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Cedar Park inks memo with Hicks for CPEC

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The city of Cedar Park and the Dallas Stars inked a memo of understanding (MOU) at Thursday night's council meeting that brings the city one step closer to its dream of building an entertainment center.

Although trees won't get bulldozed and dirt won't get slung for several more months, it brought the two sides closer to a total agreement on an arena that is estimated at $55 million.

“It's more like an engagement,” Place 1 Councilmember Matt Powell said. “You can look around at other things, but right now we look forward to a wedding date.”

Cedar Park Economic Development Director Phil Brewer said the memo identifies deal points in general and a timeline. He said the city will take the MOU and use it as a map, and that the next step the city will take is to sit down with the Hicks Sports Group to work on fine details.

Of the $55 million, Cedar Park is responsible for $44.5 million - a bond to be paid back over the course of 25 years. Hicks Sports Group - which owns the Dallas Stars, Texas Rangers and the AHL affiliate Iowa Stars - is responsible for the other $10.5 million, which includes the purchase of the land.

The 4A Board met at noon Thursday, with only three members showing up - just enough for a quorum. The numbers and details of the memo had not been finalized, so the board decided to vote on giving 4A President Lowell Moore, 4A Vice President Kelly Brent, city attorney Charles Rowland and Brewer the power to negotiate the finalities of the memo Thursday afternoon and have Moore and Brent sign it so it could be presented to council Thursday night.

Brent and Moore cast the two votes in the 2-0 approval with 4A Place 1 member Dr. Steven Foster abstaining his vote.

“I didn't know enough about the deal, that's why I didn't vote,” Foster said Thursday afternoon.

Brewer stayed connected with the 4A's attorneys and representatives throughout the afternoon and the city pinged out the memo. With Dallas Stars executive vice president of business operations Randy Locey in Cedar Park for the meeting Thursday night, Mayor Bob Lemon moved the agenda item to the top of the meeting. Moore made the presentation to the council.

The council voted in favor of Lemon signing the memo, 7-0, with Locey. The ceremonious signing by Locey and Lemon was followed by Lemon remarking the historic significance.

“I'm excited to announce this and excited it got done before the anniversary of the voters passing this,” Lemon said.

Cedar Park residents passed a proposition on Nov. 7, 2006 that would allow the city's Economic Sales Tax Development Corporation (4A) to use its sales tax to build an arena for multi-use.

Members of the council openly complimented the 4A Board members for their “hard work and countless hours” spent on this project so far. Locey said he was impressed with the work done so far by the city.

“They've done more due diligence on this than any other community we've worked with,” Locey said. “The Dallas Stars are excited and this is in our TV market.”

Two months ago, Dallas Stars President Jim Lites told the Hill Country News that the Stars would move the Iowa Stars to Cedar Park and hopefully rename them the Texas Stars to have a regionalized name attached with the parent name.

The memo states that the arena would be completed by Summer 2009 and the Stars would begin playing in the 2009-10 AHL season. The Houston Aeros - an AHL affiliate of the Minnesota Wild - are the only other AHL team in Texas.

The 4A Board began accepting proposal bids in January this year and had three proposals presented before it at a seven-hour 4A meeting on May 23. The 4A Board members could not come to terms with any of the three, so they they voted to discontinue talks with the original three proposers and open it back up. The Hicks Sports Group sent in a proposal and Thursday's MOU was the culmination of two months of work.

A year and a half ago, the city had been approved for a $30 million bond, and that's what was used in negotiating.

The 4A recently had the city's finance department reevaluate its worth, and based on sales tax projections and growth and length of the bond, the city is now approved for nearly $45 million - a 50 percent increase. The 4A Board then used that dollar amount to negotiate the memo with the Hicks Sports Group.

Hicks has the option of working with other prospective tenants like the Austin Wranglers, an Arena Football League team.

The memo with Hicks Sports Group is a non-binding agreement that was signed so the city and Hicks have deadlines and parameters, said Brewer.

The Cedar Park Entertainment Center will hold between 6,000 and 6,800 fans for hockey and up to 8,000 for concerts. It is also large enough to host events like the annual Williamson County Growth Summit, which this week was once again held in Travis County because Williamson County doesn't have a facility large enough for the yearly meeting.

The CPEC will have 24 luxury suites, 500 club seats, a club/VIP lounge, flexible space for banquets and can host anything from ice hockey to basketball, arena football, rodeos, concerts, family shows and trade shows.

E-mail editor@hillcountrynews.com

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