Bob Yancy said:
Sports Anchored Business Park @ College Station's Midtown (300 acres)
1) Business park consisting of higher density office lots with a focus on small to medium sized businesses (SMBs) with an economic development overlay in cooperation with the Greater Brazos Partnership (GBP). In the event larger businesses want in, flexibility for combining lots for larger buildings allowed. Strong marketing campaign entices job creators to "locate your HQ here." Fountain. Trails. Greenspace. Vibe. Jobs jobs jobs. Sell the lots to generate property tax revenue.
2) Youth Baseball and Softball Complex, designed right. Ground lease the land in a mostly private sector development. Conveys back to taxpayer upon expiration of lease. During ensuing decades, private sector management and maintenance. Public Private Partnership (P3) promotion of facility for travel ball tournament destination.
3) Mixed Use Retail on the 28 acres next to Costco, and incentivized at the Town Lake Drive and Midtown Drive intersection area. (Near and around the Midtown Lake (big pond, really)) Restaurants, shops, walkable.
4) Texas Independence Park - press on with current plan, with a focus on connectivity, particularly pedestrian connectivity between Texas Independence Park and the Midtown Sports & Business Park.
5) City to make further infrastructure investment in the district it insisted on creating over a decade ago. Specifically:
a) Connect Town Lake to the highway. Wake the area up. Commit to connectivity.
b) city invests in district gateway signage that was highlighted as so crucial by our own consultant years ago. (See image).
c) Brand the Rock Prairie water tower when it's due for repainting.
d) complete the full width of Midtown Drive on a reasonable timeline because, well, it's awkward and arguably unsafe.
#1 - This is a tough one when you consider the long term. We have a long-term need for an industrial business park; however, I don't think that's the place for it. Industrial business park is more like those on 2818 and Jones Road.
I know there is a battle about remote work going on. Everyday, anti-remote work from home people are retiring and pro remote work people are entering the workforce and also becoming managers. It also won't be long when the companies that ban remote work change their minds because they will not have enough employees. Couple that with AI and the workforce 10 years from now and the workforce 10 years from now could look a lot different. So long term commercial office space could be a tricky investment.
To me this would all have to be done private.
#2 - I am not completely opposed; however, I think you are asking the wrong people on this one. Of course, locals want the park here; however, that is not our target market.
We need to ask teams in the Houston, Austin, and Waco metros. When my kids played both high school and Calvary Soccer; they hardly played any soccer games at Veterans Park with Calvary. They were mostly at the big complexes in Cypress and Round Rock.
College Station was not even a meet in the middle destination and the other teams just came up here once or twice a season because everyone else was closer.
I know each league is different. Travel is tough on parents; especially if you have multiple kids doing sports. Just put yourself in the other teams shoes. After a busy week do you want to drive past 5 different sports complexes you could play at to get to College Station? We don't have much for middle schoolers and teens to do here; especially for out of towners where they have more to offer.
If it was 100% private, I would be 100% in. Because the risk/reward is on them.
#3 - Sounds good at face value. If its all privately funded; go ahead and put the 28 acres up for auction now.
#4 - Not 100% opposed to it. I think there is sort of a hybrid solution with this here. Maybe scale it way down, put some of those funds into Lick Creek Park Upgrades. A scaled down version of this blends in very well with option #3 right above this one (Mixed Retail…) and add some residential and one day maybe a middle school / fire station / police substation etc.
#5 - If that's the case, the city just needs to sell it; however, people in the city do not want to hear that.
#5a - There needs to be an actual purpose besides wake the area up. Not opposed to it depending on what happens above. To me this is not a build it and they will come project.
#5b - I think the consultant is the only one who cares about signage.
#5c - Same thing as #5b, no one will care what the water tower art is unless its terrible. The city has way too much bureaucracy to make something funny or even cute. Just keep it simple "Welcome to College Station" or something like that.
#5d - Same as my comment in #5a. This construction should be done with a purpose in mind; even if it's a bit of a mess now. Since Midtown seems like a priority, lets not change something twice in a short amount of time.
There is my 2 cents for now. I am sure things will change.
