent ten years based in Austin, reporting on politics and economics, as the southwest correspondent for The Economist, from 2007-2012, then as a senior editor at Texas Monthly, from 2012-2016. In 2013, she published her first book, "Big, Hot, Cheap, and Right: What America Can Learn from the Strange Genius of Texas." An Air Force brat, Erica thinks of San Antonio as home. She is a member of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas's Emerging Leaders Council, and holds degrees from the University of Texas at Austin's LBJ School of Public Affairs and Columbia University, where she majored in philosophy.

ROSENBERG, Texas (Covering Katy News) — Union Pacific Railroad is developing a 2,040-acre industrial park in Rosenberg's extraterritorial jurisdiction that could bring thousands of jobs and significant economic growth to the area, located about 38 miles southwest of downtown Houston in Fort Bend County.

The Mainline Texas Industrial Park, with up to 20 million square feet of potential commercial development, is expected to create employment opportunities in warehousing, logistics, manufacturing and transportation for area residents.

About 1,300 acres of the industrial park will be rail-served land, with the remainder open to other commercial development. The project will also provide storage facilities for 1,700 railcars.

Rail Access to Position Rosenberg as Logistics Hub

The project will provide rail access to international gateways in Laredo, Eagle Pass and El Paso, three cities along the Texas-Mexico border, positioning Rosenberg as a logistics hub for international trade.

"We're excited about the new growth opportunities this park opens up for our customers," said Kenny Rocker, Union Pacific executive vice president of marketing and sales. "It's near the state's largest concentration of people, industry and commerce, and allows customers to reach more than 25 million consumers within a 250-mile radius. That's real growth potential and another example of how we are planning into the future with our customers."

Strategic Location Offers Access to Major Transportation Routes

The park is located along Union Pacific's main line with direct access to U.S. 90, Highway 36, Spur 10 and Interstate 69, offering companies transportation access across the region's major population centers and the border.

Union Pacific operates 32,880 route miles in 23 states with seven border crossings. The railroad serves roughly 10,000 customers and connects 7,300 cities and communities. Union Pacific is the only railroad serving all six major Mexico gateways and connects with Canada's rail systems.

The Mainline Texas Industrial Park is 55 miles from Houston's Bush Airport, 66 miles from the Port of Houston and 177 miles from the Port of Corpus Christi.

Robert Alinger of Colliers' Houston office is marketing the project. The site is one mile west of Rosenberg and is substantially vacant.

Houston's industrial market has been strong in 2025, with a number of industrial projects under construction as part of an industrial expansion in Texas.