Visit McKinney board approves minutes, hears reports on airport, events, hotel tax and marketing

The Visit McKinney board on Tuesday approved the minutes from its April 29 meeting and received a series of staff and liaison reports covering city council appointments, airport construction, downtown events and hotel-occupancy trends.

Katie Scott, chair of the Visit McKinney board, called the meeting to order. Empress Drain, the city secretary, reminded board members that the City Council will review appointments to boards and commissions on August 26, 2025, and that applications for reappointment or public applicants are due by June 20. “We encourage folks to be abreast of those things,” Drain said, referencing the boards-and-commissions policy and the Texas Open Meetings Act.

Paul Grimes, city manager, told the board that construction contracts were approved at the May 6 City Council meeting for the McKinney National Airport commercial service terminal and associated infrastructure, with Swinerton serving as construction manager at risk. Grimes also provided an updated population estimate for McKinney of 220,814 as of April 1 and outlined upcoming council swearing-in events June 3 and June 17 tied to the city’s election calendar.

Andrew Jones, cultural district director and liaison to McKinney Main Street, reported that downtown events have been drawing strong crowds. He said an inaugural match for a downtown team drew more than 2,600 attendees; Aaron Warner, Visit McKinney executive director, later noted the correct attendance figure for the first game was about 3,600. Jones previewed Texas Music Revolution and other summer programming, and said impact-center renovations and a downtown roundabout installation are in progress.

Alicia Holmberg, reporting for the finance committee, said Visit McKinney is about 58% through the fiscal year (as of April) and that hotel-occupancy tax revenue was up about 6% in April, with occupancy rates reported at about 74.6% for the market area cited. Holmberg said average daily rate (ADR) is lower than some peer cities that have higher-end conference hotels, but strong occupancy has helped overall revenue.

Bridal Medina, chairing the marketing committee, said the committee is tracking how AI and chat tools are affecting search results and that Visit McKinney’s organic search rankings remain strong. Medina also praised the retail shop’s performance and highlighted staff progress on social media outreach and planning for major upcoming national sports and music events.

Executive Director Aaron Warner highlighted scheduling shifts for golf events next year — noting the Byron Nelson and related events will occur over Memorial Day weekend 2026 — and said the CJ Cup/Byron Nelson timing change may affect visitor patterns. Warner also noted DCI’s July 21 event at MISD Stadium and said Visit McKinney will host the Sports Invitational Conference next year, bringing sports planners to the city.

The board approved the consent item to accept the April 29 minutes in a voice vote. Motion to approve the minutes (agenda item 25-2827) was made by Keith Gall and seconded by Janie Pena; the motion passed.

Board members closed with a reminder that Amy Kincaid will present a parks update at the next meeting and with thanks to staff for managing several large recent events. The meeting adjourned at 8:32 a.m.

Provenance: background reports, attendance figures and the minutes vote are recorded in the meeting transcript where board and staff presenters gave updates and the board voted to approve consent minutes.