CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The Corpus Christi City Council is looking at plans to expand the American Bank Center.
The city is asking state lawmakers to approve an idea to use state tax funds to help enlarge the convention center and get a hotel built on-site.
Corpus Christi City Manager Peter Zanoni told 3NEWS that the city believes it can get state lawmakers to sign off on the financial zone to help pay for the expansion of the American Bank Center.
"The cities that use it, Fort Worth and Dallas, have a 3-mile radius and we're looking at that because the radius here would place a lot of territory in the bay, in the water," he said. "So we're trying to see how we can have an equivalent geographic size to capture state taxes."
Zanoni added that the financial zone can be put into place for up to 30 years, and the city believes it could get over $60 million in state tax dollars over that period of time.
"What we do know is that if we do nothing -- if we continue to operate the same way we are today -- we are in a losing proposition," he said. "Because many cities in Texas are already invested in this industry."
Corpus Christi Dist. 3 Councilman Roland Barrera said if the state gives the city the okay to setup the financial zone, then the money has to be used for improvements to the American Bank Center.
He believes the idea will work just like it did in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area.
"They have utilized it, so we think this is just a tool that we can utilize once again to make that happen," he said.
City officials are looking for state lawmakers to approve their request by the end of this session. In the meantime, the city manager is working on a total financial plan which he hopes to have before council sometime in May.
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