The new Dallas Cowboys stadium was predicted to transform its surroundings into a vibrant urban center comparable to Times Square or at the very least Victory Park.
But the bright lights, restaurants, hotels and pedestrian-friendly shopping district are nowhere to be seen. The severe recession has sabotaged much of the planned development around the $1.1 billion stadium, whose inaugural event will be a June 6 concert featuring George Strait and Reba McEntire.
Aside from road improvements, a row of new town homes and a few more commercial vacancies, the neighborhoods surrounding the Cowboys stadium differ little from when construction began. And the chances of any major development opening in time for the 2011 Super Bowl are shrinking daily.
"We're totally helpless to make that go forward until we're over this problem that we're having," Arlington Mayor Robert Cluck said. "The economy is beyond anyone's control."
The 1.2 million-square-foot Glorypark retail, residential and entertainment project from Texas Rangers owner Tom Hicks is being redesigned after nine months on the shelf and has no timeline yet. Just a few blocks from the Cowboys stadium, Glorypark was expected to be a center of activity on game days and during the week of the Super Bowl.
When the Cowboys kick off their first preseason game in late summer, it's likely that rather than upscale sports bars, the closest dining will be CiCi's Pizza, Panda Express, Pitt Grill and a handful of other small restaurants.
Developers planning the Solaris Plaza hotel, retail and office complex for the historic but long shuttered Eastern Star Home off Division Street called it quits before the project was publicly announced and never even bought the land.
That project was expected to also include parking garages and convention space, according to e-mails sent to city officials in March 2008. It wasn't clear when plans for the development were halted. Portions of the old retirement home were in such bad shape that they had to be demolished, said former owner Hal Thorne, a Grand Prairie lawyer.
The e-mails about Solaris Plaza and others relating to projects around the stadium were obtained as part of a Public Information Act request made by The Dallas Morning News last year. The city appealed to the Texas attorney general's office, which decided that many of the documents and e-mails were public records. The city disagreed and sued the attorney general's office to prevent their release.
Some of the documents were finally released early this year.
Arlington supporters of the new Cowboys stadium hoped that it would be a catalyst for redevelopment in an area dominated by parking lots, motels, auto sales and repair and retail targeting immigrants. The mixed-use developments and pricey condominiums planned for the area would have targeted the more affluent football fans who could afford tickets that cost as much as a few hundred dollars and seat licenses that cost thousands.
The city is contributing about $325 million in funding toward construction of the stadium.
"The city of Arlington was clearly banking on that ancillary development," said economist Bernard Weinstein. "It's not the city of Arlington's fault or the Cowboys' fault that we're having the worst economic downturn since the 1930s."
The adjacent developments were considered particularly important since most of the money generated inside the stadium will go to the Cowboys or toward paying off a portion of their debt.
Since the stadium will also be owned by the city ($325m in funding), it will not generate property taxes.
As far as the Super Bowl is concerned, even if dirt started to fly this week, there's no guarantee that a large, full-service hotel or big mixed-use development near the stadium would be finished in time for the Super Bowl.
Source: Dallas Morning-News
