CITY TOUTS DOWNTOWN DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVES

By Douglas Clark

PHOTOS BY NEIL STARKEY

City officials are espousing the benefits of a series of downtown development projects either currently underway or recently completed. The projects range from establishing apartment units in the FirstBank Southwest Tower to the restoration of the Barfield Hotel, which was originally built in the late 1920s.

“The first one I wanted to mention was the FirstBank Southwest Tower,” Andrew Freeman, the city’s managing director of Planning and Development Services said with regard to the residential unit project. “That was permitted in October and is currently under construction. Both floors have been framed out. The HVAC vendor is working on the mechanical. They anticipate being completed with mechanical and start sheet rocking the 11th floor, then they’ll start mechanical on the 10th floor once that’s wrapped up. They believe the 10th floor will take six to eight weeks to complete the mechanical before they start sheet rocking that phase.”

Freeman previously indicated project developers anticipated 14 total units among two floors. He said developers noted the project has been delayed “quite a bit” due to COVID-19, adding “there have been material delays and contractors have had trouble keeping staff due to the COVID situation.”

The Amarillo Ice Ranch is another downtown project presently underway, per Freeman.

“That’s going in at 301 S. Grant - the old auction house that’s owned by the city,” he said. “It was leased to become a new ice rink. It received a permit on Nov. 5 and I believe they’re moving pretty quickly. They’re supposed to open this winter, so we’ll have a full time ice rink in downtown Amarillo, which will be pretty neat to have.”

The venue would be used for recreational and competitive youth and adult sports purposes, per the 10-year agreement in which the Amarillo Hockey Association lnc., through Amarillo lce Ranch, lnc., requested the lease.

Freeman also shared particulars regarding the Happy State Bank streetscape project, which he said is now completed and involved remodeling each of the downtown location’s three entrances, adding new lights and trees - as well as a standalone parking lot adjacent to the city’s fleet parking lot; and Sharpened Iron Studios, which recently had an agreement approved with the city, and is currently in the process of finalizing a design and making preparations to have its project permitted.

In October 2020 the Amarillo City Council approved a Center City Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone #1 developer agreement with Sharpened Iron Studios for a commercial project to be located at 1314 S. Polk St.

Per the agreement, which features a $50,000 reimbursable grant at completion and a 90 percent tax rebate through 2036, the project consists of rehabilitating an existing 43,000-plus-square-foot site located on the south side of the Amarillo College Downtown Campus, in addition to construction of a new 30,000-plus-squarefoot building on the south parking lot.

The planned television, video and movie production studio is slated to coordinate with Amarillo College to launch a film and productions art school, per the agreement, which also indicated the redevelopment project meets the goals of the Downtown Strategic Action Plan and TIRZ #1 Project and Financing Plan by developing commercial square footage within the zone and attracting new commercial uses.

Freeman previously noted TIRZ #1 goals are hotel development, urban-residential development, ballpark-family entertainment venues and the office-commercial-retail category.

Center City of Amarillo, Inc. Executive Director Beth Duke has offered the following regarding the Barfield Hotel project:

“We heard from the developers that they have two model rooms ready for showing,” she said in addressing the panel. “Even though with the pandemic we can’t take large groups, if anyone is interested in touring those model rooms, I think it would be very interesting, and maybe we could work together to schedule socially distanced tours of those. And that would be fun.”