Irving: Convention Center/Mixed-Use Project

[CTroyMathis]

Anyone seen any renderings of what Cousins Stone and Las Colinas have designed for the Urban Centre conv. ctr.-hotel project? This has been a moderately elusive project to find photo-renderings of considering the ultra high-profile location...

- Troy.

[CTroyMathis]

http://new.globest.com/images/storyimages/dallas_irvingconvention.jpg

And related story for those who know little about it:

Cousins Texas Steering $100M Irving Convention Center
By Connie Gore
Last updated: Mar 1, 2002 09:15AM

IRVING, TX-Cousins Texas, an entity of Atlanta-based Cousins Properties Inc., has secured a $1.8-million contract to steer a $100-million first phase of the Irving Convention Center. Cousins wasn't a shoo-in even though it has served as the pre-development manager since September 2001, R. Dary Stone, president of Cousins Texas, tells GlobeSt.com.
Cousins Texas was vying against Houston-based Hines Interests LP for the favor of Irving City Council, which cast its unanimous decision Thursday on the 30-month contract. Stone says current projects, fresh ideas and the right price factored into the final call. "We have a history here, a depth of experience and certainly we ought to know more than others, but that was not the end-all for the city," he says.

Now that the decision's done, Stone says "the goal is to try to get this thing going sooner rather than later." A ground-breaking date has not been set for the 325,000-sf convention center. The upside is delivery is set for late 2004 and coincides with comeback predictions for the hospitality and convention market.

The convention center will rise on 38 acres, bought in October 2001, in the Las Colinas Urban Center. The triangular tract is bounded by Texas 114, a planned extension of Las Colinas Boulevard and Northwest Highway.

Michael Ablon, Cousins' senior vice president, says the site plan is still being fine-tuned so it's uncertain if the center will front the Las Colinas canal. The tract does abut the canal, a highly popular shuttle network between the hotels, dwellings and local retail attractions. HNTB Architects, Engineers & Planners of Kansas City, MO designed the center. Ablon can't put a date on when general contracting RFPs will be floated.

The convention center is being timed to deliver with a complementary 450-room hotel. Atlanta's Stormont Hospitality Group LLC holds that contract. The center's first phase includes 100,000 sf of exhibition space, 20,000 sf of ballroom area, 27,000 sf of meeting space and the balance dedicated to support space. The facility, if it follows the master plan, will eventually hit 675,000 sf.

The dual projects are expected to generate $93 million annually in direct and indirect spending in Irving and the Dallas-Fort Worth area and $3 million in sales, hotel and property taxes. Some 1,600 jobs will result, say analysts. A 2% share of the city's hotel occupancy tax is funding the project, which is pegging hotel room bookings to jump by 100,000 when the ribbon's cut.

Jim Clark, executive director of the Irving Convention and Visitors Bureau, says the center "will serve as a signature facility and important economic engine." He says Cousins is "a deeply vested corporate citizen" with "a great stake" in the project's success. For the past decade, Cousins has been the development manager for Las Colinas, a 12,000-acre tony business and residential community. The hometown favorite also represents more than 1,400 acres on behalf of the community's largest landowner.

[gc]

$200M Convention Center Hotel Project Advances
GlobeSt.com - by Connie Gore
Last updated: Feb 24, 2003 08:26AM

IRVING, TX-A $200-million convention center, with a 450-room hotel component, could break ground as early as September in the City of Irving. But, says one official, it's more likely site preparation will tail the end of the fourth quarter so finishing touches can be put to a design for a project that's been four years in the making. The road to a ground-breaking has been paved with publicity of all type as the city ironed out a public-private partnership with Atlanta-based Stormont Hospitality Group LLC. With the headlines behind them, the players are ready to share some of the financials for the 350,000-sf convention center. More details will come later, they promise. The project was put on hold last summer so the parties could work out the intricacies of the public and private financing.

Irving taxpayers knew enough details to OK a $103-million bond issue. That sale will come in the summer. The city's 7% portion of a 13% state-shared hotel tax on 11,000 rooms in its bounds will be applied toward bond issue payments for a shared space plan. "Nobody's doing it this way," says Jim Clark, executive director for the Irving Convention Center and Visitors Bureau. Irving wanted to join its top-tier North Texas cities in tapping the convention center trade, but steadfastly refused to jump into the fray without a hotel partner, unlike many other cities now opting to own the rooms and hire the operator. In this case, Irving owns the publicly financed convention center and Stormont owns the privately financed hotel component.

The final details of the master agreement with Stormont are being "hammered out right now" as discussions focus on how to divvy the bottom line for mechanicals and water, Clark tells GlobeSt.com. A signing could come in three weeks. So far, it's been agreed that Stormont will share 22,000 sf of net meeting space, get some surface parking and corner a percentage of the food and beverage trade for the 38.4-acre project in the Las Colinas Urban Center. Hotel parking will include one level of underground space. Stormont will pay a minimum of $50,000 annual rent for the ground lease and $100,000 minimum per year for the meeting space, says Steve Moffett, the hotelier's regional partner. Clark says extra payment on the land starts six years after the grand opening, tentatively set for late 2005, and is predicated on half of the consumer price index. Irving also will receive 10% of the annual cash flow after Stormont achieves an 11% return on the capital investment, Clark adds. Any refinancing or hotel sale kicks another 10% to Irving. The initial lease is 30 years, with seven 10-year options built into the deal.

Stormont's Westin-flagged hotel is an $84-million design, with $64.9 million coming from an equity partner and debt, says Moffett. The balance is the calculated value of the land, already in the city's hands, and the price affixed to the shared meeting space. The deep-pocketed investment, which includes $1.2 million from Stormont, is rooted in the city's ability to attract travelers. Irving's occupancy currently is hovering in the 60% range, but it's predicted to return to its pre-Sept. 11 level, which was a low 70%, in the next two years.

"What makes this deal special," Moffett tells GlobeSt.com, "is Las Colinas." What looks like a stand-alone city to out-of-towners is a 12,000-acre quadrant in Irving's bounds that grew from a dream into headquarters locations for some of the nation's wealthiest corporations, with marble curbs, a Venice-style canal and a movie studio adding to the draw. The Las Colinas success story, of course, is cemented by a multitude of freeways to make Dallas, Fort Worth and the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport all readily accessible destination points. Irving and Stormont say they've targeted a niche convention market--associations and mid-size trade shows--as their bread and butter while steering clear of big productions to avoid head-to-head competition with neighbors. The design, being crafted by RTKL's Dallas-based HNTB hotel team, will have a minimum 100,000 sf for exhibit space, 20,000-sf ballroom, 27,000 sf of break-out space and 180,000 sf of support space.

Irving's decision to lease space and land to a hotel developer follow a course becoming more common as cities chase innovative ways to fund such projects, based on information in a recent Jones Lang LaSalle hotel report about convention center properties. At the end of the day, Irving officials calculate the economic benefit will be $62 million in direct spending annually, $3.4 million in sales, hotel and property taxes and 100,000 new hotel room nights per year.

[jsoto3]

Council spikes plans for convention center
Luring Cowboys to Las Colinas is priority now; mayor doubtful


06/22/2003

By CONNIE PILOTO / The Dallas Morning News

The Irving City Council has scrapped plans to build a convention center in Las Colinas, a move that signals the start of a lobbying effort to keep the Dallas Cowboys in town.

The council voted 6-3 to cancel contracts with the center's architect and development manager during Thursday's council meeting. Mayor Joe Putnam and council members Lewis Patrick and Sam Smith were the dissenters.

Mr. Putnam, a strong backer of building a convention center, said that Cowboys owner Jerry Jones' desire to build a new stadium led to the project's demise.

"It's clear that his influence has affected how council members voted on the project," said Mr. Putnam. "He thinks killing this project gives him a free shot at $100 million. ... He wants that money to be used on his project."

A spokesman for Mr. Jones said he was out of town and unavailable to comment.

The Cowboys want to build a $1 billion stadium and entertainment complex, including a hotel.

The team has narrowed the possible sites to Las Colinas and a tract just south of the Dallas Convention Center and Reunion Arena.

"It's very early in the process," said Brian Mayes of Allyn & Co., a public relations firm working for the Cowboys. "The Cowboys have not selected a site."

Council member Herbert Gears, a vocal supporter of aligning the convention center project with the Cowboys complex, said the city has helped its chances of wooing the team to Las Colinas.

"It made sense from Day One ... to use this opportunity to secure the Cowboys project," Mr. Gears said. "Now we have an opportunity to do that."

The $178 million convention center project has endured a series of stops and starts since it was introduced in 1999.

The project had been put on hold for two years while developers sought private funding for a hotel.

In January, funding was secured to build a privately owned 450-room hotel.

The council gave architects the go-ahead to continue design work but decided to go slow because of the sluggish economy.

In April, the hotel's financial backers withdrew funding, and the project was delayed again.

The city's financial consultants told the council that the project was not viable because of the economic forecast.

Three weeks ago, the City Council canceled the first of three contracts with convention center consultants.

Members of the Irving Convention and Visitors Bureau board, who had worked on the project from the beginning, said they were disappointed with the council's decision.

Mike Barns, vice chairman of the bureau's board of directors, asked the council to postpone its vote until board chairman Don Oberlin returned from vacation in July.

Mr. Smith asked fellow council members to table the issue until the following meeting but didn't have enough votes.

Mr. Barns said they were hoping to renegotiate the contracts so that the team of consultants could stay in place and work at a slow and frugal pace.

"All three of those companies are interested in keeping the project going," Mr. Barns said.

But the council voted to sever all ties with the consultants and project managers.

The city is expected to pay about $208,900 for work completed as well as termination fees.

Some council members said the economy, not the Cowboys, prompted their decision.

"The numbers don't work today," said council member Joe Philipp.

The city has spent $3.6 million on the project: $2.4 million from a 2-cent hotel-motel tax levied on Irving guests and $1.2 million from the visitors bureau budget.

"We killed a convention center in expectation of a stadium project that is never going to happen," Mr. Putnam said.

Gov. Rick Perry signed a law this month that gives Dallas County the authority to levy taxes of 3 percent on hotel rooms and 6 percent on rental cars to pay for a stadium, which will cost an estimated $650 million.

"This is one step of many," Mr. Mayes said. "The next step is dialogue between the Cowboys and the county."

Once the Cowboys choose a site, voters will decide the issue in 2004.


Irving officials believe that they could raise more than $100 million for the project by raising hotel taxes.

"Our council is united in the belief that it's important to pursue this Cowboys development," Mr. Gears said.

The team has played at Texas Stadium in Irving since 1971.

"The Cowboys have always had a strong working relationship with the city," Mr. Mayes said.

E-mail cpiloto@dallasnews.com

or call 972-594-7198, ext. 2003.


http://www.dallasnews.com/localnews/city/irving/stories/062203dnirvconvcenter.13c71.html

[MaC]

did this ever get built!

[texman]

Its on the drawing boards. Check out the urban development section, there a thread covering the whole thing.

[gc]

Its on the drawing boards. Check out the urban development section, there a thread covering the whole thing.

Actually texman, I think he is referring to the Irving CC Hotel.

As for the status, I do not know. I have not heard anything in months.

[texman]

Crap....Why am I always doing this.

[rantanamo]

They wanted the Cowboys to be part of this.


Anyways, why does every city in the metroplex need a convention center?

[texman]

They wanted the Cowboys to be part of this.


Anyways, why does every city in the metroplex need a convention center?

Haha, serious.

[crescentboi]

I don't ever see this getting built. Especially now that the Gaylord is open and that has a huge amount of meeting space and is closer to the airport and not that far from Las Colinas.

[dfwcre8tive]

Wanted: space for a variety of events
Irving: Ideas for proposed convention center focus on multipurpose needs
09:01 AM CDT on Friday, July 7, 2006
By ERIC AASEN / The Dallas Morning News

If Irving builds a convention center, it probably won't be too conventional.

A meeting facility that can be transformed to appeal to a variety of groups could be ideal for the city, said Irving officials and consultants studying the matter.

City officials have requested more details on a so-called multipurpose center to determine its economic impact and construction costs. Results could be ready in September.

While nothing is final, city officials have long been interested in building a meeting facility to attract more visitors to Irving and boost city coffers. More information would be needed before city officials can make a decision about what to do, they said.

"This is going to be a significant undertaking," said Maura Allen Gast, executive director of the Irving Convention and Visitors Bureau. "We want to make sure that if we're going this far with it that we're going the right way and that we're thoughtful and making decisions based on research."

The facility could feature an exhibit hall and ballroom and space for a variety of functions including lectures, graduations, concerts and indoor sporting events, according to a recently released PricewaterhouseCoopers study.

The Irving City Council voted last month to spend $165,000 on a more focused and detailed analysis of the multipurpose center. Consultants will study the potential for a center both on its own and as part of an entertainment and equestrian complex proposed in Las Colinas.

The city is working with developers who want to build a $220 million complex that would include an entertainment venue, hotels, restaurants and an outdoor equestrian arena.

The project would be built on land surrounded by Northwest Highway, State Highway 114 and West Las Colinas Boulevard. The city would be responsible for opening a civic center or convention center.

A convention center has been batted around for years. The city commissioned a convention center study in 1999, but a souring economy slowed plans.

Developers also had difficulty securing funding for a hotel that would have been built adjacent to the center. In 2003, the council put the plans on ice.

But last year, the council voted to conduct a feasibility study on meeting facilities. The new research concluded that the convention center proposed in 1999 wouldn't bring in nearly as much business as had been projected in an earlier estimate.

The research also concluded that building a hotel with a meeting facility would be met with significant opposition from Irving hotel operators. "There will always be ... concern from the hotel community about any city getting in the hotel business," Ms. Gast said.

Without a hotel, an Irving meeting facility would attract fewer and smaller conventions and trade shows, the PricewaterhouseCoopers report said, but would likely attract a large number of other events, such as sporting attractions.

Regardless of what an Irving convention center looks like, City Council member Lowell Cannaday would like to see some sort of meeting facility in the city. "I think there's a market for it," he said. "It makes Irving more of a destination location."

A meeting facility would help Irving diversify its visitor base, city officials said, by attracting visitors, not just business travelers, to its hotels during the workweek, developing weekend visitor business and bringing in larger groups that normally wouldn't visit Irving because it lacked spaces to host large meetings.

E-mail eaasen@dallasnews.com

[CTroyMathis]

I noticed this last week, thought I'd go ahead and post it. . .

Las Colinas officials excited as convention center plans coming together
Excitement in the air for convention center as key tax vote nears
12:00 AM CDT on Friday, October 5, 2007
By BRANDON FORMBY / The Dallas Morning News / bformby@dallasnews.com
Visit link (http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/city/irving/stories/DN-irvconvention_04wes.ART0.West.Edition1.427f572.htm l) for more.

Before a planned convention center complex in Las Colinas becomes a reality, Irving officials have a few hurdles to clear: a ballot proposal to allow certain taxes, a solid deal with developers for surrounding retail outlets and at least two years of construction. . .

. . .The convention center is the first phase of the project. It is scheduled to open in fall 2009. The city is expected to pay for the projected $135 million center with hotel tax revenues that officials have been saving since 2003. . .

. . .Ms. Gast said details for the project could change if residents vote against the tax levies on Nov. 6. But plans for the long-awaited convention center are moving forward regardless of the outcome. . .

. . .His vision calls for a series of parking garages along Highway 114, possibly with waterfalls cascading down their sides to present a more attractive view. Mr. Hillier said that setup would allow a clear, uninterrupted view of the shops, restaurants, apartments and shaded pedestrian areas from Las Colinas Boulevard. . .

[MarkL2023]

$137M Convention Center Gets Moving in October
By Connie Gore
News Tip? | Email | Print | Reprints

IRVING, TX-After a 10-year birthing process, city officials will break ground in October on a $137-million convention center. The 275,000-sf, innovative stacked design will go vertical in second quarter 2009 and deliver no later than Nov. 1, 2010.

The four-story structure will be built with 3,600 tons of recycled steel and skinned with 150 tons of perforated copper cladding, selected for its low maintenance and ability to endure drastic climate changes. The irregularly shaped floor plates will have 50,000 sf of column-free exhibit space, 20,000-sf ballroom on the top floor, 20 break-out rooms, each about 1,000 sf, and an 800-space parking garage wrapping two sides of the building. The convention center and garage will take up 12 acres on the northern end of the city's 40-acre mixed-use tract, which is bounded by Texas 114, Northwest Highway, Las Colinas Boulevard and Fuller Drive.

"It is modern, sculptural and a very recognizable silhouette that will be visible from the tarmac of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport," says Barbara Hillier, principal of Princeton, NJ-based RMJM Hillier, the North American division of UK-based RMJM Group. "It's a new kind of convention center." She and RMJM principal Eric Jaffe started working on the iconic design about six months ago.

"Our biggest challenge was to take the vertical concept and make it interesting," Jaffe tells GlobeSt.com. "I don't think there is anything conventional about this convention center. It represents the next generation of quality of construction and development in the area."

Hillier, the lead architect, says the goal was to create a keystone project for the city, making it pedestrian friendly and a destination driver. The firm also developed the master plan for the 40-acre tract, which one day will hold a 3,500-seat concert venue, 215,000 sf of restaurants and retail and a privately developed hotel, spa and condominiums. A DART light-rail station will be parked within 1,500 feet of the convention center's backdoor. The station opens in 2011, first opening the door to Downtown Dallas and two years later making D/FW airport accessible from the transit stop.

City officials last week locked in the steel price, agreeing to a $22-million contract with North Texas Steel Co. Inc. of Fort Worth. The steel is recycled material from old vehicles, which is coming from Nucor-Yamato Steel Co. of Armorel, AR. The price had to be locked "because of the volatility of the marketplace," says Robert Kuykendall, Dallas-based Beck Group's project manager for the job. "It's going up $35 per ton per month. For every month we wait, we'd lose about $100,000."

Kuykendall says site work will begin in September, setting up an October groundbreaking. Austin Commercial's Roger Files in Dallas is the project's construction manager. Philadelphia-based SMG has a five-year contract to manage and operate the convention center, including kitchen and catering.

The Irving project was resurrected last May, going through several revisions before the plan was stamped as done. "As frustrating as it's been over the last 10 years, it's so much better and more dynamic. It's a better project in the short and long term," Maura Allen Gast, executive director of the Irving Convention & Visitors' Bureau, tells GlobeSt.com. "We are ready."

Gast says she immediately sent an e-mail to her staff after last week's meeting, telling them to start chasing bookings. With much of the groundwork already laid, she says the first booking could be in hand within 60 days. "We've been talking about it to clients for a very long time," she says.

Gast's staff is targeting groups from 800 to 1,200 although the center's capacity is 4,000. The target markets are corporate meetings, trade shows, regional events and sporting events as the team looks to pick up bookings from functions that have outgrown their usual hotel spaces. The design's flexibility allows two simultaneous large events, without bumping each other's shoulders, Gast and the architects point out. The underlying strategy is to keep the center filled midweek and weekends.

"We have the best opportunity to influence the market citywide is weekends," Gast says. "Over the course of time, it will influence occupancy and visitor revenues."

The 26-member staff is still coming to terms that the project is going to happen this time. "It feels really good. We're really going to get it," Gast says, her voice reflecting birthing pride more so than relief.

[tamtagon]

Will this location be close enough to be hooked into the Las Colinas people mover and/or DARTs Orange line?

well, read the article and find out that, yes, it will be right on the train line:


...by Connie Gore: Hillier, the lead architect, says the goal was to create a keystone project for the city, making it pedestrian friendly and a destination driver. The firm also developed the master plan for the 40-acre tract, which one day will hold a 3,500-seat concert venue, 215,000 sf of restaurants and retail and a privately developed hotel, spa and condominiums. A DART light-rail station will be parked within 1,500 feet of the convention center's backdoor. The station opens in 2011, first opening the door to Downtown Dallas and two years later making D/FW airport accessible from the transit stop.

[ksig121]

It kind of reminds me of Austin's City Hall.

[gchrisbailey]

Once they get started/during construction I will try to get some pictures...got some friends that work on the 22nd Floor of Williams Tower that looks right on to that site... :smokecld:

[Double Wide]

Very nice design and good for Irving, Good to hear convention center news, would like to hear some from Dallas soon. Are there any Hotels planned for this center?

a second thought...If this is going to be covered in Copper, wont it eventually tarnish and turn the color of the Statue of Liberty?

[gchrisbailey]

Very nice design and good for Irving, Good to hear convention center news, would like to hear some from Dallas soon. Are there any Hotels planned for this center?

There are at least four hotels there within a few blocks...I wouldn't expect another one...

But...if they did, would be great if it would be a 30 story + and we'd have a new tallest in Irving... :wazzap:

[Tnekster]

There are at least four hotels there within a few blocks...I wouldn't expect another one...

But...if they did, would be great if it would be a 30 story + and we'd have a new tallest in Irving... :wazzap:

Third time’s the charmNow in its third incarnation, the Irving Convention Center is finally moving forward
Dallas Business Journal - by Katherine Cromer Brock Staff writer

In 1998, plans for the Irving Convention Center at Las Colinas were moving in the direction of a typical convention center, a mammoth rectangular building with 100,000 square feet of exhibit space.

The center was going to be funded totally by hotel and motel taxes, but because the national hospitality industry suffered in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C., the project was shelved in 2003.

In 2005, plans were reopened, dusted off, and eventually scrapped.

At that time, the Dallas Cowboys had announced they were abandoning Texas Stadium, and city officials were open to discussion about what type of facility needed to be built.

Now, construction is scheduled to begin by early October on a modified design for the center, one that will better serve the needs of Irving and its business travelers, said Maura Gast, executive director of the Irving Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The convention center will be built on 40 acres southeast of State Highway 114 and Spur 348. It will have 50,000 square feet of column-free exhibit space; a 20,000-square-foot ballroom; 20, 1,000-square-foot meeting rooms; and, an indoor/outdoor cafe.

The copper-plate building will have a modern, angular design, and will be constructed to green-building standards, said architect Barbara Hillier of New York-based RMJM Hillier.

“Convention centers are becoming sort of the spur for economic development across the globe,” Hillier said. “It’s about stimulating business and tourism in Irving. Being in the middle between Fort Worth and Dallas, it’s challenged to do that.”

According to numbers from San Francisco-based Destination Analysts Inc., Irving has had some success in attracting business travelers.

In 2007, there were 2.87 million visitors to the city, said Managing Partner Dave Bratton. Those visitors pumped $1.47 billion into the Irving economy. Of that, $194.3 million was spent on conferences and meetings.

In the first half of 2008, 77.8 percent of visitors to Irving said they were in the city for a group meeting, business or government trip.

“People coming here to Irving are highly educated, highly affluent,” Bratton said.

Gast said the new building, and planned adjoining hotel, will cater to businesses looking for meeting space in Irving.

“It’s not meant to be the biggest place in the world,” she said of the center, which will not have room to expand. “There will always be a business that’s way too big for this building, but they have plenty of choices in the D-FW area. There are far more than tens of thousands of meetings that will fit into this space.”

City officials granted the contract for the building’s steel on Aug. 7 to North Texas Steel Co. Civil engineering work is expected to be approved Sept. 4. Austin Commercial is the construction manager at risk and SMG Worldwide will manage the facility.

The cost of construction is expected to be about $117 million and could run as high as $136 million once engineering, architecture and fees are included, Gast said. The tab will be covered by a hotel tax put in place in 2000. Irving voters in November approved an additional 2 percent tax to fund an entertainment complex just south of the convention center.

The city has signed letters of intent with Watermark Hotel Co. for a boutique hotel directly south of the convention center, and with Las Colinas Group LP, which will be responsible for developing an entertainment concert venue, retail and restaurants. Plans are expected to come before the city in 30 to 90 days, Gast said. The convention center is scheduled to open in late fall 2010, followed by the entertainment venue and the hotel.

[jimmyx18]

Very nice design and good for Irving, Good to hear convention center news, would like to hear some from Dallas soon. Are there any Hotels planned for this center?

a second thought...If this is going to be covered in Copper, wont it eventually tarnish and turn the color of the Statue of Liberty?
I depends on what they treat it with. I could be wrong, but I think the Williams Square building is topped in copper as well. I know my old high school (St Mark's) uses a lot of copper to top their Buildings. It never turned green, it just turned brown.

[Kelley USA]

There were 2 more crews out this morning doing soil samples...

[Double Wide]

I like this design, cant wait to see it built

[Kelley USA]

Quite a bit of dirt has started to move here the past few days... I'd say this thing is moving now!

[jimbone]

Hey this is off topic, but I like what of the things that Irving is doing I know there are some things that people don’t agree with but look at how the whole council is on one accord they all want to make Irving a better place to live. Go to there website you can see all of there meetings anytime you want. I know Dallas televises their meetings on some cable station, but I’m not always able to watch.

[aygriffith]

Quite a bit of dirt has started to move here the past few days... I'd say this thing is moving now!


Yeah i noticed that yesterday driving to the airshow. Finally that lone ranger of a Amerisuites/Holiday Inn will have company at that intersection. Now if they can just find the money for Las Colinas Live and put a small grocery store concept and more than one bar in the Las Colinas CBD I'd almost move back there...

[Kelley USA]

About 8 large construction trailers were delivered to the site yesterday... Good stuff!

[CTroyMathis]

I hadn't seen this, so didn't know if anyone else had either or remembered they had since the visuals are gone upthread:
http://www.theirvingjournal.com/Night_shot_rev.jpg


http://www.irvingconventioncenter.com/meetings/conventioncenter/
http://www.irvingconventioncenter.com/meetings/conventioncenter/video

. . .more stuff at links

[tamtagon]

This convention/meeting facility is a giant step foward in the evolution of a contiguous business district from downtown Dallas to Las Colinas.

[Double Wide]

Love the design, but unless some glaze is put over the Copper, it will patinate and with in 50 years will start to turn the same color as the Statue of Liberty. but im sure they have something planned for that.

[F4shionablecHa0s]

Love the design, but unless some glaze is put over the Copper, it will patinate and with in 50 years will start to turn the same color as the Statue of Liberty. but im sure they have something planned for that.
That color works for Dallas Hall at SMU and is starting to show at Comerica Tower. Just makes it look even better.

[Double Wide]

i know it works well at those locations, but would it work well for this many and this large a flat space\?

[CTroyMathis]

Irving OKs deal on entertainment center
02:12 PM CST on Tuesday, December 16, 2008 | By BRANDON FORMBY / The Dallas Morning News
Visit: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/city/irving/stories/121608dnmetirventertainmentcenter.6c1d43b1.html

Irving City Council members approved a development agreement Thursday night with Las Colinas Group LP for the construction and operation of a $200 million entertainment center adjacent to the city’s planned convention center. . .

. . .The convention center is set to open in late 2010, while the entertainment center is scheduled to be complete in 2011.

More at the link. . .

[aygriffith]

So how are they going to integrate the APU into the convention center and Las Colinas Live and is Dallas County paying for it? I think they still are the current operator...

[dfwcre8tive]

Here's the new website: http://www.irvingconventioncenter.com/

[Las Colinas]

This looks wonderful haven't seen any renderrings of it yet, so I'll just use the image given from http://www.irvingconventioncenter.com/ So I take it this is what they're building behind Williams Tower in Las Colinas?

[gchrisbailey]

This looks wonderful haven't seen any renderrings of it yet, so I'll just use the image given from http://www.irvingconventioncenter.com/ So I take it this is what they're building behind Williams Tower in Las Colinas?

Yes...

[CTroyMathis]

@flickr : Photostream (http://www.flickr.com/photos/32703811@N08/show/)
@facebook (not sure if these are viewable by "everyone") : 1 (http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=11779&id=1794349595) + 2 (http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=13260&id=1794349595)

[CTroyMathis]

Some more construction progress photos:
http://commercial.austinprojects.com/Irving/progress.htm

[Las Colinas]

^^ On an unrelated note, I can now see the tip of the iron work from my room window right now.

[dmorg12345]

CTroy,

Do you also have a view in to the Water Street Development? It looked like they were moving earth the last time I was around there.

[CTroyMathis]

Maybe Las Colinas (the forumer) does?

I sure don't!

[Kelley USA]

CTroy,

Do you also have a view in to the Water Street Development? It looked like they were moving earth the last time I was around there.

There is lots of activity going on at Water Street… They are currently doing land reclamation (creating about an additional acre of land from the lake). Once that process is complete I’m not sure if they have immediate plans to start construction. I know the City of Irving is paying to reclaim the land and not the developers- so who knows…

[NThomas]

Wasn't there a construction webcam for Water Street?

[Las Colinas]

No clue. I also thought that the large movement of earth near the lake shore was for land reclamation, I guess I'll head down there and take some shots with my iPhone tomorrow.

[CTroyMathis]

A recent view:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=262697&id=1794349595

Interestingly, click on the photo to get to the 'next photo' and you get a view of some of the Water St. site.

[tamtagon]

No surprise about this, except it too until this summer to give press to another municipal project lacking funds:

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-irvfinancing_10met.ART.Central.Edition1.297980e.ht ml


Hotel occupancy tax won't cover Irving's $126 million debt for convention center
12:00 AM CDT on Thursday, June 10, 2010

By BRANDON FORMBY / The Dallas Morning News

bformby@dallasnews.com
Irving's 2 percent hotel occupancy tax will not fully cover the city's $126 million debt for construction of a new convention center as planned.

The debt is partially backed by property tax revenue, but at least one City Council member said Wednesday that he doesn't want to dip into the general fund to shore up the gap.

City officials said they are instead exploring other options to make up the shortfall, which could exist for four to five years.
...
Council members made several mentions of the debt payment gap during a work session discussion on how to finance an additional $205 million for a planned concert hall and cluster of restaurants near the convention center.
...
Council members are planning on funding that project with hotel occupancy tax revenues as well. Officials say that entertainment center will draw conventions and spur further commercial and residential development in the Urban Center.
...
"It will increase occupancies and demands," real estate and development director Brenda McDonald told council members Wednesday.

The Convention Center at Las Colinas is expected to open in December. Construction on the massive building along State Highway 114 has already dramatically changed the skyline of the Las Colinas Urban Center.

Maura Gast, executive director for the Irving Convention and Visitors Bureau, ... said the city has until November to figure out a solution.

I had forgotten that the Irving folks have been working on a $205 million "concert hall and cluster of restaurants" to schooch up to the hotel and convention center.

I'm encouraged that Irving leaders are working so hard and, um, effectively, to amass all the key ingredients of a traditional hub-city downtown into Las Colinas well beyond the mixed use town centre & suburban business district so successfully drawn in Collin County.

Growing a well rounded regional lifestyle, cultural and business focal point makes so much more sense when situated in between the existing Dallas and Fort Worth societal nexuses. The folks in Fort Worth ought to really examine the scope and scale of what Las Colinas is becoming. At least the SW/NE - Cotton Belt commuter route will guide Tarrant County planning and development of additional office park stuff.


Officials say that entertainment center will draw conventions and spur further commercial and residential development in the Urban Center.

"It will increase occupancies and demands," real estate and development director Brenda McDonald told council members Wednesday.

For once and for all, I wish the proponents of these public/private mixed use master planned mega-developments would issue more accurate and precise potential benefit comments. Far more important to the composition and livability of Irving is the way this business tourist attraction will further consolidate types of business activity. There will be dozens of small, last generation, "strip-mall" hotels embedded into the suburban landscape which will find themselves too isolated to continue as competitive going concerns and will either be torn down or repurposed.

On a much grander scale, a similar evolution is shaping up in Dallas. The crux of the hotel room inventory problem is not an over-abundance of available rooms, it's the widely broadcasted location of the rooms.... that is, there's too many hotel rooms based on business tourism operating within or on the edge of residential areas and too few hotel rooms clustered in the business district.

[dfwcre8tive]

The copper siding has started to wrap the structure.

http://www.irvingconventioncenter.com/media/images/display.php?id=210&width=558%3E&height=366%3E

Also able to see DART Orange Line progress on the recent images here: http://commercial.austinprojects.com/Irving/progress.htm

[Kelley USA]

You can actually see a bit of my apartment complex in the bottom right hand corner. It's been pretty cool watching this thing go up!

[gchrisbailey]

You can actually see a bit of my apartment complex in the bottom right hand corner. It's been pretty cool watching this thing go up!

You're about to be living in the center of what's happening in Las Colinas... :Banana09: