Meeting will give overview of downtown projects

Like the downtown project plan? Hate it? Not sure? A Wednesday meeting should give a complete overview of the past, present and future of downtown redevelopment as questions continue about how to accomplish it.

The most pressing question may be whether to proceed with the multipurpose event venue that would host baseball and other activities.

The venue is one of three components of what supporters call a catalyst project that includes a convention hotel and parking garage.

"My understanding was, from the beginning, that the hotel needed the activity generated by the MPEV and the things that were going on there, not only baseball games and concerts in the stadium itself, but the area surrounding with restaurants and shopping and so forth. That's part of their metrics," said Sam Lovelady, vice chairman of Downtown Amarillo Inc.

"The baseball would be just one element of the use of the MPEV. And obviously, we've come up with a not very marketable acronym, but it describes that it is multipurpose."

"I'm hopeful that you have this attractive facility in the center of downtown that will become the living room for downtown," Lovelady said.

New city councilmen Mark Nair, Elisha Demerson and Randy Burkett have expressed concerns about the facility and want to put it to a citywide vote. The city would pay for construction of the venue by issuing debt that would be repaid by some of the hotel occupancy tax it collects throughout the city. The parking garage construction money would also be financed by debt.

Besides some of the hotel occupancy tax, the city will have access to parking fees, increased rent at the Civic Center, 10 percent surcharges on tickets at the Civic Center and Globe-News Center for the Performing Arts and an annual lease payment from the event venue operator.

"I've read many economic studies that show stadiums have zero benefit to taxpayers, so I keep asking for the projections, financial assumptions, (profit and loss statement) and any business model at all, but I've received nothing," Nair said. "It's hard for me to ask taxpayers, regardless of the tax source, to invest in a large project without a solid model around it. Downtown revitalization is a good thing, and focusing on growth around Polk Street makes sense to me, as well as building a better Civic Center."

Burkett did not return two phone calls seeking comment.

Various groups have worked on developing and implementing plans for the catalyst project for years to accelerate development in an area that recently has begun to reverse its slump. They all say the components of the project depend on each other for success.

"I'm 33 years old and can't remember something new with multiple stories being built downtown. It took seven years to get here, and we are just on the cusp," said downtown resident Steve Pair. "Throwing all that away seems crazy - to throw that to the wayside, I'll be 55 years old saying I haven't seen a new building built downtown."

Demerson isn't sold.

"If it's a great idea, if what the mayor espoused is true ... the people, if given the opportunity, will support it. Already in our last meeting, I said we need to look at contingency plans if, in a public vote, the MPEV is voted down," he said.

The next time a citywide vote could be held would be in November, and Chuck Patel of hotel developer NewcrestImage said not building the MPEV would force his company and project backers to re-evaluate the situation.

Richard Brown - chairman of Amarillo Local Government Corp., which is acting for the city in the development of the project - agrees.

"It is simplistic to say you can simply unplug any one of the three parts and it doesn't affect the other," he said.

For now, the MPEV is on hold.

Amarillo Baseball Partners submitted a proposal in answer to a city request for resumes from organizations with baseball teams interested in operating the MPEV, according to Gary Elliston, who is part of the group. Yet no negotiations have begun.

"We have not had contact with the city since that time," said Elliston, who owns the Amarillo ThunderHeads and the team's parent company, Southern Independent Baseball. "I have always expressed my commitment to the city of Amarillo to have baseball there. I'm in a position to support baseball in Amarillo regardless."

But former mayoral candidate Roy McDowell thinks baseball has no place downtown and welcomes a citywide vote.

"Nobody wants the ballpark, OK? I haven't talked to anybody who does except the incumbents (on the city council)," he said. "I'm not against downtown revitalization, just the ballpark. Finally, they're going to get to vote. It will be more open."

Texas law requires this type of election to take place only on uniform election dates set by the state, and the first one would come in November, well after the catalyst project construction is set to begin.

Melissa Dailey, executive director of redevelopment nonprofit Downtown Amarillo Inc., said she thinks waiting that long will have downtown investors rethinking their plans.

"In my opinion, I think you're talking about a massive setback," she said.

Despite the growing number of voices joining the discussion of downtown's future, some have watched without being vocal.

"I've really stayed out of this fray. I've not taken any kind of a public stance on it at all. All I'll say is I applaud the vision," said Happy State Bank Chairman and CEO J. Pat Hickman. "I think it would set Amarillo up as a good and strong, progressive community. It opens the doors for opportunity. If we don't have these venues, we have no doors to open. So I applaud it, and I hope that the city fathers will continue along the line. If we think we're standing still, we're actually going backward. And I think it's paramount that we move forward.

"I think the downtowns are that hub, that heartbeat. It's that central focal point that just says so much about the community as a whole. I think we'd be very shortsighted to not proceed."

Data from CCIM, a real estate industry support group, show Amarillo with 430 fewer millennials by 2020. Millennials make up a demographic group born in the 1980s and 1990s that developers and retailers court.

"The event venue, I think, is critical in attracting future investment, and I think it's critical for urban development. Young people want to go to bigger cities where things are happening. And if we don't have that, you lose the likelihood that they're going to stay in this city," said Austin Sharp, asset manager for the Mays Group, which is developing housing and retail space downtown. "I have had a lot of people tell me I'm for downtown development just because I'm a stakeholder, but it is much larger than that for me."

Another downtown property developer, Gary Jennings, also sees a need to not only attract conventions, but to draw and retain younger people.

"As the millennials and others are saying, we need more activity downtown. We need a vibrant, healthy, urban core, and this is perhaps a once-in-a-generation chance for Amarillo to get this activity going," Jennings said.

That questions about the plan and claims it was created in secret are coming up now, after hundreds of community and board meetings over years, puzzles Jennings.

"I refute that. It's been out there. Many people just didn't pay attention earlier," he said, adding that, at the neighborhood meetings he attended, "the vast majority was pro development."

Xcel Energy will have a new headquarters next to the parking garage and hotel and across South Buchanan Street from the proposed MPEV. The location's post-project appeal to potential employees is one reason the company chose it, executives said.

The Opus Group development company on Wednesday began construction on the $42 million office project.

"We chose the Eighth and Buchanan location for several reasons, one of which was the ability to acquire a single block of land on which to build our new headquarters. We also are interested in being close to the major new developments near the Civic Center, which will create a more vital urban experience that is so appealing to the new generation of potential employees," said David Hudson, president and CEO of Southwestern Public Service, which is an Xcel Energy company. "This is even more critical as a quarter of our workforce reaches retirement age in the next four to five years."

SPS has had its headquarters in various locations in central Amarillo since 1925.

"We want to be a part of a unique opportunity to make a long-term investment in central Amarillo that will lead to additional private development in the future. The downtown catalyst projects are the result of years of careful planning that resulted in a very workable project with no impact on city property taxes," Hudson said. "In fact, the increased development actually enhances the tax base, which helps hold down tax rate increases for everyone living in Amarillo.

"Overall, the MPEV investment creates much more value than cost, which will be covered by hotel occupancy taxes and facility-use fees largely paid by people living outside the city."

Some see the catalyst project's components as creating a foundation for more changes.

"If we begin to build our downtown and we make it stronger, and we have these things which get people to work, to live, to play and to eat, it gives us a greater framework to continue other projects down the road." said John Lutz, chairman of Downtown Amarillo Inc.

"My feeling is there's going to be additional things down the road. The Civic Center's one of them. It's a process, and all of these things connect. The connection between the ballpark and the hotel and the Civic Center and Polk Street, they're not distinct a la carte projects. They were never meant to be."