TIF board recommends adding 7,000-seat soccer stadium and youth complex to TIF 3; board approves 7-year extension

The Tax Increment Finance No. 3 Board on Jan. 28 recommended adding a proposed professional and youth soccer complex to the TIF 3 project plan and recommended extending the district’s termination date to Dec. 31, 2055. The board approved both recommendations by unanimous voice vote.

Board members were asked to approve language to put the project in the TIF plan so the city can proceed with design and possible bonding if contractual agreements with a private team and developer are finalized. Matt Madden, a city staff member who presented the item, said the project would pair a 7,000-seat professional stadium with adjacent youth and academy fields and supporting infrastructure.

If the project proceeds as presented, the stadium construction budget is $50 million. Madden proposed issuing about $43 million in TIF revenue bonds to help finance the stadium, with the remaining stadium costs covered by city cash and utility funds for related utility work. Youth and recreation fields, a plaza and parking were shown in the proposal as a separate $25 million package to be covered by the city’s capital improvement program and certificates of obligation.

Madden told the board the city owns the 64-acre site under discussion; most of that property is limited by a conservation easement that allows recreational use but not commercial development. A 14-acre “reserve tract” within the site is not under that easement and was shown in early concepts as space for team headquarters, a small hotel and mixed-use development.

The ownership group the city has been negotiating with is identified in the presentation as the local USL franchise ownership team; Madden named co-founders Matt Valentine and Sam Morton as the club’s principal owners. The presenters said the team would operate as a tenant and the city would retain stadium ownership. Madden said lease negotiations are ongoing and that the city expects a 20-year lease with annual payments and contributions into a capital reserve fund to cover major replacements and systems beyond routine maintenance.

On financing, Madden said the proposed TIF revenue bonds would likely carry a higher interest rate than general-obligation debt because they are structured as revenue bonds secured by TIF receipts rather than by the city’s full taxing power. The staff estimate presented to the board used a 6% interest assumption, projected conservative TIF growth and showed a model in which the bonds could be paid off in about 18 years under the conservative scenario, with a call provision after year 10.

Board members asked how the stadium financing would affect the medical-district reserve the TIF currently supports. Madden said the board’s amendment would allow borrowing against future TIF revenues but included a proposed schedule to make the medical-district reserve whole over time; he stressed that project-specific protections could be written into the ordinance and agreements so that bonds would not be issued if the stadium deal fails to reach required contractual milestones.

During the discussion members raised questions about transportation and connectivity, parking, conversion of surrounding property, and environmental buffers adjacent to Spring Creek Preserve. Madden said designers will use cutoff LED lighting and preserve and enhance vegetative buffers between the site and the preserve, and that the design process would address stormwater and trail connections.

The board motion to recommend adding the stadium and youth complex to the TIF 3 project plan (agenda item 3.c) passed unanimously. A second motion recommending the TIF termination be extended to Dec. 31, 2055 (agenda item 3.d) also passed unanimously.

What’s next: the board’s recommendation will go to Garland City Council. Madden said staff would begin design work if council pursues the project and that further TIF-board meetings and legal review would follow before any bonds are issued or final agreements signed.