Cousins Texas was vying against Houston-based Hines Interests LP for the favor of Irving City Council, which cast its unanimous decision Thursday on the 30-month contract. Stone says current projects, fresh ideas and the right price factored into the final call. "We have a history here, a depth of experience and certainly we ought to know more than others, but that was not the end-all for the city," he says.

Now that the decision's done, Stone says "the goal is to try to get this thing going sooner rather than later." A ground-breaking date has not been set for the 325,000-sf convention center. The upside is delivery is set for late 2004 and coincides with comeback predictions for the hospitality and convention market.

The convention center will rise on 38 acres, bought in October 2001, in the Las Colinas Urban Center. The triangular tract is bounded by Texas 114, a planned extension of Las Colinas Boulevard and Northwest Highway.

Michael Ablon, Cousins' senior vice president, says the site plan is still being fine-tuned so it's uncertain if the center will front the Las Colinas canal. The tract does abut the canal, a highly popular shuttle network between the hotels, dwellings and local retail attractions. HNTB Architects, Engineers & Planners of Kansas City, MO designed the center. Ablon can't put a date on when general contracting RFPs will be floated.

The convention center is being timed to deliver with a complementary 450-room hotel. Atlanta's Stormont Hospitality Group LLC holds that contract. The center's first phase includes 100,000 sf of exhibition space, 20,000 sf of ballroom area, 27,000 sf of meeting space and the balance dedicated to support space. The facility, if it follows the master plan, will eventually hit 675,000 sf.

The dual projects are expected to generate $93 million annually in direct and indirect spending in Irving and the Dallas-Fort Worth area and $3 million in sales, hotel and property taxes. Some 1,600 jobs will result, say analysts. A 2% share of the city's hotel occupancy tax is funding the project, which is pegging hotel room bookings to jump by 100,000 when the ribbon's cut.

Jim Clark, executive director of the Irving Convention and Visitors Bureau, says the center "will serve as a signature facility and important economic engine." He says Cousins is "a deeply vested corporate citizen" with "a great stake" in the project's success. For the past decade, Cousins has been the development manager for Las Colinas, a 12,000-acre tony business and residential community. The hometown favorite also represents more than 1,400 acres on behalf of the community's largest landowner.