To help the stars align in Plano for a new hockey arena district, city voters will be asked to vote on five new taxes in the Nov. 3 election.
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Plano pledged to contribute up to $700M for a new arena to anchor the Dallas Stars' $3B sports and entertainment district at The Shops at Willow Bend. City voters will have final say on a potential funding source for the project.
Plano’s Proposition A would authorize new taxes on car rentals, hotel rooms, event parking, tickets and other venue activities that officials believe out-of-town visitors would largely pay. City staff said the new taxes could generate up to $900M in revenue, though they would cap arena contributions from the taxes at $1B.
It would authorize:
a short-term motor vehicle rental tax of up to 5%;
a hotel occupancy tax increase of up to 2%, which would result in a maximum combined hotel occupancy tax rate of 15%;
an event parking tax of up to $3 per vehicle;
an admissions tax of up to 10% of the ticket price;
and a venue facility-use tax of up to $5,000 per game on each member of a major league team that plays in the arena.
A group of Plano residents organized the Stop the Stars Arena group to encourage voters to cast ballots against the proposition. They argue that some of those taxes would hit Plano residents and that the arena district could lead to future property tax increases and city-funded costs.
City officials said approving the proposition would not affect Plano's property tax rates.
Traffic concerns dominated a city survey about the project, and a commercial real estate veteran agrees that could be a major problem.
MMR Realty Advisors Managing Principal Victor F. Russell, who is working with the Stop the Stars Arena group, said he can't imagine how the Willow Bend site could move the number of visitors it is projected to get on game days in and out of the district without "significant chaos."
The city has started a preliminary traffic study but plans to dig deeper as more detailed plans for the sports and entertainment district become available. Future studies will cover parking, event traffic plans and neighborhood mitigation efforts.
Stars CEO Brad Alberts said the election is important because the new taxes would give Plano another option to assist with financing the arena.
“We want all of these mechanisms to be at the discretion of the city so that they can properly deliver on the public side of this,” Alberts said during Bisnow's Collin County State of the Market event Thursday in McKinney.
If voters don’t approve the proposition, Plano officials said the city would reconsider its existing funding sources to determine long-term financing options.
The city established a tax increment reinvestment zone in June over nearly 900 acres around the Willow Bend grounds and along the Dallas North Tollway. That zone is expected to generate more than $1.3B in new property tax revenue for the city and about $245M in sales tax revenue over its 41-year lifetime.
The Stars have shared the American Airlines Center with the Dallas Mavericks for the past 25 seasons. But each team’s lease at the venue expires in 2031, and the Mavericks have also announced plans for a new arena district in the area.
Whether the proposition passes, a final master development agreement still needs approval before work on the Stars’ district can move forward.
In addition to the new arena, the planned 90-acre mixed-use district at the Willow Bend site is slated to feature up to 2M SF of trophy office space, two hotels, nearly 1,000 residential units and more than 200K SF of retail, restaurants and entertainment options, according to the project’s developers.
Plano Director of Economic Development Michael Talley said the district, and that influx of trophy office space, could help draw more companies to the city.
Plano has emerged as a North Texas hot spot for corporate relocations this year.
In January, AT&T announced plans to relocate its global headquarters from Downtown Dallas to Plano beginning in 2028. In June, Samsung Electronics America confirmed it will move its U.S. headquarters to the city by the end of 2026.
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