First Look: Office Space atop Globe Life Park, convention center and more (Renderings)

By Ryan Salchert - Staff Writer, Dallas Business Journal

The City of Arlington approved a TIRZ package on Tuesday for a massive $810 million second phase of Texas Live!, and its development team is sharing renderings of what to expect from the addition.

The Cordish Cos., in partnership with the City of Arlington, the Texas Rangers and Loews Corp. (NYSE: L), plan to bring 200,000 square feet of office space to the development, an 888-room convention hotel with 150,000 square feet of meeting space, 100,000 square feet of additional restaurant and retail space, 280 apartments, small business incubator space and nearly 2,000 additional parking spaces.

In total, the entire second phase is expected to create more than 3,000 jobs and have a $1.8 billion economic impact on the area.

“It’s another great day in Arlington, as we continue to build on the economic momentum in our world-class Entertainment District,” said Arlington Mayor Jeff Williams in a prepared statement. “When Loews Hotels & Co, The Cordish Cos., the Texas Rangers and the City of Arlington all come together on a project, there’s no limit to the dreams we can realize here in The American Dream City. This project and the recent National Medal of Honor Museum will add significantly to the city’s sales tax revenue, allow us to continue to keep our taxes among the lowest in the area and provide the quality services our residents have come to expect with minimal public investment.”

The new hotel will be called the Loews Arlington Hotel and will be connected to the new Arlington Convention Center. The convention hotel will also have a skybridge that will connect to the Live! by Loews hotel across the street.

Alex Tisch, executive vice president of Commercial and Business Development for Loews Hotels, said the company has never built a convention hotel, but has built hotels with a similar amount of meeting space and it will be operated similarly to those hotels.

"Arlington really pushed for this to be a convention hotel, and the city had more hotels planned in its strategic review. Once we announced the first hotel, we immediately started planning a larger one," Tisch said. "We're thrilled to be doing this."

The hotel and convention center is expected to break ground in January and could be delivered by 2023. Cordish's part of the development would start later in 2020, most notably the additional retail and the apartment component, which look like they will be called The Ballpark Lofts per renderings.

The office portion of the project, which would be located directly on top of the old Globe Life Park, is not expected to break ground until a tenant is found.