Irving's Next Act Springs to Life
Assessing her decades-long career with the City of Irving, Convention and Visitors Bureau Executive Director Maura Allen Gast uses the French term, “Cherchez le creneau,” which, translated into English means, “Search for the hole.” Not long ago, Irving quite literally had such a hole—a massive crater spanning some 80 acres, created by the April 2010 implosion of Texas Stadium. Two years earlier, the Dallas Cowboys, which stood as Irving’s most visible tenant for more than 35 years, had moved to a sparkling new temple in Arlington.
Then, in 2016, the Cowboys shifted its headquarters from Irving’s Valley Ranch to The Star in Frisco. A year later, the PGA Tour’s Byron Nelson Classic, an Irving sports staple for 35 years, moved to southern Dallas. And just like that, the city long known for its high-profile, nationally televised sports landmarks was forced to look for a new identity—and sources of revenue.
It would come, civic and business leaders decided, from conventions and entertainment. The shift in focus made sense. Irving could leverage the strength of its corporate headquarters core, its growing multifamily base, its proximity to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, and the new Irving Convention Center, which opened in 2011.
The March 2019 debut of the Westin Irving Convention Center at Las Colinas is the latest of three new high-profile projects that are helping the city execute on its new mission. It follows the late 2017 opening of the Irving Entertainment District, anchored by Toyota Music Factory, and Gables Water Street, a luxury apartment community with more than 60,000 square feet of restaurant and retail amenities.
Read more: https://www.dmagazine.com/publications/d-ceo/2019/september/irvings-next-act-springs-to-life/
