City leaders may accelerate plans for a professional sports franchise and ballfield complex on Waco’s downtown waterfront, while tapping the brakes on a new convention center and performing arts center.
The discussions were part of a nearly six-hour Waco City Council retreat Monday about the city’s 100-acre Downtown Redevelopment Project. The $167 million first phase, Barron’s Branch, is set to break ground next summer, kicking off a projected 12-to-20-year downtown transformation.
“We’ve been thinking slowly for about 16 months, but we’re about to act fast,” said Rodney Moss, senior vice president at the Hunt Development Group and the master developer for the project.
City staff, Hunt Development and council members discussed major possible revisions to the project’s Strategic Roadmap, which will be re-adopted by council Jan. 26. Waco ISD board members were also in attendance.
Council members described the effort as a generational opportunity akin to the creation of Cameron Park, but they raised concerns over municipal debt and fees.
“The city’s cash flow, taxes, TIF, and rate increases can only carry so much,” Waco Mayor Jim Holmes said during the retreat. The TIF, or Tax Increment Financing Zone, reroutes a portion of downtown taxes to downtown improvements and is a major part of the financing.
Holmes and District 4 Council Member Darius Ewing advocated for an “incremental” approach to the project that would wait for private investment and tax revenue to materialize at the Barron’s Branch district before committing significant public funds to other districts in the redevelopment plan.
Developer interest strong for ballpark
Council members were asked to weigh in on an accelerated timeline for the redevelopment’s sports entertainment district, where a professional sports team is pegged to anchor additional retail and residential construction around University Parks Drive and Waco Drive.
The sports entertainment district was previously described as a medium-to-long-range goal for the project. Project leaders envisioned a stadium that could house a minor league baseball team, a second-division professional soccer team, or both.
But investment interest has changed the discussion, Balk said.
The city received four responses to a request for proposal last month seeking developers for the sports district.Three of those proposals fit the city’s vision of a dense, mixed-use complex tied to a professional sports franchise. But each had shortcomings, and the city requested a second round of proposals after delivering feedback, Moss said.
“One had the baseball part without the financial part, one had the financial part without the ballpark part, and one was a soccer proposal but without the density part we were looking for,” Moss said.
Mayor Holmes expressed surprise at the surge in investor interest, which Moss attributed to the city’s purchase of the former Indian Spring Middle School campus that includes Barron’s Branch and portions of the sports district. The property acquisition signalled that the city was committed to the project, Moss and Balk said.
“I think it’s cool we’re even talking about this, because I didn’t think we’d be talking about a (sports) district for five or six years,” Holmes said.
The city is exploring a financing model pioneered by the San Antonio Mission minor league baseball team, requiring the developer to act as a guarantor or “backstop” for debt taken out by the city to finance district infrastructure.
Arts, convention center in question
If professional sports is looking possible in Waco, the prospect for a new convention center may be dimming, at least in the near-term.
A new and relocated $400 million convention center has been proposed to complement a $200 million performing arts center near Jackson Avenue and the Brazos River.
Balk said the market for convention space is challenging, even for cities such as Austin that received legislative support currently unavailable to Waco.
Moss said the only Texas cities undertaking major convention center builds have received approval from the Legislature for what’s called a “Public Facility Corporation,” a complicated public-private arrangement offering tax breaks to developers.
“We need to be careful about what we recommend here, and at the same time, we want to be mindful of the community’s desire for priority to be placed on performing arts,” Balk said.
The city is willing to invest up to $50 million to offset the expected $200 million cost of a standalone performing arts center, “but raising (the other) $150 million privately seems untenable at the moment,” Balk said.
He added that conversations are ongoing with local stakeholders to explore colocating the performance space with a convention center to save money. The other option is “decoupling” the development timeline for the two facilities.
Moss recommended council members focus on developing on parking lots adjacent to RiverSquare, which is near the proposed convention center and performing arts center sites in what is called the Mary Avenue District.
Parking fees estimated
A city-commissioned parking study by WGI, an engineering and surveying firm, addressed parking capacity questions the City Plan Commission raised last month.
The study was limited to the Barron’s Branch and sports entertainment district areas and found that the combination of planned structured parking garages, existing on-street parking and city council surface lots were sufficient to meet demand.
Moss still advised council members to prepare for a fundamentally different downtown Waco experience if city-controlled property — much of it parking lots — becomes fully developed.
“I often say to people, ‘Imagine the future when there is no surface parking other than teaser street parking,’ “ Moss said. “That is where you need to think about where you’re heading, because that means people and expensive buildings are sitting where the parking is.”
Moss and Balk also presented parking fee estimates based on peer cities: $2 per hour, $10 per day or $150 per month.
Exploring costs
The council Monday reviewed a study showing that maintaining the extensive landscaping in Barron’s Branch would take more than 11,000 worker hours a year, at a cost of more than $560,000 a year.
A $60 million sewer system upgrade will be necessary to facilitate any growth beyond the Barron’s Branch district, said Jacob Bell of Walker Partners, an engineering consultant for the city. Bell recommended making those improvements within five to 10 years.
“Even if the downtown redevelopment were not a thing, we would still need this,” Balk told The Waco Bridge on a Wednesday call.
Mayor Holmes and council members reiterated their desire for more detailed cost estimates as well as an update on the city’s short-term note program, the unusual public financing strategy floated last month as an option to fund the Barron’s Branch district.
Balk said the revised strategic road map would reflect newly identified costs, and council discussions will continue in the next couple of months.
“I want to see how the funding part works, how the TIF part works,” Holmes said. “I think the community is behind this if they understand how we fund this.”
Ewing said Barron’s Branch has solid council support “(because) we know we can pay for that.”
“Even if nothing gets built other than Barron’s Branch, we’ve still got La Pila Plaza, this awesome park… (And) if the project dies right there, I can sleep at night,” Ewing said.
The city will hold an open house on the project at 6 p.m. Monday at the Waco Convention Center’s McLennan Room.
