Today brings the tale of two agendas, as the city takes up the convention center and the school district does not.
The Denton City Council is expected to consider over a midday meeting today whether to authorize another $75,000 in architectural services to finish drawing the convention center to its smaller size — a one-story, 69,750-square-foot building to be erected next to a 300-room, full-service hotel on University of North Texas land next to Apogee Stadium.
The council had refused to take that step for a few weeks in order to settle some of the final terms of the public-private partnership with O’Reilly Hospitality Management and its investment partners.
In May, the city had set up a tax-increment finance district for the UNT land that would hold the hotel and convention center. The district would have provided the mechanism for the county and the school district to provide tax breaks to the hotel that would have helped the city pay for the convention center.
A key provision in the deal had O’Reilly guaranteeing the city’s convention center debt payment for some of the 30-year term in the form of “renting” the convention center. Without the tax break from the county and the school district, O’Reilly could be on the hook for a larger cash outlay to guarantee that “rent.”
Both the county and the school district heard the request to support the convention center more than once since May, but neither ever scheduled a vote on the matter. Two weeks ago, the City Council put the project on hold, saying the city needed to see in writing that O’Reilly was ready to go ahead with the project without the county and school tax breaks.
The city staff told the council then that tonight’s school board meeting was likely the last possible date for a vote on the tax breaks. A Little Rock, Arkansas-based construction company, Clark Construction, was awarded the bid to build both the convention center and hotel, but the price guarantees were expected to expire before the end of the year.
No convention center business is on tonight’s school board agenda.
Should the City Council agree to authorize the additional architectural services, the next important date in the convention center project comes in mid-November.
The city has tentatively scheduled the final vote on the deal Nov. 11, when the council will be asked to issue its notice of intent to sell $28.9 million in certificates of obligation — the expected price to build and outfit the convention center.
PEGGY HEINKEL-WOLFE can be reached at 940-566-6881 and via Twitter at @phwolfeDRC.
