For a hypothetical deal that seemed all but certain to critics just a few weeks ago, the prospect of a new Mavericks arena replacing Dallas City Hall at 1500 Marilla St. seems plenty uncertain.
Mavericks CEO Rick Welts acknowledged that the city would need to take action if it wanted the franchise to set up shop in the central business district. He noted, however, that even if the city council decided to relocate, a downtown arena isn’t a sure thing.
“We haven’t even been able to talk to the city about what that deal would look like, so it isn’t necessarily that if the City Hall goes, we’re there,” Welts said on the latest episode of the Intersections podcast with former Mayor Tom Leppert and entrepreneur Kyle Waldrep.
He said the team is “on the clock” as it works to land on a development site in time to design and build a new arena before their existing lease at the American Airlines Center ends in 2031. Welts had previously said the Mavs hoped to have a decision early this year, but that timeline got pushed by several months.
Meanwhile, city officials remain divided over whether to invest around $1 billion to restore City Hall or move out and mark the property for redevelopment. Staff is currently conducting more exploratory work on repair and relocation options to bring back to city council.
“The city manager’s office has been unbelievably supportive,” Welts said.
Speculation surrounding how supportive officials have been has animated a lot of the discussion over City Hall’s fate. A recent report by The Dallas Morning News, however, seemed to suggest there wasn’t much in the thousands of internal city emails obtained by the outlet tying the push to relocate from City Hall to the Mav’s hunt for a new arena site. Nothing out of the ordinary, at least.
“The emails show no coordinated planning, no financial modeling tied to a joint project, and no internal strategy connecting City Hall decisions to an arena deal,” DMN reported.
Emails suggest a couple of meetings between Welts and City Manager Kimberly Tolbert were in the works last year. No follow-up communications confirm whether any sitdown actually occurred. However, Mark Boekenheide, senior vice president of global real estate development at Las Vegas Sands Corp., was invited to one of them. Both the Mavericks and Las Vegas Sands have the same majority owner: Miriam Adelson and her family.
One of the planned meetings with Welts was scheduled for May, just a few months before Mayor Eric Johnson created the Finance Committee to “identify the most fiscally responsible course to address the mounting deferred maintenance and carrying costs of Dallas City Hall.”
In a statement to DMN, the Mavericks said they met with the city manager’s office to “evaluate opportunities and gather information” related to their search for a “long-term arena solution in Dallas.”
It’s not just a new arena that’s on the line, though. Home court would only be the anchor of a 50-acre entertainment district with a four-star hotel, auxiliary facilities, and the team’s corporate offices. He said Live Nation was interested in putting up its own venue in the district. And, of course, there would be retail and dining opportunities.
“If there was 50 acres available downtown, I think it’d be an amazing sight… Right now, there really isn’t,” Welts said.
The Mavericks do have at least one alternative site in the city limits: the former Valley View Center in North Dallas. The property was named on the team’s shortlist of preferred sites. But Welts suggested they would prefer putting roots down downtown.
“I think these things are incredibly successful in a dense, urban environment,” he said. “I think they add the most to any community they’re in if they’re in that kind of environment, and I think they can be a catalyst for a lot of other development.”
Downtown stakeholders and city boosters have argued that redeveloping 1500 Marilla St. — with or without the Mavericks — will jumpstart the central business district’s southern sector. Opponents of relocation, on the other hand, claim revitalization can be achieved without offloading City Hall and that the building could be restored for much less than the $1 billion estimate produced by staff and the consultants contracted by the Dallas Economic Development Corporation.