LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – Lubbock City Council has voted to approve a contract agreement that could shape the future of the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center.
At a cost of $200,000, the city has hired the architectural and design firm TVS to create a conceptual design and determine the total project cost. Lubbock Mayor Mark McBrayer said this is a positive step forward in expanding the civic center.
“A thriving downtown is important to Lubbock, this is just a piece of it but it is a center piece of it,” McBrayer said.
Selection process
The city issued a request for qualifications earlier this year and received five proposals. McBrayer said the goal of finding a firm was to give city leaders a clearer picture of what the expanded civic center could look like and the potential cost.
Lubbock City Council approves contract for civic center expansion conceptual designs(City of Lubbock)
“We got five good ones back, different city staff ranked them on a number of different qualifications,” McBrayer said. “Had they done things like this before, what was their experience, cost, various other factors, they rated those, and came forward with TVS as the one they thought was best able to do this.”
Funding approach
McBrayer said the expansion will not be paid for through general taxes but rather through the hotel occupancy act.
“A bill passed that allows us to collect hotel taxes that would go normally to the state, they now come to us,” McBrayer said so instead of sending it to Austin, it stays right here in Lubbock for us to develop this project, we have several other things to put together the bucket of money we will need, and we will be talking to the citizens about that.”
Project goals and timeline
McBrayer said this project aims to bring more jobs, events, economic upside and opportunity. He wants the community to know work is being done.
“We have a very clear plan, and looking at the financial pieces of it, we feel like all that is really in place, but we will be presenting that to the city a little later on,” McBrayer said. “We feel very confident about coming to the citizens for a proposal like this later on this year, and hopefully getting started on it later on this year.”
McBrayer said the city is meeting with TVS this week and is excited to work with the firm to make the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center a staple in downtown.
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