$53M Events Center Moves to Reality for $1B MXD

ALLEN, TX-MGHerring Group and local officials today will break ground on the $52.6-million Allen Events Center, a traffic-driving guarantee for a $1-billion regional, mixed-use development. The project, on the drawing boards at least one year, will open Nov. 5, 2009.

“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

The developer has transferred a 15-acre tract in the Village of Allen to the city, which will own the events center, two parking decks and the land. A cross-access agreement has been inked between the developer and city.

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.