{"id":11179,"date":"2015-09-30T04:03:46","date_gmt":"2015-09-30T04:03:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=11179"},"modified":"2015-09-30T04:03:46","modified_gmt":"2015-09-30T04:03:46","slug":"downtown-hotel-gets-green-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=11179","title":{"rendered":"Downtown hotel gets green light"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n

\"amarillo<\/a><\/p>\n

They’re busting up some pavement in downtown Amarillo.<\/p>\n

Construction has begun on Xcel Energy’s new office complex. They’ve vacated the Coca-Cola distribution center across the street from City Hall.<\/p>\n

And tonight, the Amarillo City Council gave its approval — with\u00a0a little tinkering with some of the terms — to the construction of a downtown convention hotel.<\/p>\n

Is it possible that downtown’s redevelopment inertia is too strong to resist?<\/p>\n

I do hope so.<\/p>\n

Embassy Suites hopes to open for business in 2017. Building planners are going to break ground in a couple of weeks downtown on a $45 million hotel complex. A local bank is providing financing for about $28 million of it. Hotel developer Chuck Patel has discussed getting other investors to cover the rest of it.<\/p>\n

Oh, and that parking garage is going to be built as well.<\/p>\n

Are the flowers blooming all over the downtown revival project? Not just yet. We still have this election coming up Nov. 3 that will decide the fate of the multipurpose event venue.<\/p>\n

Some folks dislike the idea of a ballpark being included in this package. Others have argued that the ballpark will be more than just a place where a team will play baseball. Opponents say there isn’t enough of a market to make suitable use of a $32 million outdoor venue. Proponents argue that creative marketing and promotion can attract more than enough activity to the site.<\/p>\n

I happen to be on board with what has been proposed. I plan to vote for the MPEV on Election Day.<\/p>\n

However, I am heartened to see\u00a0the progress that is continuing to push this downtown effort forward.<\/p>\n

The Amarillo City Council tonight made the correct decision.<\/p>\n\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

They’re busting up some pavement in downtown Amarillo. Construction has begun on Xcel Energy’s new office complex. They’ve vacated the Coca-Cola distribution center across the street from City Hall. And tonight, the Amarillo City Council gave its approval — with\u00a0a little tinkering with some of the terms — to the construction of a downtown convention … Continue reading Downtown hotel gets green light<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,1],"tags":[288,290,1436,1577,3153],"class_list":["post-11179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","category-uncategorized","tag-amarillo-city-council","tag-amarillo-city-hall","tag-downtown-amarillo","tag-embassy-suites","tag-mpev"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11179"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11179\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11180,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11179\/revisions\/11180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}