Breaking ground...

Another step is being taken in the Galatyn Park Urban Center development, as ground is broken for Richardson's Performing Arts and Corporate Presentation Center. The center was designed by RTKL Architects, will be built by Hubert Hunt Nichols-Construction with Pelton Marsh Kensella (PMK) acting as the theatre and acoustical consultant. The center has been designed to provide for local artistic and cultural performances and corporate presentations. The construction completion date is scheduled for December 2001.

The auditorium is just one aspect of Galatyn Park Urban Center, the 500-acre, mixed-use, rail-transit-orientated development located at President George W. Bush Turnpike and Central Expressway. The Urban Center is being developed via a unique public/private partnership between Galatyn Park Corporation, John Q. Hammons Hotels, Nortel Networks, DART and the City of Richardson. The development will include a DART light rail station, a public plaza, a full service hotel and the auditorium. Galatyn Properties Ltd. will develop a 12-acre mixed-use development site immediately south of the plaza.

The Galatyn Park DART Station is under construction and service is planned to begin in 2002. Construction of the Marriott Renaissance Hotel, owned and operated by John Q. Hammons, began in 1999. The 12-story, 330-room full-service hotel will offer nearly 30,000 square-feet of meeting and convention space, including a ballroom of more than 12,000 square feet. Nortel Networks is the lead business tenant in Galatyn Park Urban Center and has already constructed 560,000 square feet of space in three buildings on the property with a fourth building conceptually planned.