8 May 29 - June 4, 2025 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents there to help the training staff help their players. With the world of constantly in- creasing #metoo, I feel that I am a #notme.” Said Smith, “She has this great ability to be genuine no matter her audience. Athletes have a great bullshit detector. And in my ex- perience, the greater success the athlete has had, the greater this detector is for them. She is able to relate and gain the confidence of people and athletes across the spectrum of ability and accomplishment.” It’s almost as if, even after a life filled with parental uncertainty and inconsistent role models, Collings is now the one doing the adopting. “When I started as a team chiropractor, I was in my 20s, same age as most of the play- ers,” she said. “Now I’m like the mom who reminds my children: ‘Be sure to make good choices.’” ▼ CITY HALL BIRD FRIENDLY CONVENTION CENTER? OFFICIALS GIVE IN-DEPTH LOOK AT CONVENTION CENTER PLANS, QUESTIONS REMAIN. BY EMMA RUBY D espite the four-hour briefing given to the Dallas City Council on May 21, one question remains about the plans for a new convention center down- town: exactly how much the sprawling com- plex will cost. Right now, city officials believe the new and improved Kay Bailey Hutchison Con- vention Center will cost between $3.3 billion and $3.5 billion. That estimate has a cushion built in for contingencies or roadblocks, such as the impact tariffs may have on con- struction costs, Rosa Fleming, director of event and convention services, told the council. She added that because tariffs pose a threat to costs, stakeholders are looking to pre-order large amounts of steel and materi- als needed for the project to avoid price es- calation. The horseshoe was presented with a model of the future convention center last week. Glitzy renderings displayed impecca- ble landscaping, multi-story glass paneling and rooftop views of the Dallas skyline. It is the most in-depth look at the development since City Hall began discussing the need for an updated space in 2018. While the planning process has spanned many years, Dallas officials have been espe- cially motivated to break ground on the con- vention center upgrades in recent months. In March, the city announced the procure- ment of the FIFA World Cup’s International Broadcast Center, which will see thousands of international journalists making the com- plex home base at the start of next year. Fif- teen million dollars have already been earmarked for upgrades to the center’s roof, climate control and power infrastructure. “Right now you’re at schematics. The money that’s going to be spent in the next 10 to 12 months will be for FIFA and getting the convention center, the first part of it, raised. And in that it’s also the ordering of steel, et cetera,” Jack Matthews, the leader of the firm Inspire Dallas LLC that has been tasked with overseeing the development, told the council. “You’re getting ready to get fixed prices about a year from right now, give or take a month or two on each side.” Even with a finalized budget a year out, the project needs funds now to get off the ground, Dallas’ Chief Financial Officer, Jack Ireland, told the council. Those funds are necessary for hard costs, like those incurred by purchasing materials in advance and working on the con- struction planned in advance of the Interna- tional Broadcast Center, and soft costs, like the fees paid to the designers and managers in- volved in running the project. Those funds will be distributed on an as- needed basis, Ireland said. The funding would ideally come from a billion-dollar “bridge loan” that the council will be asked to vote on June 11. Several council members and Ireland commented on the amount of media coverage that focused on the bridge loan after the briefing was posted to the city website, stating that concern about the high dollar amount had been overblown for what is a standard financing strategy. “I don’t know where the confusion came from, but to clear it up, it is a tool that is fre- quently used. It is especially used on large projects. I think this qualifies as a large proj- ect and it is necessary to have funding avail- able to get the project started,” Ireland said. “This is a way of moving the project forward at this point in time.” As to why the project needs to move for- ward at all, city officials say Dallas is quickly slipping through the ranks of desirable cities for conventions, which, along with hordes of people walking through downtown wearing oversized lanyards, typically bring waves of tourism dollars. While Dallas used to be among the top five cities in the United States for conven- tion hosting alongside Las Vegas, Chicago, New York and Houston, it has lost ground. Investments in San Antonio and Austin mean that while Dallas still holds the No. 6 spot, it will soon be overtaken, officials warned. That lost ground is due to the general wear and tear on the current convention center, which boasts $500-600 million in deferred maintenance, a lack of walkable retail and din- ing facilities in the surrounding areas, and a lack of transportation between the convention center and Dallas’ other neighborhoods. Offi- cials assert that the new convention center plan solves all of those issues. Sixty-four major conventions are already booked for 2029 and onwards, officials said, giving the project a hard deadline. Those gatherings could amount to $1.66 billion in economic impact, and 109 other conven- tions have signaled their interest in Dallas as a landing place. They’re just waiting for the city to iron out the details on the convention center development. Even with all that promise, the lack of a concrete financial plan left some council members feeling shaky. Council member Cara Mendelsohn drew attention to the $270 million the city still owes on the current convention center, and said that a lack of a repayment schedule, bridge loan allotment plan, long-term reve- nue forecast and risk analysis left her feeling confident in her initial vote against the new convention center. “This is a good project. I’m not opposed to a convention center project, but we weren’t ready to go as far as we did with so little information,” Mendelsohn said. “I was surprised when I read this presentation that that information still has not been forth- coming. And it’s concerning.” A Convention Center F or Everyone, Even the Birds It would be impossible to convey every intri- cacy and nuance of a four-plus-hour council briefing in a single news article. Still, when the phrase “bird safe glass” is used in a design unveiling, we, as the Dallas Observer, have an obligation to inform the public. Be- fore things got a bit tense regarding the fi- nancials of this whole deal, Council member Kathy Stewart, who sits as chair of the coun- cil’s Parks, Trails, and the Environment committee, inquired about the convention center’s impact on migratory birds. Before you scoff, we point you to an arti- cle by The Guardian about how critical Texas, specifically the North Texas region, is to migratory patterns for many bird species. Estimates say a billion birds die after flying into glass skyscrapers each year, and Dallas has its fair share of responsibility for that. Migration peaks at nighttime, The Guardian reports, and as a city exceptionally comfort- able with light pollution, Dallas serves as “a burning beacon” for our feathery friends. But anyway, back to the convention cen- ter. A concerned Stewart told city staff she’s had “numerous” inquiries about how the de- velopment will impact birds en route. “It’s an important topic that we’re ad- dressing,” an official with the project as- sured Stewart. “When it comes to bird-safing [the convention center], we’re ensuring that we are limiting the amount of glass and that when we have glass, it’s actu- ally a bird-safe glass. The technologies are dramatically improved.” The development has an ecologist on staff, the official told the council, and the plan is being worked in tandem with the Ar- boretum to ensure no feathers are ruffled. That official added that landscaping compo- nents, such as bioswales and the appropriate flora and fauna, will also be incorporated into the design to ensure peak bird-friendli- ness. But that wasn’t the end of the bird discus- sion! The mention of bird-friendly plantings inspired council member Gay Donnell Wil- lis, who wanted to ensure the convention center won’t be too bird-friendly. “I understand that we want to be sensi- tive to that, but you also discussed flora and fauna and … I don’t know that we’re trying to attract this sort of thing to this facility,” Wil- lis said. “I’m just a little concerned about us leaning so far one way that we’re maybe cre- ating an issue around all that comes with migratory birds.” Once again, the council was told not to worry. The complex will be bird-safe, but work will be done to ensure the facility is not bird-inviting. “There is no intention to draw birds to the site,” city staff said. Unless, of course, that bird hopes to con- nect with other career professionals, attend a few vaguely informative panels and awk- wardly stand around a happy hour where everyone is secretly wondering how early they can leave without being improper. ▼ ENVIRONMENT ‘DON’T MAKE ME DIG UP MY DAUGHTER’ DOZENS GATHER IN NORTH TEXAS TO OPPOSE MARVIN NICHOLS RESERVOIR, AGAIN. BY ALYSSA FIELDS J ana Weatherall Goforth’s 4-year-old daughter is buried on her family’s property in Talco, a small rural East Texas town about halfway between Dallas and Texarkana. When she buried the small casket, she never wanted to see it again, but a proposed reservoir, conceptualized more than 50 years ago, may change that. “Don’t make me dig up my daughter,” Weatherall Goforth said to the Region C Water Planning Group (RCWPG), the re- gional water authority that oversees the 16 counties making up a large portion of North Texas, at a public hearing in Arlington on May 19. Dozens of East and North Texans collected in the meeting room to deliver their thoughts on the proposed Marvin Nichols Reservoir in an hour-long meeting. There was not a single testimony in support of the reservoir. The Marvin Nichols Reservoir, initially developed almost 60 years ago as a solution to meet the increasing water needs of Dal- las-Fort Worth’s ever-growing population, calls for 200,000 acres, much of which is owned by private citizens, to create a new water supply. The RCWPG is tasked with securing enough water for its anticipated 2080 popu- lation, which is expected to double, reaching 15.1 million people in the next 50 years. To City of Dallas Project planners hope to begin construction on the new Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center next year. Unfair Park from p6
