Arlington’s entertainment district will get a new hotel, convention center. What next?
City leaders’ and business owners’ vision of Arlington as an entertainment and business hub are closer to becoming reality with construction underway for a hotel and convention center across the street from Live! by Loews.
The 888-room hotel will contain 266,000 square feet of meeting space and a 150,000 square-foot convention center. The $550 million project is part of a larger effort to fill in the spaces in north Arlington surrounding AT&T Stadium, Globe Life Field and Choctaw Stadium, formerly known as Globe Life Park.
Former Mayor Jeff Williams teased more to come to a crowd Tuesday morning during a groundbreaking ceremony.
“Of all the things that have happened here, the best days are ahead,” he said.
Hotel and convention center construction is expected to wrap up in early 2024, around the same time the National Medal of Honor Museum is expected to open. Museum construction is slated to begin this spring, Mayor Jim Ross said.
“This is going to again give one more solid reason why Arlington is, has been and always will be the American dream city,” Ross said.
The first Loews hotel will connect to the new buildings by sky bridge, according to the Texas Live! website, and the new hotel will offer a combined 1,188 hotel rooms.
The city’s development plan lists an additional hotel and convention center as a way to attract high-class events. Council members approved $550 million in funding for the hotel and convention center project in late 2019. The company agreed to pay development costs up front, and the city will give it up to $1.5 million a year in performance-based tax rebates up to $25 million.
Entertainment district vision
Arlington officials have long eyed development in the entertainment district as a boon for the economy. The second hotel is part of a larger district expansion coordinated among city government, the Texas Rangers, Cordish Companies and Loews.
The quartet of government and business entities plans to bring more office space, apartments, restaurants and retail to the area as part of the next phase of entertainment district development.
Part of that plan has included maintaining the Choctaw Stadium’s presence in the entertainment district. The stadium, built in 1994, hosts high school football and will be home to the Dallas Jackals, a Major League Rugby team, in 2022. The ballpark was also the site of XFL pro football and USL League One pro soccer.
The old ballpark building’s reincarnation also includes office space. Six Flags moved its headquarters into the stadium last year, and the coworking business Spark Arlington is expected as early as next fall.
“We have now assured the longevity of the old Globe Life Park,” said Rangers owner Ray Davis.
The Texas Live! website also lays out a vision for an office tower and 280 apartments overlooking the Rangers’ plaza.
City council members in 2018 approved funding to retool the old Arlington Convention Center into the first esports stadium in North America. Esports Stadium Arlington has also been host to several community and city events such as panels for police chief finalists.
Council members in January OK’d a deal that cleared the way for the National Medal of Honor Museum development near the intersection of Nolan Ryan Expressway and AT&T Way. The museum’s foundation announced in August that retired Navy SEAL and former NASA chief astronaut Chris Cassidy would head up the project to build the museum, which will also house a leadership institute, as well as a National Medal of Honor monument in Washington, D.C.
Williams, Loews Hotels and Co CEO Alex Tisch and Rangers co-owner Neil Leibman are members of the museum foundation’s board of directors.
Rangers co-owner Ray Davis said Tuesday that entertainment district development would not be possible had voters not approved the 2016 financial package that included public funding for Globe Life Field. Around 60% of voters approved a plan to direct a half-cent sales tax, hotel occupancy tax and car rental tax originally approved to help build AT&T Stadium toward the ballpark.
“Y’all stepped up with a bond issue that everybody in the world told us there’s not another city in the U.S. that would do that,” Davis said. “Y’all were supportive and passed the bond issue, and now we see the material effect of it.”
Pandemic delayed entertainment district growth
Construction on Loews Arlington Hotel and the convention center was placed on hold in early 2020 as the pandemic ground the entertainment industry to a halt and pummeled the global economy.
That’s not to say the entertainment district stayed dark for long.
Loews CEO Alex Tisch said Arlington made its case as an entertainment hub by taking on iconic United States sporting events that would have otherwise been placed on hold due to tighter pandemic restrictions.
“As the United States continued to reopen, Arlington capitalized on getting events to move here like the World Series bubble and the Rose Bowl and the rodeo,” Tisch said.
AT&T Stadium, Globe Life Field and Esports Stadium Arlington also became community vaccination centers in late 2020 and early 2021, as local, county, state and national agencies rushed to vaccinate older residents and people at greater risk due to illness against COVID-19.
This story was originally published October 12, 2021 at 3:00 PM.
