Glory Park Delayed (Dead?)

[TaylorTRoom]

We've had some great debates about the new Cowboys Stadium in Arlington. I live in Arlington, and am a proponent for it as a good thing for the city. I don't think anybody noted here that the Glory Park development has been put on hold by Tom Hicks. Bad news for Arlington; hopefully it will get restarted when the economy picks up.

 

[EasternHorn]

You didn't look far enough down the page. Almost to the bottom of page 1 is a thread by LonghornLawyer that addresses this subject. I think you will find it both interesting and depressing.

 

[notanative]

Let's just link it

LonghornLawyer hits it on the head, in my book. I can't imagine that most outside of Arlington really care that this is not going to happen any time soon.

NO!!! WAIT!!! AgFan is going to explain how this wil be revived in order to provide a fitting background for the sweatheart deal he touts as a basis for calling his penis envy by some other name!!!

 

[hornpharmd]

Yankee stadium was build in New York and Texas stadium should have been built in Dallas.

Who knows maybe they will do something in 5-10 years.

 

[AndrewfromUTLaw]

It's not dead. Delayed, sure. But not dead. But no one here will believe me until the fall.

I get so tired of the Arlington bashing here. Arlington is a better place because of the Rangers Ballpark and Cowboys Stadium.

Read below, note what Hicks says will open before the Super Bowl, 500,000 square feet.

*********************

Hicks, Arlington can still fulfill grand vision
By MITCHELL SCHNURMANStar-Telegram Staff Writer
Even for Tom Hicks, who struck out ugly on A-Rod, this is a big whiff. Let's hope he comes back swinging this time.

Hicks and his development partner, Yaromir Steiner, spent the past four years creating and selling the Glorypark project in Arlington, only to pull the plug last week.

The massive mixed-use development, with an estimated cost of $510 million for the first phase, couldn't land enough retail tenants to get financing, so Hicks is going back to the drawing board.

He blamed the credit crunch and Dillard's, which passed on a lease, and seemed to acknowledge that Steiner's plan had flaws. (Hint: If Dillard's is the linchpin in a tourist destination between two stadiums, you're not exactly pushing the envelope.)

This would be a crippling blow for Arlington, given that Glorypark was supposed to be the sales-tax payoff from two publicly funded ballparks -- one for the Rangers, the other for the Cowboys.

But Hicks says he's not giving up, just reloading, albeit in a much smaller package. He has already invested $50 million in Glorypark and says he's in for the long run.

Didn't he say similar things about the Texas Rangers in 2004, after trading Alex Rodriguez to the Yankees in a salary dump? The Rangers never became contenders, but the payroll has sure come down to earth.

The more favorable Glorypark comparison is the Victory development in Dallas, and that's the one Hicks cited. In 2001, a developer proposed a $600 million mixed-use project near American Airlines Center, with more than 300,000 square feet of retail space.

It was supposed to be built all at once, but Dallas officials were slow to approve public aid. Then an economic slowdown and the aftereffects of 9-11 damaged its prospects. The project soon evaporated, Ross Perot Jr.'s Hillwood took control again, and Victory eventually took off.

It didn't develop as quickly or in the same fashion as forecast. Instead of a heavy emphasis on retail, the big drivers were condo towers, apartments and a W hotel.

About $1 billion has been invested around Victory so far, and Perot recently announced another shift in strategy. The new focus is on developing office space.

Like Perot, Hicks says he must listen to what the market is telling him. And on Glorypark, Hicks has heard "tremendous" interest from the entertainment and restaurant sectors. And doesn't that sound like the natural fit for pro sports and Six Flags?

Before the Super Bowl comes to Arlington in 2011, Hicks says, he plans to have a Westin hotel, the Rangers Alley entertainment strip and a town square in place. That would be 400,000 to 500,000 square feet, about one-third the size of the original first phase.

We'd be celebrating, rather than feeling let down, if the original plan hadn't been so intoxicating. And if city staffers hadn't put in hundreds of hours to develop incentive packages for road improvements and parking garages.

Steiner's first phase alone called for 815,000 square feet of retail. That's a lot to bite off, especially in a place with as much retail as Arlington. And more is coming, at both the Arlington Highlands shopping center and at an outlet mall planned in Grand Prairie.

It's telling that these other projects managed to land tenants -- the Highlands, for instance, has Dave & Buster's scheduled to open this year -- while Glorypark couldn't reach critical mass on that front.

And Glorypark has all kinds of momentum: the Cowboys stadium, the Super Bowl, new bridges and wider highways and a slew of developers kicking the tires. Maybe its struggles illustrate the difficulty of developing around a pair of stadiums.

Games bring in enormous crowds (and publicity), but the flow isn't consistent. Traffic and parking can be a nightmare. And the sports events themselves try to capture as many consumer dollars as possible.

Retailing may turn out to be among the smaller pieces at Glorypark, after restaurants and bars, and residential and office space. If that's the case, it will be a blessing that Hicks had to stop and redo the plan to get it right.

It's easy to forget now, but many people doubted that Victory would succeed.

When Perot was trying to sell voters on American Airlines Center, he said that Victory would become the North Texas version of Times Square. He was widely mocked, but a decade later, fans flock to its plaza to watch pro sports on giant high-def screens, cheer on marathon runners and, indeed, ring in the New Year.

Arlington and Hicks can only hope to tell the same story someday: that they made good on a grand vision, even if they didn't travel a straight line.

MITCHELL SCHNURMAN'S COLUMN APPEARS ON WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY. 817-390-7821

 

[LonghornLawyer]

There's a lot of boosterism in there. But the sad truth is that Gloryhole Park wasn't undone by the credit crunch or anything like that. It was undone by the fact that Hicks couldn't get any tenants to pay for space situated between parking lots and two stadia.

But as you said on the other thread, Andrew, the real value to Arlington isn't in this project that any realist knew was never going to happen. The real value is in raising the surrounding property appraisals so as to tax all of the lower/lower-middle class people in the area out of their homes.

Arlington--truly a modern day Robin Hood. Give to the rich football team owner to take property away from the poor.

 

[TaylorTRoom]

You know, you can't blame Glory Park on Jones. He has kept his side of every deal. Glory Park was Hicks' baby.

My understanding is that he has tried for years to develop smaller projects, and Arlington has said no to anything but a big development like Glory Park. I wonder if both sides need to give a little.