Construction of an extensive city-owned investment in Grand Prairie, including two new hotels, a convention center and restaurant space, is underway.
City guides and private partners celebrated a groundbreaking ceremony on Thursday for the expansion of Epic Central, a 172-acre park along the George W. Bush Tollway and Arkansas Lane.
These will be the newest parts of the development, which already includes five artificial lakes, a water park and a recreation center. The plans have been in the works for years and were made possible by $ 75 million in bonds approved by voters earlier this year.
Here’s what’s included, why, and how much it all costs:
Hotels
Grand Prairie will spend approximately $ 50 million to build two hotels linked by a conference center that opens in 2023. The city will lease the administration and operations to Concord Hospitality.
One hotel will be a Hilton Garden Inn with 129 luxury rooms, an executive lounge, restaurant, pool, gym and business services. The other, a Homewood Suites, will offer 147 studio, one and two bedroom suites with full kitchens.
Both hotels will attract business visitors from Lockheed Martin and Airbus Helicopters nearby, the city guides said, as well as families visiting Epic Central.
Why is the city building the hotels?
Texas is giving Grand Prairie an incentive to build the hotels by paying back to the city all sales tax incurred in the hotels and conference centers, as well as anything within 300 meters.
Based on conservative estimates, according to the city, $ 25 million will be returned to Grand Prairie over the next 10 years. The revenue generated will exceed the cost of the loan payments and increase the city’s tax base.
Few industries have been as rocked by the COVID-19 pandemic as the leisure and hospitality sectors. After an almost complete travel stop, the industry will not recover to pre-pandemic performance until 2025 at the earliest, according to a recent analysis by Dallas-based ThinkWhy.
That didn’t stop new hotels from popping up.
Loews Hotels & Co. recently announced plans to build a $ 550 million hotel in Arlington to house the city’s new convention center. The Loews Arlington Hotel, slated to open in early 2024, will have 888 rooms, 266,000 square feet of meeting space and the 150,000 square foot Arlington Convention Center.
Restaurant rooms
The city is building six raw restaurant areas that will open at the end of 2022.
Restaurants include Vidorra Cocina de Mexico; a nameless modern American concept; Serious pizza, sliders, and shakes; and a new breakfast and brunch place called Poach’d. A fourth room will be Loop 9 BBQ, an upscale grill restaurant by Larry Levine, the founder of Chili’s. The city said it was fun options for the sixth restaurant area.
These restaurants will be located north of Chicken N Pickle, a rotisserie chicken restaurant and pickle ball venue that is currently under construction and due to open this December.
Entertainment area
The city is working with the state legislature to create an entertainment zone in Epic Central that will allow guests to take away alcoholic beverages in the area. This is especially important because outdoor events would take place on a lawn.
Both Sundance Square in Fort Worth and Texas Live in Arlington have this legal permit.
And there is more
Around the hotels and restaurants there is a large open space with a covered stage for events, concerts and programs.
Grand Prairie works with outside firms to develop light shows on the lakes and interactive technologies and public art installations on land.
Also under construction is the Bolder Adventure Park, an indoor entertainment center with climbing frames, zip lines and high rope courses. The opening of the venue is planned for summer 2022.
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