AMARILLO, TX -- Now that Amarillo's city commission has given its approval to the downtown revitalization project, we wondered what the timeline is going to be before we see a change in the city's skyline.
Once the contracts are signed, detailed plans drawn up and all the preliminaries are completed, probably within the next 6 months, we'll see construction beginning May of next year.
The new hotel will be first in line for construction. It's scheduled to be completed in the fall of 2013, a little more than a year after startup, and during that time period, two garages will be built to hold more than 12-hundred cars.
"We anticipate the hotel open in 2013, and at the same time, we'll have the garage down before the hotel is completed. That garage #2 is going to be very important to Phase I projects, so we anticipate that garage 2 being built in phase II, but before the multi-purpose events center is open," according to Melissa Dailey, of Downtown Amarillo, Inc.
The multi purpose events center will be just south of city hall where the Coca Cola plant sits now. They'll be moved with the help of the AEDC out to the Business Park off Lakeside, according to Dailey.
"Need to construct a Coca Cola facility before they move out and demolition occurs on that site. It's a pretty straight forward process, about 6 to 9 months.
Then, the old coke building comes down, utilities re-routed and construction starts on the ball park events center.
"Then," Dailey says, "the multi purpose events center will follow in the Spring of 2014."
Phase 2 of the project which looks at civic center is already underway and unlike phase one, it will rely on public money for any renovations or expansion that's considered.
