Tag Archives: Globe-News Center for the Performing Arts

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‘In the Mood’ puts one in the mood

I am “In the Mood” to say something good about downtown Amarillo’s progress toward a more modern, energetic future.

My wife and I just watched a grand musical production featuring the kind of big-band music that both of our fathers would have relished. It was called “In the Mood” and it featured a troupe of dancers, singers, a “big band” — imagine that — and some patriotic tributes to veterans and active-duty military personnel.

I won’t bore you with a critique of the show, as I am not an entertainment critic.

I do, though, want to extol yet again what I see is some serious progress in downtown’s extreme makeover.

It’s happening, man.

The musical took place at the Globe-News Center for the Performing Arts, which is clearly the finest entertainment venue in Amarillo. The sound in the hall is pitch perfect. There ain’t a bad seat in the house.

The performing arts center, too, is just one element of the growing and changing face of downtown. That Embassy SuitesĀ is looking like an actual hotel; the parking garage next to it has risen out of the pavement and dirt. Many of the rest of us are awaiting construction of that ballpark, which I hope begins soon, although I am not yet holding my breath.

A friend of mine who also happens to work for the Convention and Visitors Council informed me a couple of weeks ago that the Embassy Suites is doing precisely what it is intended to do: lure convention business to Amarillo that the city had been missing because it lacked adequate convention lodging downtown. He said the city has booked conventions at the Civic Center through 2022.

I haven’t even mentioned — until this very moment — all the other construction that’s underway with new businesses sprouting up on abandoned blocks throughout the downtown area.

Business is brisk in our downtown district.

OK, so tonight’s gig at the Globe-News Center was just one event. We’ve had other one-night stands at that venue as well as at the Civic Center Auditorium and the Cal Farley Coliseum across the street.

We left the event tonight and then drove home believing that the city’s future seems a good bit brighter than it was just a little while ago.

It’s certainly shining like a blinding light compared to what we saw when we arrivedĀ on the High Plains more thanĀ 22 years ago.

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View from atop the tower is quite revealing

MPEV

Amarillo’s downtown district boasts a single structure thatĀ you could call a “skyscraper.”

The Chase Tower looms 31 stories over the city and from that top floor one can get a breathtaking view of our spacious landscape.

When you look east from that tower, though, you don’t have to cast your gaze toward the horizon to see the sure sign of change that’s occurring.

Look down just a bit at the Civic Center, City Hall, at the Globe-News Center for the Performing Arts and you see some serious work being done.

You’ll see two vacant lots that have been cleared out. Look a bit south of those two lots and you’ll notice a new structure rising up from the dirt; that would be the new Southwestern Public Service office complex.

The two lots? They’ll belong to the Embassy Suites convention hotel and a parking garage. Site preparation has begun on those two sites.

Oh, and just a bit farther east, right across the street from City Hall, you’ll see another parcel of property. At the moment it contains some vacated buildings once occupied by the Coca-Cola Distribution Center; the CokeĀ operation has moved to a business park and soon the buildings left behind will be razed to make room for “the ballpark.”

I have the privilege of looking at all that change each week when I attend the regular Rotary Club of Amarillo meetings at the Amarillo Club atop the Chase Tower.

I do enjoy seeing the change from week to week that’s occurring on the sites. The SPS building seems just a tiny bit closer to completion; the convention hotel site and the parking garage lot are getting prepped to a little greater degree.

To be candid, I remain a bit surprised that so much work has been done on these downtown improvement projects. After the tumult associated with this past spring’s municipal election that brought us three new City Council members who didn’t seem as dedicated to the project as their predecessors, I feared the worst. I feared that the work would come to a halt.

It hasn’t.

The multipurpose event venue appears to be inching toward its start; the downtown convention hotel and the parking garage are about to take some form.

Amarillo’s downtown business district is going to reap the benefit of the change that’s coming its way.

As the center of the city improves, you can take my word for it: So will the rest of Amarillo.

Yes, the view from the top floor of the Chase Tower looks mighty grand.

 

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Quite an evening at City Hall … wouldn’t you agree?

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Amarillo City Council — the formerly unified governing board — has voted 3-2 to put a multipurpose event venue project up for a vote this November.

The three newest members of the council — Elisha Demerson, Randy Burkett and Mark Nair — cast the majority votes. Councilman Brian Eades and Mayor Paul Harpole, the two veterans, said “no” to the vote.

I do not believe Harpole and Eades are going to climb aboard the “Vote on MPEV” bandwagon.

The MPEV is a critical part of the city’s effort to remake its downtown district. If it fails at the ballot box, well, we can likely kiss the downtown project package goodbye for at least the foreseeable future.

What’s my takeaway from the events of Tuesday night?

  • For starters, Bill Gilliland and Laura Street — two players in the fundraising effort to pay for the Globe-News Center for the Performing Arts, are taking some hits on social mediaĀ because they fell a bit short in their fundraising effort. They raised about $30 million from private funds to build the center; the city kicked in about $1.8 million to finish the job. Gilliland and Street sought to delay the vote to give more time to raise money for the MPEV; their request failed.

I’m wondering about the criticism. I look at their prior fundraising effort this way: The city ended up paying a tiny fraction of a $30-plus million entertainment complex. The city’s contribution was minimal and it got a first-class venue in the process for virtually nothing.

  • Second, the City Council once prided itself on its unity. Yes, such single-mindedness has its pluses and minuses. The plus side is evident, in that the council speaks with one voice on important matters. This downtown deal is quite important. But the council now speaks with two competing voices. One side wants the project — the MPEV, downtown hotel and parking garage — to proceed as planned. The other side opposes the MPEV and possibly the hotel and garage.

I’m smelling a serious community conflict brewing.

  • Third, given the opposition that the two sides are planning to mount against each other, it’s fair to caution them about what state law allows and prohibits about how far they can go in stating their case. The law does not allow folks associated with the city to argue for or against a ballot measure using city resources. They are not even allowed to argue their points on city time.

Be verrry careful, gentlemen, about how you state your case.

I will continue to use this forum to state my case that the MPEV is a worthy project and it shouldn’t be defeated by the voters this fall.

I’m looking at this upcoming vote with a bit of cautious optimism. If nothing else, a citywide vote on a major project designed to boost our city’s economic health well could jar the city’s voting public out of its chronic lethargy.