Artist rendering of combined expo center and civic center
City and county officials are working with downtown business leaders to see if the Lubbock County Expo Center can be built downtown instead of the current proposed site along North University Avenue just outside Loop 289, LubbockLights.com has learned.
The idea calls for an expo center, including an arena, on what is now the east parking lot of the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center. Much of the current civic center would stay intact but the plan would add a new banquet hall and expand the exhibit space. Officials say this is needed to lure events to Lubbock it doesn’t now have the space to attract.
From there the city (or city and county together) would invite someone to build a convention-center style hotel next door – perhaps 300 rooms. Specific size is not yet known.
Nothing is official.
We initially learned the plan from sources who asked that their names not be used and confirmed some of the same details with local officials – County Judge Curtis Parrish, Mayor Mark McBrayer and Lubbock County Expo Center Board Chairman Randy Jordan.
“In my heart of hearts, I don’t think downtown is the place for the Expo Center,” said Jordan about the project he’s led since the summer of 2019.
Jordan also admits funding is $20 million short on the current location, which is why some local officials think a change is needed.
But first:
- Texas lawmakers would need to pass a pair of bills to let Lubbock establish a Project Financing Zone, allowing the city to keep an incremental portion of sales tax (on certain items), Hotel Occupancy Tax (HOT) and mixed beverage tax within three miles of the civic center that would otherwise go to the state. It would expire after 30 years.
- The city and county would need to agree to work together on a joint expo center/civic center project.
- City voters would likely be asked in November to approve a two-percent increase in the HOT just like the one approved by county voters seven years earlier.
“The county is not officially committed to any of this,” Parrish said.
Nevertheless, he was very optimistic, saying, “We’re looking at all the options to make this work. … ”
McBrayer also supported the idea, saying, “It brings in outside visitors to Lubbock to spend their money here. … If you can do that successfully as a city, as another source of tax revenue for the city, that relieves the burden of the property tax.”
The current expo center is backed by a combination of county HOT and private fundraising. Fundraising got difficult during COVID and remains a challenge. So does inflation, Jordan said.
“We’ve gone through four years of hell economically, and, yes, we’ve got a light at the end of the tunnel now. But it’s going to take a while,” Jordan said.
“The city brings you some financing opportunities that maybe we didn’t have just strictly through the county and through private side,” he added. “I would rather have that in downtown Lubbock – and have something – than not to have anything at all.”
Jordan also has concerns there’s not enough space downtown to do what the expo center could do at its current site, which could eventually lead to a different site for the Mahon Public Library. McBrayer said it might not be necessary to impact the Mahon’s current location.
Benefit to downtown, and the timing
Parrish said, “I think the benefit for Lubbock County would be we could get this project off of high center. … By partnering with the city and with the state, I think it gets us closer to a viable project.”
Countywide voters approved a measure for the expo center in 2018. Parrish wants it done soon. But there’s also a benefit to the city, he said.
“The current civic center is 50 years old. It was beautiful – state-of-the-art 50 years ago. But now we need something bigger – more modern in order to attract the conventions and the business that conventions bring in,” Parrish said.
“I’m looking forward to potentially partnering with the city,” he added.
McBrayer agrees on the timing.
“We’ve got a very good working relationship with our county at the moment. We have a very good working relationship with our state legislative delegation – the speaker of the house. The time is right to pursue this for Lubbock. It’s not something that we want to sit around on and have the moment pass,” McBrayer said.
McBrayer was referring to Lubbock’s Dustin Burrows, recently elected Speaker of the Texas House – the third most powerful position in Texas behind the governor and lieutenant governor.
McBrayer also agreed with Parrish on economic benefit, saying, there’s no tax hike except visitors from out-of-town would see the HOT on their hotel bill. The sales tax stays the same, but Lubbock would get a higher share of that money from the state.
People come to visit and spend money, he said.
“They’re also spending their money in the restaurants and the hotels and everything around,” McBrayer said.
The expo center’s public presentation refers to the event center in Waco as an example of economic benefits, saying, “They are booked 325 days of the year. So, it’s nonstop. And that brings $70 million in economic impact for the Waco area.”
But McBrayer emphasized it’s not a done deal.
“This is all just in the talking stages at this point,” McBrayer said.
Cost, need and where’s the money?
The current expo center cost is estimated at approximately $92 million. Combining it with major civic center renovations might roughly double the cost.
Everyone we spoke to agreed Lubbock needs an expo center, which was approved by local voters when they approved the HOT and a rental car tax. It could handle many different events, with emphasis is on “dirt” events like rodeos and livestock shows. They also agreed the city needs an updated civic center.
“A vibrant modern civic center is also very important, bringing in jobs and conventions – some of the ones that we’re not able to secure simply because we don’t have a modern facility to do that,” Parrish said.
An article in tradeshowexecutive.com said the “midpoint” size of exhibit space is 185,000 square feet for midsized centers. Lubbock is 40,000 square feet.
Some of the specifics, like size of a new exhibit hall, are not known yet. The Lubbock City Council in mid-January approved $45,000 for a feasibility study.
Public records said, “The civic center officially opened in March, 1977, and while renovations have been conducted over the years, the facility itself has been in continuous operation for 48 years. Current and prior city administrations have recognized that the facilities are dated and do not meet current market expectations.”
The study is expected to take three months and give answers about how big the exhibit hall should be, what size hotel should be next door and other such details.
Then there’s funding it.
- The county can borrow an estimated $40 million on the HOT and rental car tax.
- If city voters approve another HOT, it will generate another $40 million borrowing capacity.
- The expo center board (LCEC) secured donation pledges of more than $24 million.
Lubbock asked the Texas Comptroller’s office to give an estimate on how much a Project Financing Zone (PFZ) will generate.
City Manager Jarrett Atkinson said, based on numbers from the state, the PFZ will generate an estimated $300,000 per year if it takes effect in 2026. By the third year it goes up to more than $1 million and up over $2 million by the fifth year – if proposed legislation from State Representative Carl Tepper passes into law. Projections were limited to five years.
Additionally, Lubbock hopes to get even more than just a 2 percent increase in HOT.
Normally a portion of HOT goes to the state and a portion goes to local jurisdictions.
But for certain new projects, like convention centers and civic centers, the state will rebate an incremental portion of its share of HOT, sales tax and mixed beverage tax for any hotel connected to the new project. On a brand-new hotel, the increment is 100 percent. But again, for Lubbock, this depends on Tepper’s legislation.
If it’s all approved, Lubbock can borrow against these funding sources – but the question becomes how much.
If there’s a shortfall, it would need to come from private fundraising.
Jordan’s objections
Jordan prefers the current location but understands why combining the expo center with the civic center might have its advantages.
“I am 120 percent behind downtown development. I want to see that happen. I hope it does happen,” he said.
There are some drawbacks in his view – like getting in and out. There’s a chance the building footprint might be so big that a small portion of 9th Street would need to be closed.
“There’s limitations on size, limitations on parking,” Jordan said.
That limitation includes no more room for expansion. The site on North University has room for a future livestock exhibition area (with parking for 156 trailers), and an equestrian pavilion (with parking for 96 trailers). Not so downtown, Jordan said.
“Where are you going to park – trucks and trailers not just your rodeos, but equestrian events, for monster trucks, for motorcross, sprint cars?” Jordan asked.
“Go over to the Mallet Center (in Levelland) when they put on a motorcross and three-quarters of their parking lot – and all of the back parking – is taken up by big trucks and trailers that are hauling all their equipment,” Jordan said.
The plan is to surround the civic center and expo center site with retail to the east and to the south, he said.
“Make all that retail. Make it where it’s a downtown deal, and you bring people into that motel and you fill up the civic center. Man, that’s awesome,” Jordan said.
But it comes with a cost. There is no room to grow.
“Instead of having three or even four venues that we were talking about out north of town, you’re restricted to one,” Jordan said.
The business leaders who are exploring this point out there is room on city-owned land to the north for both a new hotel and a parking garage. But there is not a fully formed solution yet.
“But if that’s the only way we can bring this together – and get an arena that will take care of many of the of the things we want – then certainly I would be remiss not to be open to that,” Jordan said.
The library
Jordan mentioned the Mahon Library, saying, “What are you gonna do with the library?”
There is more than one drawing of the site, McBrayer said, and one of them does call for taking over the space currently held by the Mahon.
McBrayer said, “We have no plan for doing anything to the library at this point. … If anything is done with the library, it will be to move it to a new location downtown.”
“We’re not reducing the number of libraries,” McBrayer said.
That goes for both Mahon and Godeke Library which came up in the news last year during budget talks because the current location is rented, not owned by the city, McBrayer said.
“At this stage, the project does not require – it does not involve – the library. It’s in its stand-alone space,” McBrayer said.
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