When you see something daily you aren’t likely to notice change as it occurs in real time.
But when you are away and then see that thing in brief visits here and there, the change becomes quite noticeable.
I don’t get into downtown Amarillo as much as I used to when I was working for a living. I continue to marvel at the change I see every time I venture there. Moreover, I continue to relish the thought of the potential that awaits the city my wife and I have called home for the past nearly 23 years.
* Polk Street is returning to some incarnation of its former heyday.
* Tenth Avenue is turning into something quite appealing, too, with the heavy construction under way at the old Firestone building.
* West Texas A&M University’s downtown campus is drawing closer to completion.
* And, oh yeah, we’ve got Buchanan Street lighting up with the Embassy Suites hotel.
It’s not all brightness and mirth, I’m troubled to say.
The Chase Tower has gotten a good bit darker of late. Xcel Energy has moved out of the 31-story skyscraper for new digs on Buchanan Street. WT will vacate more floors at the Chase Tower once its downtown campus is finished. I believe that means about 19 floors of the building will go dark.
I once spoke with a partner of the Gaut Whittenberg Emerson commercial real estate firm that occupies a ground-floor office in the Chase Tower and he assured me that the tower will fill up soon.
He’s the expert at this stuff; I’m just an observer of it. I hope he is right. My concern is that he might have been expressing some wishful thoughts.
I am not going to gloom-and-doom the prospects for downtown’s future. Indeed, I haven’t yet mentioned — until this very moment — the downtown ballpark that will open for minor-league baseball in April 2019.
They’ll break ground on that site just south of City Hall quite soon. The San Antonio Missions will move from South Texas to Amarillo to play AA baseball downtown; San Antonio will get a AAA team that will move there from Colorado Springs, Colo.
The ballpark doesn’t yet have a name. It won’t just be a place for baseball. It’s been called a multipurpose event venue, which — by definition — suggests it will play host to an array of community events.
Therein lies the crown jewel of downtown’s revival.
Sure, there’s been some grousing about all the highway construction. Interstate 40 is torn up; so is Loop 335 along the city’s southern edge; the I-40/27 interchange is quite close to being finished.
My plea there is for patience. Local motorists are learning to cope with the incessant construction cones and barrels spread along rights-of-way. I hope they maintain their wits as they travel around the city.
But … downtown’s revival continues. For that I am impressed, gratified and delighted at the prospect of the future that awaits.
