Nov. 5--Wednesday's announcement that Lubbock Power & Light will acquire Xcel Energy's in-city customers brings life to the city's downtown redevelopment hopes.
The doubled power lines over downtown's streets -- some belonging to LP&L, others to Xcel -- has been the lone impediment to getting redevelopment from blueprints to reality.
Under its agreement with master developer The McDougal Companies, the city is responsible for moving the lines.
The twinned lines have existed since 1942.
"It's the oldest part of the city and the oldest part of the infrastructure," Mayor Tom Martin said. "It would be expensive to duplicate two sets of infrastructure."
"Without this, downtown redevelopment doesn't happen," said former Mayor Marc McDougal, who represented the McDougal Companies at a breakfast for key city business officials to be briefed on the move yesterday.
The McDougal Companies were retained in December on a $1.7 million contract as master developer for downtown revitalization.
City and McDougal officials have been looking for months for a way to pay for putting two competing electric utilities' power lines underground.
Last summer, after Delbert McDougal, chief executive officer of the family business, outlined his target area for the first phase of revitalizing downtown, city officials spoke of issuing bonds or looking for grant money to pay for moving the electric lines.
McDougal identified a rough square bounded by the Marsha Sharp Freeway, Texas Avenue, 13th Street and Avenue Q as his starting point, in part because it represents an extension to the east of the Overton redevelopment project.
The costs of trying to put electric lines from both Xcel Energy and LP&L underground would have drained district tax-increment financing coffers, leaving nothing for actual development, said Robert Taylor, chairman of the Central Business District Tax Increment Financing board of directors.
As part of the package announced Wednesday, Xcel said it is donating its downtown office building, 1120 Main St., to Texas Tech. Xcel workers will be transferred to the utility's Frankford service center on the city's southwest side.
Tech System Chancellor Kent Hance said initially 65 administrative employees whose jobs don't require a constant connection to the campus will move into the downtown building in January or February.
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