Wallace-Bajjali project to finally get underway

Turner Report readers from Joplin may have been shocked to read a headline about a Wallace-Bajjali Development Partners project finally getting underway.

Don't get excited yet.

The project is in Amarillo, Texas, and it has taken four years to get the ball rolling. Wallace-Bajjali came into Amarillo boosting public-private partnerships, then gradually began pulling away from many of the initial projects it had boasted.

Sound familiar?

The overarching project is a revitalization of downtown Amarillo and has been a subject of heated debate in the city. Wallace-Bajjali's role at this point appears to be limited to the construction of a parking garage which will be adjacent to a hotel and convention center.

The cost for the garage will be $14.3 million...with all of it coming from the taxpayers.

City officials claim that taxes will not go up as a result of the development.

The Amarillo Globe-News reported on last night's meeting of the Amarillo Local Government Corporation, opening with this information:



“Here we are about four years later with the documents finalized,” said David Wallace, a principal at Wallace Bajjali Development Partners, setting the scene at Tuesday’s Local Government Corp. meeting for how the proposed downtown parking garage will go up.

“We’re obviously at another next step,” he said.

Negotiations between Wallace Bajjali, the city of Amarillo and the LGC took years, but in months construction of the garage and its retail spaces should begin.

“I think we can crank up in June,” said Raymond Braswell, chief operating officer of Wallace Bajjali who will be supervising construction and leasing the retail spaces.