"We're super excited to finally be coming out of the ground and letting tenants and the community see that it's real after talking about it for so long," says Gar Herring, president of the Dallas-based development group. He tells GlobeSt.com that MGHerring secured a $40-million loan from Bank of America to supplement city bonds to make the events center become a reality. The center will sit at the epicenter of three million sf in side-by-side projects spanning 400 acres at the junction of Stacy Road and US Hwy. 75.

"We climbed some very challenging hurdles," Herring adds. "The financing was extremely complex." The developer, city and facility operator, Phoenix-based Global Entertainment Corp. have stakes in the project, with MGHerring floating a loan separate from its construction financing for the Village at Allen and Village at Fairview.

Village at Allen

Dallas-based Hunt Construction Co. is the center's general contractor while Cadence McShane Corp., also from Dallas, will build one parking deck and Plano, TX-based Hill & Wilkinson Ltd. will build the other. The events center will neighbor a 220-room Courtyard by Marriott, a $40-million project by Springfield, MO-based John Q. Hammons Hotels & Resorts Inc. Dirt work has just started for the hotel, now penciled to deliver in summer 2009.

MGHerring's regional mixed-use projects are being touted as the largest undertaking of its type in Texas and one of the largest in the US. The developer to date is holding commitments for more than one million sf of retail space. Allen's phase one will deliver Oct. 15 and the second phase will come on line in March 2009. The 1.4-million-sf Fairview's grand opening is slated for Aug. 5, 2009.