Arlington leaders OK National Medal of Honor Museum with these stipulations
Arlington leaders approved a lease agreement between the city and the National Medal of Honor Museum Foundation that would reimburse the foundation for demolition costs and waive development fees, while clearing the way for construction where the Texas Rangers Youth Ballpark stands.
The 99-year agreement requires the museum foundation to build the facility within three years of beginning construction and charges $10 a year. The foundation can purchase the land at the corner of Nolan Ryan Expressway and AT&T Way from the city after construction is complete.
City staff expect fees and demolition-related reimbursements to total less than $200,000. The Texas Rangers Foundation will pay $100,000 to build or renovate a new youth ballpark.
“This is a landmark resolution here that is just going to create a great national museum here in our city,” Mayor Jeff Williams said during the city council meeting Tuesday. Council members unanimously approved the agreement.
The deal is the latest development in the efforts to bring the museum to Arlington’s entertainment district in 2024. The museum foundation announced in a press release Tuesday that Williams and Thasunda Brown Duckett, CEO of Chase Consumer Banking, were appointed to its board of directors.
Duckett said in the press release she “cannot think of a better way to give back” than by supporting the foundation.
“The Medal and its values speak to the best of our nation, embodying service, self-sacrifice, and above all else, courage,” Duckett wrote.
The foundation has also tapped Linbeck, the Texas-based firm that built the Fort Worth Museum of Modern Art and Texas Heart Institute, for the project’s construction management.
