Kacie Kell

From Fort Worth Business Press by Scott Nishimura – snishmura@bizpress.net

Photo by Alyson Peyton Perkins

George Johnson has a lot of wheels turning these days. As general manager of Park Place Motorcars’ Mercedes-Benz dealership on Bryant Irvin Road in Southwest Fort Worth, he’s seen sales rise steadily since its 2005 opening. Park Place doubled the size of its service shop on the site last year, in line with the increased sales volume. Park Place broke ground just last month on a new Mercedes dealership in southwest Arlington managed by a colleague of Johnson’s. And in May, Park Place opened a new Maserati dealership managed by Johnson on Bryant Irvin Road across from the Mercedes dealership.

“The growth that we’re having in Tarrant County is coming south,” Johnson said. “We have grown pretty steadily at a rate of 15 percent per year.” Park Place expects strong growth in Maserati, having introduced a new entry vehicle, the Ghibli, price at a base $66,900. Maserati’s previous entry product was the Quattroporte, priced at a base of more than $120,000. The company’s CEO has said he wants to take Maserati from 15,000 units sold last year to more than 50,000 in 2015.  Johnson sat down for a Q&A with the Business Press recently.

Q: How’s Park Place Mercedes done since it opened in Fort Worth?

A: We started out selling 500 new cars a year, and we’ll probably do 1,300-1,400 new cars this year. It’s been pretty steady.

Q: What’s driving Maserati’s increases in sales volume?

A: Additional dealerships and additional product and a commitment to the U.S. market. Like a lot of premium markets, they try to keep it more boutique. You can only sell a certain number of cars between $120,000 and $180,000. When you open up at $60,000 or $70,000, there’s a huge market. All of a sudden, you open the upper middle class range. A lot of people can afford a Maserati now that couldn’t afford a Maserati before.

Q: Who does Maserati compete against?

A: Mercedes-Benz E-Class, Mercedes-Benz CLS, BMW Series, Lexus LS.

Q: What are the demographics of the Maserati buyer?

A: It depends on which model you’re talking about. If you’re in the Granturismo or the Quattroporte, it’s super high-end. The average demographic is probably a male about 40 to 60. The Ghibli buyer is more of an upwardly mobile successful, 30s type of buyer.

Q: What does the typical Maserati dealership do in volume?

A: In new cars, it’ll be about 150 a year and another 350 luxury pre-owned cars. That’ll expand once the (new) Levante SUV comes out next year.

Q: Park Place doubled the size of its Mercedes-Benz shop last year, going to 40 technician stalls from 20. How many technicians do you have?

A: We have 35 techs now. We’ve got 40 stalls. We’d like to have 40 [technicians].

Q: How hard is it to find qualified technicians?

A: It’s pretty tight. You see that at the other stores, too. We’re bringing in a lot of younger trained people that we can grow and give the proper training. A lot of families have children coming out of school and have concerns about whether it’s going to be a successful career for them. We bring (the families out and introduce them) and they come out really pleased about what kids can do.

Q: What kind of background do your technicians typically have when you hire them?

A: They have mechanical experience and usually formalized training. A lot of the ones we find are successful people who’ve always worked around cars and are very good at figuring out any issues we find.

Q: What’s the salary range?

A: From $40,000 a year as a trainee, to $100,000 a year.

Luxury imported car sales
Here’s a look at Dallas-Fort Worth area luxury car sales for several imported brands, year to date through May, compared to sales of bellwethers Honda and Toyota.

Aston Martin 13
Audi 1,536
BMW 2,134
Ferrari 20
Honda 2,619
Jaguar 311
Lamborghini 13
Maserati 92
Mercedes-Benz 2,113
Porsche 493
Rolls Royce 17
Tesla 112
Toyota 5,795

From Fort Worth Business Press -By Scott Nishimura, snishimura@bizpress.net

Whole Foods Market, which opened its newest store July 8 in Colleyville, won’t be done in the Metroplex even when it completes the next four stores it has on tap for the area, according to Mark Dixon, the company’s Southwest region president. The highly sought-after Austin grocer announced earlier this year it would open a store at the planned Waterside development on the Trinity River in southwest Fort Worth in 2016. The company also is planning a fall opening for a store at Highland Village in Denton County, summer 2015 opening in Uptown Dallas, and fall 2015 opening in Frisco.

“Assuming Fort Worth does well, I think there’s another store opportunity there,” Dixon said in an interview Tuesday after the company celebrated the grand opening of the Colleyville Boulevard store. “I think there are some markets in the mid-cities that aren’t being served, and I think there’s some north-south opportunities in Dallas. In general, the Texas economy is better than most other states. We’re just seeing great success.” In opening the Colleyville store, Whole Foods touted the addition of the company’s second wood-fired pizza oven, a large adjoining bar and restaurant an expanded array of prepared foods and items from 60 local vendors.

Dixon – who joined Whole Foods as a grocery team member in 1984 and now oversees two dozen stores, a distribution center, two bakehouses and a culinary center – sat down for a Q&A with The Business Press:

What drove the addition of the bigger bar with the wood-fired pizza operation?

We don’t make any two stores the same – we bring a core store, and we also say “why don’t we try some new things?” It’s very important for us to innovate. One of the things that’s been a super success has been the bars. People can shop, but they can also enjoy a beer. I see a lot of moms like to enjoy the bars, because they don’t feel like they’re going to a “bar” bar. They can just come in, they do their shopping, they enjoy a glass of chardonnay. For this store, we wanted to make it a little larger, connect it to pizza. We’ve had pizza ovens in our stores since the early 1990s, but for years it’s become standard. We’d bring in a gas oven and put out traditional recipes. We just really felt can we take pizza to another level. We decided to go with a wood-fired oven. There’s a whole flavor profile that you wouldn’t get with a gas oven. It’s a really hot oven, it really becomes a craft. This is our second wood-fired pizza. We just opened a store in Houston two weeks ago where we did wood-fired.

What else is new with this store?

Our self-service food bars. If you went back five years ago, you might find one bar in a store. This store has three, which includes a dedicated barbecue bar. You can’t really see it, but in the back of the house, we have a pretty substantial-sized room with a very heavy duty commercial smoker that’s running 24 hours a day.

So you do all your smoking in-house?

Yes. And in some of the future stores that we’ve designed, we’re going to try and find a way to expose that smoker so it’s more visible.

Is it a wood-fired smoker?

It’s a combination gas-assist. The gas provides the heat, but you put wood in, and the wood smokes the product.

You have about 60 vendors who are based in the D/FW area. Are some of these getting their first shot at the mass channel?

We’re a combination of both things. We procure a lot of global products. At the same time, we also like to procure a lot of local products. It’s one of the ways we can do our best to support the community. We have a dedicated forager team. That’s their sole job: go hit the pavement and find local products. We have two for Texas, one for Oklahoma and Arkansas – we just rolled Dallas into her territory – and we have one for Louisiana. In some cases, (products are) easy to find. But from time to time, we’ll stumble across new startup vendors. They may be ready to start a new product, but lacking ready capital. Or, in some cases, just the know-how: I can make product, but how do I get it to market? We also have a local producer loan program; when banks are unwilling to loan these vendors money, we’ll do it for them. It’s a low-interest loan. It allows them to bring the product to market. I know (the Southwest Region has) given out over 30 loans in the last two years.

Are your foragers food people?

They’re food people, but they have to have a lot of business savvy. In some cases, these small local vendors might not even own a computer, especially small farmers. Or they want to bring a product to market and they don’t have a UPC code on it. So, the forager’s job is just to help them through all that. A great example: One of our first loans we gave out was to an egg company out of Austin. It was to a guy named Jeremiah and he sold Jeremiah’s Eggs. It was for a true pasture egg; people were literally walking around all day long gathering eggs out of the nests. Great guy, great product, but no real understanding of how he gets his product to market; he was selling to farmer’s markets. We found him and recognized his capacity was large, so we gave him a loan that allowed him to buy more assets and have greater production.

How big are these loans?

The range is pretty vast. They’ll be as small as $10,000. In our region, we’ve done over $100,000 at times.

Switching gears a bit, what do you describe as the primary geographic draw for this store?

The primary draw is going to be where we’re at. It’s going to be Colleyville. I think we’re going to definitely draw from Southlake, Grapevine, maybe as far south as Arlington. Generally speaking, you put a point in the center and drive 16 minutes in any direction – that’s generally what our draw is going to be.

As Whole Foods opens more stores, is this market radius shortening, just logically?

It just depends on where the store is located. It’s not necessarily an intentional strategy. Some of our stores draw from a narrower market, some of our stores tend to be a more regional store. If you take our Highland Park store (in Dallas) – a very dense urban area – we tend to draw from a short distance. But at the same time, if you take a store like Plano or Fairview (near McKinney), not only is it drawing from its neighborhood, in many cases it’s the closest Whole Foods Market in 50 or 80 or 100 miles. It tends to have more of a regional draw.

Looking at the Metroplex, what holes in the geographic spectrum are Whole Foods interested in?

I look at the whole history of Whole Foods Market. We started in 1980. We had just a simple mission back then. The good news is, we’ve kind of arrived. The popularity of organics is widespread now. It’s no longer a guessing game. At the end of the day, what you put in your body does matter. With the awareness being greater, there are just a lot more markets we can be in. I think of the whole Dallas-Fort Worth area. I think there are plenty more opportunities.

What excites you about the Whole Foods’ Waterside site in Fort Worth?

The thing that excites me about that opportunity is that what the developer is doing there is so much bigger than one grocery store. He’s taking a very large space there, he’s referring to it as a ‘conscious place’ – a place where you could work, you could play, you could live. I think it’s got a lot of potential.

At one point several years ago, it was announced that Whole Foods was going to the Clearfork development. Why the switch?

Like any lease we sign, there are sort of time frames put in it, and conditions. We just got to a point where some of the conditions weren’t met, and we thought it was best that we find another location. And the good news was, we did, and it’s not too far away. We think the access will be very good. It’s something we think we can get open quicker – I’m confident we can – than we might have been able to get the other site open.

Is Whole Foods giving any thought to coming into the dense urban neighborhoods with the small format stores it has?

I think there’s room with a smaller box, but the (merchandise) opportunities are much greater than they were five years ago. And on top of that, we’re putting in more robust kitchens, greater prepared foods bars. There’s a lot more that we’re stuffing in these boxes. Although I never know what opportunity might present itself, my favorite size is 35-45,000 square feet. We can bring in everything and I think it just gives our customers a better choice. I’m always open-minded, and it just kind of depends on what we think the demand will be.

What new features can you discuss now that we should expect to see in the Fort Worth store?

We don’t have everything solidified. I definitely know we’re going to go bigger with prepared foods. I think you can expect to see everything you see at Colleyville, and we’ll definitely have one or two surprises.

From the Dallas Business Journal:

TEXpress Lanes on I35e

For anyone who has ever wished their car could fly as in the film “Back to the Future II” when you’re stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic, you’re sort of getting your wish. Starting July 12, drivers will soar through the air on their own dedicated managed toll lanes in both directions along Interstate 35E. Called TEXpress Lanes, they will open with dynamic pricing that changes every five minutes based on traffic levels. The goal is to keep traffic on the TEXpress Lanes moving at 50 mph. There’s no cap on how high the tolls can go.  Similar dynamic pricing went into effect on the TEXpress Lanes on the eastern edge of the LBJ Express from Preston Road to Greenville Avenue last month. TEXpress Lanes are becoming a common fixture on North Texas highways.

Other North Texas Road Updates

The North Tarrant Express is 94 percent complete and will be finished by the end of the year, providing 13 miles of new freeway lanes and managed toll lanes, the contractor announced.

Loop 820 from Interstate 35W to Northeast Mall interchange through north Fort Worth, Haltom City and North Richland Hills: $1.45 to $1.95
State Highway 183/121 through Hurst, Bedford and Euless: $1.75 to $1.95 Drivers who enter TEXpress Lanes without a valid TollTag will pay twice as much, as much as $7.80 for the entire corridor during peak travel periods.  Commuters have a choice whether to enter the managed toll lanes, called Lexus Lanes by critics, or stay on the freeway lanes. The TEXpress Lanes are a fairly new phenomenon in North Texas with the first lanes already open on the LBJ Express (Interstate 635 in North Dallas) and the DFW Connector (SH 121 and SH 114 in Grapevine). TEXpress Lanes are managed toll lanes that guarantee drivers travel a minimum of 50 mph but the price fluctuates every five minutes based on traffic demand.

The SH 183 project spans 15 miles from the junction with State Highway 121 in Euless east to the junction with Interstate 35E in Dallas. The ultimate scope of the project also includes 2.5 miles of Loop 12 and 10.5 miles of State Highway 114 to the north entrance of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. In other news at the LBJ Express, the TEXpress Lanes on Interstate 35E will open July 12 with dynamic pricing. The 3.6-mile stretch starts at the junctions with Loop 12 and Northwest Highway.

From USA Today by Ben Mutzabaugh

 
Southwest Airlines enters a new era Tuesday, flying its own planes to destinations outside the United States for the first time ever. The low-cost carrier’s international era officially begins with Southwest Flight 1804, which is schedule to depart Baltimore/Washington International Airport (BWI) for Aruba at 8:30 a.m. ET. Ten minutes later, another international Southwest flight is scheduled to depart BWI – this one bound for Montego Bay, Jamaica. Those will be the first of six routes Southwest will fly on Tuesday to destinations outside of the United States. The others are Atlanta-Aruba; Atlanta-Montego Bay; Baltimore-Nassau, Bahamas; and Orlando-Montego Bay. Southwest’s seventh international route – Saturday-only service between Orlando and Montego Bay – launches Saturday (July 5).

All of the international destinations that Southwest begins flying to today are already served by subsidiary AirTran, which Southwest acquired in 2011 – in part to gain access to those international destinations. But Flight 1804 will mark the first time that a Southwest-operated 737 flying under the Southwest brand will take paying passengers to a destination outside the United States on a regularly scheduled flight. Southwest CEO Gary Kelly says the company’s nascent international service represent a huge growth opportunity for the airline. When international passengers are counted, Southwest remains dwarfed in size by “legacy” rivals American, Delta and United. But when only domestic passengers are counted, Southwest has grown to become the largest carrier of passengers within the United States. “This opens up all of North America to us,” Kelly says about the carrier’s expansion outside the mainland U.S. — his comments coming a recent sit-down interview at Southwest’s headquarters in Dallas.

While international flights are today’s focus, Kelly says that Alaska and Hawaii also under consideration by the low-cost carrier. The carrier’s next wave of expansion will look at all destinations beyond the 48 contiguous states of the mainland U.S. that are within the range of the Boeing 737 – the only aircraft type flown by Southwest. “We’ve pinpointed 50 potential destinations that could be several hundred aircraft worth of growth,” Kelly says to Today in the Sky. “It opens up Hawaii, Alaska, Canada, the Caribbean, Mexico, Central America and even the northern tier of South America.” Still, as Southwest ventures outside the mainland U.S., it will increasingly go head-to-head against the larger legacy carriers that already serve those areas and have lots of experience with international flying. Still, Southwest has been a fierce competitor against those rivals, with much of its rapid growth during the past four decades coming in markets where it has battled those big carriers. Kelly thinks Southwest’s route network – which historically has skewed more toward point-to-point flying than the hub-and-spoke model used by its legacy rivals – will give it a unique position as it fills out its international route map. “We’ll have an array of U.S. cities to choose from,” Kelly says about cities that could land international routes on Southwest airplanes.

“That’s a really neat thing about Southwest,” he continues. “We have a lot of flights in a lot of places. So unlike our legacy competition — where they have three or four focal points in the United States — we’ve got 30. So we’ll have international flights from an array of markets and more than what we’re serving from today.” He says Southwest’s initial efforts will come in converting service to AirTran’s international to Southwest service. Two such airports — Milwaukee and Orange County, Calif. — will be the next Southwest cities get Southwest-operated international service. That comes in August, when Southwest expands its international route map to include the  Mexican destinations of Cancun and Los Cabos. Another three Southwest cities – Austin, Chicago Midway and San Antonio – will get flights to Mexico or the Caribbean during Southwest’s next international expansion on Nov. 2. And Southwest is adding international capabilities to its bases at Houston Hobby and Fort Lauderdale, saying foreign flights from those airports will be added to the schedule within the next year or two. “Beyond that, we’ll keep those as closely guarded secrets as where we want to focus,” Kelly says.

And while Southwest sees more than four-dozen possible new destinations outside the 48 contiguous states, Kelly cautions they won’t all come at once. “It could take us another 25 years to add 50 cities,” he says, noting that Southwest added only three dozen cities between the time he joined the airline in 1986 and took over as CEO in 2004.

From the Fort Worth Business Press
Companies that have received financial incentives from Fort Worth were ahead of their commitments for job creation, local construction, supply and services spending, and minority and women-owned enterprise contracting through 2013, the city said in an annual internal audit. In an audit of 43 agreements, companies receiving incentives created 9,195 jobs through 2013, well above the 3,585 they committed, Robert Sturns, the city’s business recruitment and retention manager, said. Against their commitments to hire central city residents in Fort Worth – inside Loop 820 – the companies created 1,259 jobs, compared to 1,167 they committed to. On construction spending with Fort Worth contractors, the companies spent $499.4 million through 2013, compared to $262.7 million committed, the audit said.

On local goods and services spending, the companies spent $20.1 million, compared to $14.3 million committed, the audit said. On spending with minority and women-owned construction contractors, the companies spent $285.9 million, compared to $196.4 million committed. On goods and services spending with minority and women-owned firms, the companies spent $12.8 million, compared to $8.7 million committed. Of the agreements analyzed, 10 were property tax abatements, 25 were Chapter 380 gap-financing grants, and eight were completion reports. “Overall, the picture is very positive,” Sturns told Mayor Betsy Price and City Council members Tuesday. Companies receiving abatements that didn’t meet their commitments points to “softness in the economy,” Sturns said. “Companies are still struggling, and they’re making layoffs and they’re curtailing their annual spending.” On property tax collections for the abatement agreements, the city was ahead of projections, collecting $1.1 million compared to a projected $558,864, the audit said. The value of the abatements to the recipients was below projections, at $1.7 million, compared to $2.3 million projected. On the Chapter 380 grants, the city collected $17.1 million property tax and gave $10.8 million in grants, for $6.28 million net revenue. The grants levered $2 billion in private investment, the audit found.

From the Fort Worth Business Press

Federal rail regulators have cleared the proposed Dallas-to-Houston “bullet train” project for an environmental review. The Federal Railroad Administration published a “notice of intent” in the Federal Register on Wednesday for an environmental impact statement on the Texas Central High-Speed Rail Corridor. The move opens a 90-day window for public meetings and comment on what the study should include. It also means the project has cleared an initial hurdle in its journey toward construction. Backers say construction could begin as soon as 2016 and trains could start rolling by 2021, carrying passengers between Houston and Dallas in about 90 minutes. The private Texas Central High Speed Railway has given no cost estimates on the proposed 240-mile route.

From the Fort Worth Star Telegram by Caty Hirst –  Chirst@star-telegram.com

The City Council voted Tuesday night to move forward with a proposed $175 million development in the Stockyards but added restrictions on zoning and other matters to protect the area’s historic character. The vote was 8-1. At his last council meeting, Joel Burns cast the no vote. The development proposed by the Hickman family and Majestic Realty Co. of California was announced June 3. Over the weekend, several longtime local history advocates said they feared that a modern development could tarnish the area’s unique heritage.

They urged the council to postpone awarding economic incentives. The council approved incentives worth $26 million over 25 years with amendments, including initiating a zoning change from heavy industrial to planned development/mixed use with a site plan required for the development on North Main Street. And the economic development agreement will not take effect until the zoning change is in place. The council also agreed to start work on detailed regulations for the historic Stockyards district that would affect development. The motion passed by the council will also prevent permits from being issued until new zoning is in place. Much of the $26 million incentive will go toward needed infrastructure improvements, such as street work, Craig Cavileer, Majestic Realty’s executive vice president, said in a previous interview. The project must meet certain criteria for investments and construction spending to receive the full incentive.

Councilman Sal Espino, whose district includes the Stockyards, said he is confident that the design guidelines required for the development will protect the significance of the area. The council also asked for regular updates on the development. “Everyone on this dais is concerned with the history, the Western heritage of the Stockyards, and we really do appreciate all of you coming down here because we received the emails and phone calls,” Espino said to a crowd of more than 100 gathered for the meeting.

“Everyone in Fort Worth has a just concern for the gem that is the Stockyards. What city staff is recommending are procedural safeguards to protect the history and the integrity of the Stockyards.” Burns said he voted against the project because he thinks the city has not done enough to protect historic sites in Fort Worth. Steve Murrin, a former City Council member known as “the mayor of the Stockyards,” said he was concerned that the area’s historic character could be lost without more assurances from the developers. “I think the council is pretty much committed to what you think is the best route,” he said. “I’m not going to argue with you about the timing and so forth.” Murrin asked the council Tuesday to “admonish the other side to quit being the other side” and said he does not see where the plans the developers have laid out are a commitment to continue the “integrity of the Stockyards.” Most of the speakers, many dressed in cowboy boots and hats, urged the council to delay the vote and vet the project more thoroughly. Former City Manager Doug Harman, a history buff and former executive director of the Fort Worth Convention & Visitors Bureau, urged a delay in an email to the Star-Telegram and others Monday. On the other hand, Billy and Pam Minick, two Stockyards stars in their own right and partners in Billy Bob’s Texas, supported the project in letters and emails to the council. Pam Minick spoke in favor of the project Tuesday.

The project, with three planned phases, includes property on the north and south sides of Exchange Avenue between Northeast 23rd and Northeast 28th streets, and the former Swift-Armour packing plant. It could include two more hotels, residences, corporate headquarters and livestock auctions. The group is also seeking a tax increment financing district in the Stockyards. The Hickman family has invested over $1 million in preserving the Livestock Exchange Building and invested another $1 million to buy a historical cowboy lifestyle wagon collection and the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame collection, moving both to the Stockyards. Majestic Realty, the country’s largest privately held real estate company, has worked with the Hickman family on the project for 2 1/2 years.

From Fort Worth Business Press by Betty Dillard – bdillard@bizpress.net

RadioShack Labs, a new marketing collaboration between Fort Worth-based retailer RadioShack and product development firm PCH International, has launched to help emerging companies and inventors bring their innovations to market. In an effort to rejuvenate its retail offerings, RadioShack will offer select PCH Access companies special retail terms, and create a direct path to up to 2,000 RadioShack stores and preferred positioning on radioshack.com. With PCH, RadioShack plans to implement a direct-to-store model for select products, reducing inventory requirements and increasing inventory turn in stores. RadioShack Labs is designed to enable innovative startups to sell to a significant market and will provide consumer awareness through marketing promotion as well as strong retail and online presence. RadioShack plans to have these products in a dedicated space in-store by the end of the year.

“It’s long been our belief that innovation and collaboration go hand-in-hand. As we transform RadioShack, it’s important that we simplify and streamline the channels that encourage inventors and entrepreneurs to join us in the retail environment,” said Joe Magnacca, chief executive officer of RadioShack. “We see so many exciting consumer products coming from startups and we want these differentiated products in our stores.” Through its established program, PCH Access, PCH has brought products to market such as LittleBits, a modular electronics kits, which will be in select RadioShack stores in late summer. Officials with both RadioShack and PCH International said the goal of the partnership is to identify dozens of new products per year, and to use the PCH Access program to turn concepts into products ready for national retail.

Zone could help hotel and convention center project down the road

From Denton Record Chronicle by Jenna Duncan – jduncan@dentonrc.com

The exploration of the feasibility of a hotel and convention center continues to move forward as the Denton City Council on Tuesday discussed creating a tax-increment reinvestment zone to fund the project. If created, the TIRZ would generate an estimated $13.6 million to help repay construction costs on the project over a 30-year term. The zone would take up the 13-acre area where the project is planned to be built, which currently has no taxable base value. A formal hearing on the proposed zone and an ordinance to create it will be held June 17. This was the first full meeting with new Mayor Chris Watts presiding, and council member Jim Engelbrecht was named mayor pro tem in the first action of the meeting.

To create the zone, Denton County and the Denton school district will have to agree to participate, which would mean the county would dedicate 75 percent of its real property increment and the school district would dedicate 75 percent of its interest and sinking real property increment to the fund. In the deal, the city would contribute 100 percent of its real property increment. “Creating the TIRZ at this time would not make the project final or go forward in any way, it is just a feasibility mechanism that is a necessary step to determine whether the project can go forward,” said Aimee Bissett, director of economic development for the city. After the city holds a hearing, it can choose to move forward with the ordinance later in that meeting. If approved, a board would have to be appointed, a project and financing plan would be finalized and all entities would sign participation agreements. It could be concluded by August or September, said David Pettit, a consultant on the project who presented to the council. Leading up to it, though, is the potential for several actions regarding the project to be brought to the council because of required steps, such as the discussion of bonds.

The TIRZ plan accounts for the hotel and convention center to be completed in 2017, and when the contributions to the fund would gradually kick in. A preliminary mock-up of the center presented in December is currently out for construction bids, which are due later this month. The project details retail and restaurant space in addition to the convention area and 318 hotel rooms. A different project was potentially stalled after the council voted unanimously to postpone action on rezoning a piece of land that is planned to be used for a CVS Pharmacy going in on Avenue B between Hickory Street and Oak streets. It is one of four pieces of land in the planned development that will make it one lot, and is the only one not zoned for retail use more than 5,000 square feet. In the near-final plans for CVS, the portion is used as a turn-in lane from West Oak Street to the parking lot. However, the council took issue with the turn-in giving access only to CVS, as there is a new laundry facility going in next door that will probably need access from Oak as well. Since the area has a lot of pedestrian traffic, council members said they want fewer curb cuts on the street to improve pedestrian safety.

In a motion to postpone action pending further investigation of collaboration between the two businesses, Engelbrecht said he thought giving access to two businesses with one curb cut could be “a potential win for everyone.”Additionally, the council received the certification of the citizen petition to ban hydraulic fracturing, and the city attorney proposed adding a public hearing on the petition for the July 15 council meeting. This was the first time the petition was discussed by the council after it began to circulate among residents in February, and the council now has 60 days to take action on the petition or call an election on the issue.

JENNA DUNCAN can be reached at 940-566-6889 and via Twitter at @JennaFDuncan.

From the Fort Worth Star Telegram, BY CATY HIRST – chirst@star-telegram.com

It’s time to get your tube on — Rockin’ the River, the summer long concert series at Panther Island Pavilion, will be back this month with more fireworks and an indoor venue. The free concerts are played for inner-tube riders from a waterfront stage, but landlubbers can park their lawn chairs on the banks of the Trinity River to hear the music every Thursday night from June 5 to Aug. 7. Parking is also free at 395 Purcey St.

Besides the usual food and alcohol vendors, the Trinity River Vision Authority, which puts on the series, is adding fireworks after every concert this year. “For the sake of the event, we are always trying to make it better. … One of the cool things people really liked from last year is at two specific times we had fireworks,” authority spokesman Matt Oliver said. There’s also a new indoor venue, The Shack at Panther Island Pavilion, so the concerts can go on rain or shine. One was canceled last year because of high winds, Oliver said. The group is also adding a mechanical bull for river goers to try out.

“Rockin’ the River is just the vibe for Panther Island, for the whole development, that we want. It is people not just being near the river, they are in it. They are fully embracing it,” Oliver said. He said that 1,700 to 2,000 people attended each night last year and that he expects the number to grow.

Concert goers can bring their own tubes, kayaks, rafts or anything else that floats, as long as it’s not motorized. Coolers and outside food or beverages are not allowed. Anyone who breaks the food and beverage rule will be asked to leave, according to the website. Beer and soda will cost $3, and Mike’s Hard Lemonade frozen margaritas are $6. Food from Salsa Limon will be available. Tube rentals will be $6, pedal boat rentals will be $21, and kayaks, canoes and paddle boards will also be available for rent. The gates will open at 4:30 p.m., and the first band will start at 6:45. The fireworks show will start about 9:30 p.m. The hashtag #TubetheTrinity is being promoted, and more information is available at www.rockintheriverfw.com.

Fort Worth’s Fourth
A free Independence Day celebration, also hosted by the Trinity River Vision Authority, will follow the July 3 Rockin’ the River concert. The gates will open at 2 p.m. to several free events, including live music, flyboard and Jet Ski shows, tubing, pony rides, miniature golf, a levee slide, train rides, bounce houses, a water slide and face-painting. New this year, the water boarders will perform tricks on water-fueled jet packs. The cover band Party Machine will hit the stage at 6 p.m. and Larry g(EE) will follow at 8. Fireworks will start about 10. “We’ve built up quite a reputation over the past two years for having the best fireworks show in North Texas,” J.D. Granger, the authority’s executive director, said in a statement. “We’re dedicated to upholding the reputation. We have quite a few tricks up our sleeve this year and can guarantee the crowds will not be disappointed. And, of course, we will have our signature firebombs that always shock and awe the crowd.”

For more information, visit www.fortworthsfourth.com. Caty Hirst, 817-390-7984 Twitter: @catyhirst