Amarillo celebrates grand opening of Santa Fe Depot Pavilion
The city of Amarillo held the grand opening for the Pavilion at the Santa Fe Depot Friday afternoon to give the public a first look at all the possibilities that the new venue could provide.
Located right in front of the historic Santa Fe Depot, the newly built 60,000-square-foot open-air facility has the capability of hosting a wide variety of events. All within the new pavilion were setups that showed off its sports, music, rodeo and special events capabilities.
On hand for the opening ceremony were current and former members of the Amarillo City Council as well as the Amarillo and Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Mayor Cole Stanley, City Manager Jared Miller and Bo Fowlkes, general manager of the Amarillo Civic Center, were on hand to give remarks following mariachi singers Karen and Javier.
“This project has grown so exponentially from its original plan,” Fowlkes said. “Originally the project was supposed to have a lower ceiling, dirt floors and was to mainly to be built to house the rodeo. Raising the roof height and adding concrete floors has really opened so many more possibilities and opportunities for the use of this space.”
Fowlkes said that the facility was designed with an open-air aspect that makes it much more comfortable in the summertime. He also said that there was discussion of adding fans to circulate air better through the facility during the hot days of summer.
According to Fowlkes, an agreement with the Amarillo Wranglers and the civic center is being finalized to have an outdoor skating rink at the site during the month of December. He envisions the ability to have this facility used a vast majority of the year due to the weather in Amarillo.
He also said that this new pavilion, with its profile and space, will be a big benefit to the civic center with an ability to give more space for other usage.
“Several of our users that currently use the Amarillo Civic Center have spoken about ideas for using this facility as well,” Fowlkes added. "This facility has the ability to provide countless entertainment options, from private parties to sporting events like basketball and volleyball to concerts and rodeo attractions."
Mayor Stanley spoke about the endless possibilities for the new facility to create revenue and to create opportunities for all kinds of community events.
“This was a great idea that came through the push to expand other facilities in the area that could not get full support to be able to finance,” Stanley said. "At a cost of about $2.5 million, we were able to bring something to the public that is affordable that will bring a great return for the community.”
Stanley said that this opening was the perfect handoff to the new council that should bring exciting opportunities to host events that the city would not normally be able to host.
"With this facility, we will be able to host tournaments such as volleyball or basketball that will draw people from hours away to compete and attend," Stanley said. “Seeing this come together from my time on the council to now being mayor and seeing this come together is amazing. We should be able to have two to three bookings a month and an opportunity for more. Keeping these events in the city will keep dollars in the pocket of Amarillo.”
This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Amarillo celebrates grand opening of Santa Fe Depot Pavilion
