Tag Archives: downtown Amarillo

local news

Words to live by … and to ponder

I know this couple here in Amarillo. They’ve been active in civic and community affairs for a very long time.

They’re both natives of the city and I am totally convinced they love it with all their heart.

They sent me a short blog, which I have attached to this post:

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2015/05/a-fool-in-front-of-the-crowd-is-an-inevitable-side-effect-of-work-that-matters.html

It seems to speak directly to the skeptics who harbor thoughts of some conspiracy lurking in the minds of those who have cobbled together a grand vision for the future of Amarillo.

Here’s what it says. I attached the link so you might want to look at more items on the blog to try to size up the fellow who wrote these words.

“When you do work that matters, the crowd will call you a fool.

“If you do something remarkable, something new and something important, not everyone will understand it (at first). Your work is for someone, not everyone.

“Unless you’re surrounded only by someones, you will almost certainly encounter everyone. And when you do, they will jeer.

“That’s how you’ll know you might be onto something.”

I think the author of this post is suggesting — while obviously not speaking to our local circumstance directly — that the vision being considered for Amarillo’s downtown goes perhaps a step or two too far for some of us to grasp immediately.

Do I grasp it? Hardly. I’m just anxious to see what develops.

We’ve heard some “jeering” lately from those who think the city is hiding something. They seem to think there’s more “there there,” to borrow a portion of a phrase from Gertrude Stein.

I will continue to hope for the best as the city moves forward with development plans they hope will transform the city’s central business district into something we don’t yet recognize.

However, I strongly suspect we’ll know we’ve found it the moment we see it.

local news

Is the downtown vision 'myopic' or far-sighted?

A recent blog I posted posed the simple question of “why” regarding the opposition by some to efforts to revive downtown Amarillo.

It drew a thoughtful response from a reader who said this, in part: “Why” the myopic focus on “downtown” when only a very small minority of the populace even has this on their radar?

The term “myopic” caught my attention. The dictionary defines “myopia” as a defect in vision, blurriness at things seen at some distance.

The downtown Amarillo effort, in my view, remains sound in principle and its concept is more than doable.

https://highplainsblogger.com/2015/05/22/event-venue-facing-increased-scrutiny/

I’ll tell you about another city that launched a downtown renewal about four decades ago.

That would be my hometown of Portland, Ore.

The city elected a young man as mayor in 1972. Neil Goldschmidt had served on the city council and then was elected to lead the city’s strong-mayor form of government; he was just 32 years of age, one of the younger big-city mayors in America.

One of his campaign themes was to revive downtown, which at the time of his election wasn’t anything to boast about. It had its share of retail outlets, but that’s about it.

Then the mayor did something quite extraordinary. Looking into the future with his own “myopic” vision, he unilaterally vetoed a highway project that would cut a swath through the southeast quadrant of the city and carve its way to the Cascade Range east of town. The Mount Hood Freeway, as it was called, was going to improve traffic flow through southeast Portland and boost retail and other commercial development all along its route.

Goldschmidt would have none of it. He said, in effect, “We’re going to focus our efforts on rebuilding downtown and developing a mass transit system that is second to none in the country.” He said the city would not sanction the construction of what I believe he called a “50-mile-long strip mall all the way to Mount Hood.”

There wasn’t a huge groundswell of support for Goldschmidt’s idea in the 1970s, but he told us — come hell or high water — we were going to get a downtown district that will make us proud.

The city invested lots of public money to build a park along the waterfront; it enticed developers to erect multi-family housing units on the outskirts of the downtown district; it lured a whole array of eating and drinking establishments; it created a “fareless square” for buses to carry passengers through the downtown core free of charge; it renovated run-down hotels into four- and five-star establishments; it made improvements to a rotting downtown ballpark that used to be home to a AAA baseball club but which now is home to a major league soccer franchise.

So … the vision of one mayor a lifetime or two ago may have seemed “myopic” to some. To others — including the mayor himself — the vision was as far-sighted as it could get.

I do not know if Amarillo’s vision for its downtown will produce all that has come to pass in Portland. The city wants to build a ballpark downtown; it wants to erect a parking garage and a convention hotel. It likely will seek to improve its Civic Center in due course. The city’s intent is to turn downtown into a business and entertainment center.

The vision I’ve seen of what the city intends for its downtown is nothing short of spectacular.

I could make the case that Amarillo’s civic, political and community brain trusts need to do a better job of selling its concept to those who remain skeptical.

I’m telling you, though, the project as I see it can work and I continue to have faith that it will.

 

local news

Event venue facing increased scrutiny

4 Comments

Of all the elements of Amarillo’s effort to revive its downtown district, the one aspect that seems to be drawing the most criticism is the multipurpose event venue … or MPEV.

The scrutiny is making me ask the simplest of questions: Why?

Not “why” on whether we should build the place, but why the concern over it in the first place?

The city is about to launch a three-pronged effort: building a parking garage, development of a convention hotel and construction of the MPEV, which also is known as “the ballpark.”

Officials have said until they’ve run out of breath that the $113 million combined cost of the package will be financed through user fees. Hotel-motel taxes collected by people who pay for lodging in Amarillo’s hotels will finance the projects.

The MPEV? It’ll be paid with the lodging tax.

The hotel? Same thing.

The parking garage? Ditto on that.

No tax money will be spent on these projects. That’s what City Hall has pledged. Is the city’s record on such pledges perfect? No. The Globe-News Center for the Performing Arts was supposed to be paid entirely with private donations. It fell a million or so dollars short, so the city ponied up the rest to finish off the $30 million project. The deal still was a sweet one for the city.

What the MPEV critics say should happen is that the city should refurbish the Civic Center, make it more attractive for larger-scale conventions that now pass Amarillo by in favor of cities with more spacious meeting rooms.

How much will that expansion cost? A friend of mine who’s been active in downtown revitalization efforts told me privately that the “best estimates” of improving the Civic Center to a level desired by those who want it expanded would be 10 times the cost of the MPEV. Who would pay for the Civic Center, a publicly owned building? Taxpayers would foot the bill. Every nickel and dime of it.

The city could issue general obligation bonds without a vote, or it could put the issue up for a vote in a bond issue election. How do you suppose an election would turn out? Amarillo voters demonstrated two years ago they aren’t in the mood to spend tax money on “quality of life” projects, such as the huge recreation center proposed for the southeast area of the city; voters rejected that bond issue request handily.

I’ve visited with city leaders repeatedly over the years about the downtown plan. I like the concept. I endorse the vision the city has put forth. I believe it will work and it will create a downtown business and entertainment district that will make our residents proud.

I also am willing to trust that it can be done the way its proponents say it will be done: through lodging revenue collected at our hotels and motels.

Will there be some public investment? Sure. Streets and lighting must be made suitable. They belong to us already. But the heavy lifting — construction of the sites under consideration — will be borne by those who come here from other places.

And yet, the City Council has members who now might want to throw all of this in reverse because, by golly, they’re just plain mad.

I ask once again: Why?

 

local news

This guy is a 'business mentor'?

You’ve heard of the Peter Principle, yes? It’s the notion that people can be elevated to their “highest level of incompetence.”

Here, then, is a startling example of that principle at work.

David Wallace, the one-time co-owner of a master development firm that galloped into Amarillo making huge promises to re-create the city’s moribund downtown district, has been hired as a “business mentor” for a firm that teaches foreign entrepreneurs how to succeed in business.

Why is this so weird? Wallace’s company — Wallace Bajjali Development Partners — vaporized into thin air earlier this year in a dispute with co-owner Costa Bajjali. He left Amarillo — and Joplin, Mo. — high and dry. Joplin had hired Wallace Bajjali to help the city recover from the destruction caused by a tornado that tore through the city.

I don’t know whether to laugh or scream.

http://www.joplinglobe.com/news/local_news/david-wallace-finds-employment-as-business-mentor/article_5327216f-8a0a-56d2-a9f0-f1a0c7ee6bb4.html

Amarillo is proceeding with its downtown development efforts without David Wallace, the former Sugar Land mayor and self-proclaimed urban development hotshot.

His new employer is International Accelerator of Austin. Its website, according to the Joplin Globe newspaper, touts Wallace as a “key” player in the firm’s organizational chart.

As the Globe notes in its story on Wallace’s hiring, International Accelerator’s website doesn’t mention a key part of Wallace’s recent history.

You see, after he and Bajjali parted company, Wallace filed personal bankruptcy, claiming debts totaling in the millions of dollars and leaving him, according to the Globe, “in financial shambles.”

The Globe reports: “Wallace’s biography listed on the website touts his three-term history as mayor of Sugar Land, Texas, his work with the son of the late British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, and his experience in public-private partnerships.”

It makes me wonder if his new employers know the rest of the story.

local news

Anger finds its way to Amarillo

5 Comments

Anger is not my thing.

Those who know me — I’m quite certain — would say I’m not an angry person. I see life as an adventure. The glass is half full. All that positive stuff.

I’m a bit dismayed, though, at the apparent anger among residents of the city my wife and I have called home for more than 20 years.

It manifested itself in the election this past weekend in which two incumbents were tossed off the City Council and the mayor was re-elected by a much smaller margin than he has in the past; some observers have told me that had Paul Harpole faced a serious opponent, he’d have been beaten, too.

Why the anger?

* Our municipal tax rate is among the lowest in the state, so we aren’t pay “too much” for city services.

* City officials are moving forward with a plan to rejuvenate its downtown district. Show me a lively city and I’ll show you one with a downtown district that’s bustling.

* We have an economic development corporation that is using sales tax revenue to lure business to the city. People gripe about the EDC using “our tax money” to bring in those “out of towners.” They fail to recognize that 60 percent of all sales tax revenue comes from folks who don’t live here.

* One City Council candidate said it’s time to “run the city like a business.” Successful local governments and successful businesses are mutually exclusive concepts. The most successful businesses are run, more or less, by tyrants. Is that what we want at City Hall? I don’t think so.

The anger is palpable. Who feeds it? Has it splashed against us from the hysteria we hear in places like Washington, D.C., and Austin?

This new City Council is going to take office soon. It will have three new guys on board — with the third one being chosen from a runoff that’s occurring next month to fill a seat occupied by an appointment incumbent who didn’t seek election.

Let’s all settle down, fellas, and get to work for the common good.

 

local news

Amarillo facing potentially hot election

Amarillo’s municipal elections have this history of dismal, abysmal voter turnouts.

Something tells me the turnout this coming May 9 might just be, oh, low to middlin’. Could it become seriously busy? Let’s allow the campaigns to play out.

Five candidates are running for Place 4 on the council, the seat now held by Ron Boyd, who’s not running for election; Boyd was appointed to the seat after the death of Councilman Jim Simms.

Five more candidates are running for Place 3, currently occupied by Councilwoman Lilia Escajeda, who is running for re-election.

As I look at the lineup, though, perhaps the most intriguing matchup occurs in the race for Place 1. Incumbent Ellen Robertson Green will run against Elisha Demerson, the former Potter County judge and the first African-American ever elected to a countywide seat in Potter County.

Demerson is a worthy challenger, but he would be more worthy if he had been active in city affairs before deciding to run for Green’s council seat. Still, the gentleman has name identification, as does Green.

All told, the ballot will contain 16 names. Many of them have been involved in municipal political affairs. Most of them are newcomers to the City Hall game.

What’s driving the interest? Best guess is it’s downtown redevelopment and the hiccup that occurred when Wallace Bajjali, the city’s one-time master developer, vaporized into thin air in January. WB’s disappearance left the city to take care of three key projects itself — a downtown convention hotel, a parking garage and a multipurpose entertainment venue … aka a ballpark.

There’s been considerable discussion about the ballpark in particular and whether it’s a good fit for the city. My own view is that the city has come up with a great concept for downtown. The execution of that concept, though, has been clouded a bit by Wallace Bajjali’s disappearing act.

My fondest hope for the upcoming election — so far, at least — is that the turnout will be much greater than the single-digit events that have occurred all too frequently.

If the city is roiling with controversial issues, then it’s good to have as many voters as possible taking part in the most fundamental aspect of living in a free society: casting your ballot for whom you want to lead our city.

 

business news, local news

Mixed bag with big Xcel Energy plans

The news about downtown Amarillo hasn’t been good of late, what with the master developer hired by the city vaporizing into thin air in the span of a 24-hour day.

But it’s not all bad.

Xcel Energy announced plans to build a $42 million office building, which is the first large-scale office construction project in more than three decades.

Good news, right?

Yes. But there’s a catch.

Xcel is going to vacate the several floors it occupies at the Chase Tower, that huge 31-story skyscraper that juts out of the downtown Amarillo skyline.

I ran into my old pal Wes Reeves recently at the coffee shop on the ground floor of the Chase Tower. He made some cheeky remark about the appearance of the new structure. Actually, it looks attractive — at least to my eyes. It’ll comprise four stories and 114,000 square feet at Seventh and Buchanan. Three floors of office space will sit atop a parking garage that will hold at least 500 vehicles.

Xcel plans to move in by the spring of 2017.

I’m glad to see the activity picking up downtown.

What about the floors that will be vacated at the Chase Tower? Developers there have done a great deal to improve the appearance of that skyscraper. It’s a bustling hub of activity now. However, West Texas A&M University is moving its Amarillo campus operation of out there eventually to a new site where the Commerce Building sits.

The exit of WT and now Xcel will vacate about a dozen floors of the Chase building.

That’s an unacceptable level of darkness in a building that towers so tall over our city.

 

local news

City cuts ties with developer, then marches on

So many questions, so few answers — at least not yet.

Amarillo’s Local Government Council, which is overseeing the city’s effort to breathe new life into the downtown business district, today cut its ties with an outfit it had hired to be the “master developer” for this project.

Wallace Bajjali, based out of Sugar Land, apparently has gone dark. It closed its office in Joplin, Mo., where it had another redevelopment arrangement. Its phone line in Sugar Land is disconnected. The company is gone, or so it appears.

The LGC met this morning in closed session, then reconvened in open session to vote unanimously to put Wallace Bajjali in “default.”

What gives? Where does the city’s downtown plan stand at this moment?

Well, LGC chairman Richard Brown said the parking garage that Wallace Bajjali was supposed to manage is proceeding anyhow. It’s fair to ask: How does it proceed without a managing developer?

Oh, and what about the ballpark and the downtown hotel? Those projects were assigned to new developers and they, too, will proceed, Brown said.

The private financing for all this work reportedly has been collected — or is about to be collected. No worries. The work will get done.

Wallace Bajjali has been paid more than $1 million in public money for work it has completed for the city, so there won’t be any recovery of funds. So, what does “default” mean in that context?

I recall meeting some years ago with David Wallace — the “Wallace” in this former partnership — and was taken aback by the absolute confidence he expressed in his company’s ability to do this project on time and on budget. Wallace, who resigned from the company effective immediately, told us at the Amarillo Globe-News about all the successes his development company had achieved.

He said something about how his company wouldn’t be in business today if it had racked up a string of failures.

Well, the company that Amarillo has come to know no longer exists.

That leads me to yet another question: What in the world happened between the partners — Wallace and Costas Bajjali — that blew this self-described “success story” apart?

Given the public investment already laid out, the public deserves some answers.

 

local news

Amarillo has just been decked

Something tells me that Amarillo has a budding crisis of confidence on its hands.

Wallace Bajjali, the developer hired by downtown business and civic interests to ramrod the development of the downtown business district, has vaporized — or so it appears.

http://www.newschannel10.com/story/27943700/development-group-hired-to-renovate-downtown-amarillo-has-closed-offices

The company, based in Sugar Land, was supposed to spearhead the effort to collect enough private investors to build (a) a downtown hotel, (b) a multi-story parking garage and (c) an athletic field, aka “multipurpose event venue,” or MPEV for short.

As of today, or perhaps as of some undisclosed time prior to today, the company has closed up shop. Its office in Joplin, Mo., has been shuttered. Its headquarters phone number is Sugar Land has been disconnected. David Wallace, one of the principal owners of the firm, has quit.

Many of us throughout the city are likely wondering: What the hell has just happened?

Someone will need to explain this thoroughly and in language we all can understand.

I’m all ears.

 

business news, local news

Abandoned building gets another new owner

Is this it? Is this the corner that an abandoned, dilapidated, rotting hulk of a downtown Amarillo office building needs to return to life?

A Dallas developer, Tom Pauken, has just foreclosed on the long-abandoned Barfield Building, wrestling it away from its owner who’s said for longer than anyone can remember that, by golly, he’s going to find someone to develop the structure.

Todd Harmon hasn’t delivered the goods. From where I sit, it doesn’t appear that he ever will.

Enter the group headed by Pauken, a lawyer, real estate developer who’s worked with property in Amarillo, former Texas Republican Party chairman — and a longtime friend of yours truly. (I thought I’d throw that last thing in for grins and giggles.)

Pauken leads a group called Henderson Willis Ltd., which has foreclosed on mortgage notes totaling about $550,000 on the building at the corner of Sixth Avenue and Polk Street.

It’s a complicated procedure, but as of today Pauken’s limited partnership has control of the Barfield Building. The former controlling owner, Harmon, so far hasn’t responded to media requests for comment.

Pauken’s foreclosure comes as well after another Amarillo business group sought to develop the Barfield Building, only to have Harmon get it back in some more complicated maneuvering.

What is Pauken’s aim here? He wants to find someone to invest in breathing life back into the Barfield Building. Harmon had gutted the ground floor and a few floors above. Then the work stopped. The ground floor was boarded up and the crews walked away; that was a decade ago.

It has sat vacant, rotting ever since.

Pauken said he believes the Barfield “is a natural” for some sort of redevelopment. Harmon had sought to turn the 88-year-old building into a combination of apartments, retail shops, a restaurant, day spa, bank branch, coffee house — and Lord knows what else.

Enter the Pauken group, headed by someone who’s already had some success redeveloping property in downtown Amarillo.

Can this group do what no one else has been able to do? I am cautiously optimistic my pal Tom can get ‘er done.