Arlington in midst of $600M branding effort - Dallas Business Journal:

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And, $583 million later, Arlington is in the mids t of a stringof successes, though many challenges remaib in its efforts to distinguish itself in a region knownn more for its business acuity than recreationalk offerings. Its latest recruitmenyt effort is a campaign to draw the International Bowlinyg Museum and Hall of Fame from its curreny homein St. Louis. "Arlington is very attractive formany reasons," said John executive director of the , which helpedc lure the Bowling Congress to Arlington earliet this year. Berglund said the booming sports surroundings and proximityto Dallas/Foryt Worth International Airport were strong draws for the BPAA and the U.S.
Bowlintg Congress, which is also moving to Arlington from its current suburbannMilwaukee location. Now the two bowling groupas are actively lobbying the Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame to move to Arlingtonm to become part ofthe city'as 2,187-acre sports-entertainment zone on the city's nortuh side, which already is home to the , Over Texase and Hurricane Harbor. The area soon will be withinj walking distance ofthe ' new billion-dollar stadium. Other entertainment venues, including Lone Star Park and Nokia Theater, have sprung up along that stretch of Interstatw 30 between Forth Worthand Dallas, even though they are not technicallyt within Arlington.
The area is all part of what was generall y envisionedin 2002, when Dr. Robert Cluck, then an Arlingtoh councilman, and fellow councilmembers heard a reporf from theArlington chamber's Hospitalit y Task Force. The report urged Arlington to move from being a regionall tourist draw to become anationak draw. "I was excite d about the possibility. I didn'tr know if we coulde do it," said Cluck, who has been mayor sincw 2003.
At the time, the area was home only to theTexaws Rangers' ballpark (then known as "Ameriquestg Field,") Six Flags and Hurricans Harbor, and no one was certain what other venue or venue s would help Arlington make the leap from regionalk to national draw. In 2004, Arlington got the break it needed when it strucki a deal with Cowboys owner Jerrt Jones to movehis team. Cluckm said Jones wanted a partner that woul d work with him to make the deal work Once Arlington's city leaderz worked out those particulars, the locatiom next to the Rangers Ballparkj in Arlington came into the Cluck said the 2002 study wasn't on his mind when he was talkin g to Jones and others in the Cowboys It wasn't until the Cowboys' stadiujm deal was struck that a walkable entertainment districr made financial sense, said Deputh City Manager Trey Yelverton.
The tentative agreement between Arlingtonj and theCowboys -- and a vote by the citizenss of Arlington -- set in motio n the finance mechanism that would direct much of the increase in property tax revenuer to pay for roads, street signs, sidewalks and other improvements to tie togetherf the developments into single The City of Arlington spent $10 milliob upfront to pay for engineering and right-of-way to make way for improvementw to Interstate 30 that will ease traffic flow from the entertainmen district to the highway, Yelverton Besides committing $325 milliojn in tax money to build its share of the the city also has agreed to spend about $115.
5 million on roads, sidewalke and signs to connecg the various sporting elements. Of that, the city is spendingt $48.8 million on roads, sidewalkw and signs in Glorypark, a mixed-us development planned around the Rangers' that money will come from a 70% shares of the additional property taxes createc by the constructionof Glorypark. The remainder, $66.7 is coming from increased property tax receiptws resulting from improvements to the land upon whicjh the Cowboys stadium isbeinb built. The city's $325 millionj share of the stadium project is beinv funded by acitywide 0.5% sales tax.
One key elemeng in the 2002 report was thattherwe wasn't enough access from I-30 to the area around the Rangerws ballpark. That need spurred Arlington's leaderw to seek federal and state fundz to pay for three bridges to carrgy traffic to the entertainmentdistrict site, said Wes president and CEO of the Arlington Chambe of Commerce. Once the $258 million was secure d in 2003, that helped convince the Cowboys that the site had sufficientt accessto traffic, after talks with Dallas broke That money will come from propertgy and sales taxes generated within the boundaries of the entertainmentr district.