Arlington, Rangers unveil timeline for $1 billion stadium project

1 December 2016

Aiming to open the Texas Rangers’ new stadium in April 2020, team and city officials now have a timeline for planning and building the $1 billion project.

The schedule and framework, unveiled at a City Council meeting Tuesday, also clarify the city’s and the team’s responsibilities as work begins on the project. Among the first orders of business, the Rangers plan to hire an architect by year’s end to get the design process started.

“It guides the process,” city spokesman Jay Warren said of the timeline. “It also is a working structure for what needs to get done. It makes sure it gets done, and gets done on time.”

In addition to hiring an architect, the Rangers expect to be interviewing structural, mechanical, electrical and plumbing consultants by Dec. 31. Meanwhile, the city will start assembling its financial team, City Manager Trey Yelverton said.

The framework establishes an executive steering committee of Yelverton, deputy city managers and the city attorney. The committee will guide the work on the project, Warren said.

Yelverton said he plans to bring the Rangers and the city project teams before the council for quarterly updates starting next spring.
Entertainment mecca

On Nov. 8, Arlington voters overwhelmingly backed the city’s plan to extend a half-cent sales tax, 2 percent hotel occupancy tax and 5 percent car rental tax to pay $500 million toward the project, with bonds projected to be paid off in 30 years. The vote also authorized up to a 10 percent admission tax and $3 parking tax for the Rangers, which the team could use to help pay its own share of the retractable-roof stadium’s cost.

The new stadium will replace Globe Life Park in Arlington, which opened as The Ballpark in Arlington in 1994. The Rangers have said they plan to redevelopment Globe Life, potentially with office, retail and dining venues.

The new stadium will be a neighbor of not only Globe Life Park but also the $250 million Texas Live! mixed-use entertainment and high-rise hotel complex that broke ground in late October.

Two tenants have since been announced. Guy Fieri, the spiky-haired TV chef, will open a restaurant, and the Granbury-based Revolver Brewing will establish a brewery.

The $100 million first phase of Texas Live! includes 200,000 square feet of dining and entertainment venues, an outdoor event pavilion with a capacity of 5,000 people, a 300-room high-rise hotel and 35,000 square feet of meeting and convention space.

The Rangers and developer The Cordish Cos. said the dining and entertainment venues are set to open with the 2018 baseball season, and the hotel/convention portion would open that fall.

 

Source:star-telegram.com