Artist rendering of the proposed Lubbock County Expo Center
A deadline might be imposed to finish planning and fundraising for the proposed Expo Center or else Lubbock County might take the project back.
Jason Corley, commissioner for Precinct 2, put the potential deadline on the County Commissioner’s agenda for Monday. If passed, the Lubbock County Expo Center Board (LCEC) would get 120 days to present a plan “ready for construction.”
Update: Corley’s motion died for lack of a second on Monday. The deadline was rejected.
“I think the taxpayer and the voter – they voted for this thing. It’s time to build something,” Corley said.
Curtis Parrish, Lubbock County judge, disagrees. He previously told LubbockLights.com he is interested in a city/county partnership for new facilities at the current Civic Center site, calling it a “benefit” to downtown. But it requires a little help from the Texas Legislature which we covered here.
“I believe this action would be better taken once we see what the city and the state will do for funding the Civic Center project and what the county’s participation in that project can look like,” Parrish said.
The LCEC organized in the summer of 2019 and has done private fundraising to build a bigger facility than public funding alone can support. At last check, private fundraising was roughly $20 million short of its goal – $92 million total between public and private money.
The deadline, if approved, brings the public/private partnership to an end on July 8. Either the private funds are enough for the current plans, or else the county will downsize the proposal and go forward on its own.
LubbockLights.com wanted to know if the deadline would kill the downtown project. Multiple sources close to the planning said the city could keep going on civic center improvements without a county partnership. (The plans would change but improvements would still be made.)
LubbockLights.com reached out to LCEC chairman Randy Jordan who did not wish to comment until after the commissioners’ meeting on Monday.
No malice toward LCEC
There’s no malice in his effort to add a deadline, Corley said, adding the LCEC did its best.
“Randy Jordan, Bret Lampkin, all the board members on the LCEC – they’ve worked very hard to try to raise the money that will be necessary to build what their grand vision was. But I don’t think we can afford that grand vision,” Corley said.
The county might need to accept a “no frills” expo center, Corley said.
“We’ll go ahead and build something, something smaller that is expandable,” he added.
He thinks the site at Loop 289 and North University is the right place – not downtown.
“I don’t think anybody ever intended to have a stock show in downtown Lubbock,” Corley said.
Proponents of moving the expo center from North University to the Civic Center site think city-owned land downtown can solve much of the parking problem – with enough room for both a new hotel and a parking garage.
Corley’s not sure.
“If you’re trying to do rodeo, you got a million-dollar cutting horse being hauled in on a million-dollar 18-wheeler,” he said.
Even though he thinks ag events should not go downtown, he still supports a major project at the Civic Center.
“I’ve seen some preliminary drawings of what’s being proposed for downtown. I love the idea of the Civic Center having an attached hotel. I like the expansion plans,” he said.
But not for rodeos or stock shows.
The timeline
Local voters approved a measure in November 2018 to collect a hotel occupancy tax (HOT) and vehicle rental tax for a venue “capable of hosting a variety of events” including concerts, sports, rodeos and more.
The following summer, the LCEC organized. By the fall of 2019, the county had a memorandum of understanding and development agreement with LCEC. That’s the relationship facing a deadline if Corley’s item passes on Monday.
In January 2020, the LCEC announced the purchase of 135 acres – 80 acres was later deeded over to the county.
The county borrowed $5 million in June 2020 for pre-construction costs. An architecture firm then drew up a blueprint. By late 2024, LCEC announced more than $24 million in private fundraising commitments.
The following is a copy of the ballot initiative approved by voters.
2018 Ballot initiative
Venue Tax Special Election, Proposition A
Vote For or Against.
Authorizing Lubbock County to develop a new multipurpose arena with adjacent facilities and any related infrastructure (‘the Venue Project’) in Lubbock County that is capable of hosting a variety of events, including, but not limited to concerts, family shows, sporting events, community and high school sporting events and ceremonies, rodeos and other agricultural and equestrian shows, and to impose a short term motor vehicle rental tax at a rate not to exceed five percent (5%) of the gross receipts from the rental of a motor vehicle in Lubbock County, and a tax on the occupancy of a room in a hotel within the County at a rate not to exceed two percent (2%) of the price paid for the room, for the purpose of financing the Venue Project. If approved, the maximum hotel occupancy tax rate imposed from all sources in Lubbock County would be 15 percent (15%) of the price paid for a room in a hotel.
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