We are studying the proposals by Land Capital and Trinity. Both are impressive,but, as expected, Land Capital’s is more responsive to what I think the community is expecting. Remember they were the top pick of the CMPA board earlier – Trinity was #4.
Two things bothered me about the Trinity proposal – one is that they lumped together the public and private developments (but the total buildout was impressive – over $230 million); two the ballpark would not be finished until 2013.
The ballpark needs to be finished first – it was what will draw people downtown and add dollars to all the restaurants and shops in the area. Springdale, Ark and Grand Prairire, Tex built the ballparks then worried about everything else later. The ballparks make the retail spaces more valuable.
This is so simple. Yet others, including the city council, make this much harder than it should be. There is no way we can wait for the ball park another five years.
We will have a more detailed analysis later. I think the city plans to have them both available on line.