ARLINGTON — Arlington's City Council Tuesday night unanimously approved a $200 million public-private partnership between the city and Texas Rangers to construct a 100,000 square foot entertainment complex near Globe Life Park.
The agreement also includes plans for a hotel with a minimum of 300 rooms and 35,000 square feet of meeting and conference space. The entertainment complex will have multiple restaurants, retail space, and entertainment venues, along with a signature event space. Construction is expected to begin in 2016 with opening 12 months later.
The city's contribution to the project is $50 million. The Rangers would contribute the bulk of the funding but could also draw upon performance based incentives that include income from hotel occupancy tax, property tax, sales tax, and mixed beverage tax for 30 years from the City and hotel occupancy tax and sales tax from the state for 10 years.
The city and the baseball team will discuss the planned development during a news conference Wednesday morning.
In addition to this project, Arlington has also announced the following development plans so far this year:
• 101 Center Project will include high-end residential units over a ground level of retail, restaurants and loft office space in Downtown Arlington. The project will also include a structured parking garage with ground level public parking spaces. With a construction period of 21 months, the development is anticipated to complete construction at nearly the same time as the new public library, city council chambers, and public plaza to collectively form the Arlington City Center in 2017.
• Trammell Crow has entered into an agreement with the City of Arlington to serve as the developer of an 18+ acre site located on I-30 and N. Collins Street. The site has the ability to accommodate up to 1 million square feet of premier, Class A office space.
• General Motors will invest $1.4 billion for an expansion at the Arlington Assembly Plant, the largest single plant investment in the United States this year. General Motors is one of the biggest employers in Arlington and North Texas. In making the announcement, the company noted this investment sets up GM to be in Arlington for generations to come and that every job created at the plant equates to 9 new jobs created in the economy.
• D.R. Horton plans to invest more than $20 million to build an approximately 150,000 square-foot campus and parking facility on six acres located along the I-30 Frontage Road just east of N. Collins Street. The relocation will provide D.R. Horton's 500 headquarters employees a company-owned site with access to the nearby DFW International Airport.
