Construction on and around the new Paul and Alejandra Foster Pavilion will continue long after the first tipoff at the riverside arena on Jan. 2, but Baylor University and city of Waco officials have a temporary plan for parking and traffic while the work proceeds.
The arena will be the first major project to open in a $500 million public-private redevelopment of the downtown riverfront, which has been underway for eight years and will continue for at least four years more.
An aerial photo taken this week shows the extensive construction zone along University Parks Drive. At right are Clifton Robinson Tower and the new Foster Pavilion parking garage, with the arena itelf just out of the frame.
Construction on the arena began in June 2022, joining a welter of nearby projects that have crimped traffic flow around the riverfront for years.
The reconstruction of University Parks Drive and associated utilities and drainage has been underway for more than two years and will not wrap up until summer, city officials said. The mixed-use Catalyst development around Webster Avenue is still wrapping up its first phase after several years of construction.
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The new $212.6 million home of Baylor University basketball is expected to be ready Jan. 2 for its inaugural game with Cornell University, but crews with AECOM were working around the clock this week on tilework, flooring, paving, landscaping and escalators. Work will continue through the end of summer on the pavilion complex, including a basketball development center.
Construction on the Foster Pavilion will continue beyond the Jan. 2 debut.
Meanwhile, the Foster Pavilion parking garage is months from completion but expected to be ready for game day Jan. 2 for donors and season ticketholders with 455 spaces. Construction is just beginning on a second public parking garage across Clay Avenue, expected to be competed in June. Riverwalk work will keep crews busy through 2025 around the arena.
Baylor University officials this week announced temporary plans to accommodate game day crowds. Those plans include opening a section of University Parks between Interstate 35 and Clay Avenue to shuttles dropping off fans at the Foster Pavilion from elsewhere. The shuttles run continuously two hours before tipoff and into the first hour of the game.
A map shows downtown shuttle routes for general admission ticketholders at Foster Pavilion. The pickup point is Heritage Square, with dropoff at the arena.
Parking is available to various groups as follows:
Free shuttles will pick up general admission ticketholders at Heritage Square, which is surrounded by numerous lots of free parking. Officials estimated that there are also 1,600 free parking spaces within a 20-minute walk from the arena.
Students and game day staff can park at the Ferrell Center and catch a shuttle to the arena.
Baylor Bear Foundation members who qualify for reserved parking can park at the 455-space Foster Pavilion Garage, the nearby Robinson Tower parking lot or the new Webster Avenue Garage on University Parks near the Union Pacific tracks, which has 300 spots. During men’s games reserved parking will also be available at McLane Stadium Lot 3, which will be served by a shuttle.
The city of Waco and Baylor University announced the pavilion in December 2021 as part of a complex partnership to complete the redeveloment of the riverfront. Those plans included extending the ongoing Catalyst development to Clay Avenue and rebuilding the riverwalk, with eventual plans to build a performing arts center at Franklin Avenue and University Parks.
Major sewer, water and drainage work had to be done on University Parks Drive before it could be reconstructed. A part of the new Catalyst development is seen in this photo, looking toward Franklin AVenue.
But projects such as the Catalyst mixed-use development and the parking garages have seen multiple delays, which city officials attributed to logistical challenges related to supply chain snags and the difficulty of coordinating work between multiple different developers.
The city and the Tax Increment Financing Zone have dedicated $133 million to the Riverfront project including an $18 million contribution to the arena itself along with infrastructure, parking, property acquisition and the coming redo of the Riverwalk, Assistant City Manager Paul Cain said. The city committed an additional $13 million for road and parking improvements.
Under a 2022 agreement with Baylor, the city will be able to use the pavilion for events such as concerts or youth basketball tournaments.
City of Waco and Baylor officials say their parking studies show sufficient parking for the Foster Pavilion, though it will not have the luxury of the Ferrell Center’s 2,000-space parking lot. Henry Howard, associate athletic director for capital projects, said the parking study by Kimley Horn found 1,600 public parking spaces within 20 minutes walking distance to the stadium.
Baylor officials say the new Foster Pavilion garage will be ready for parking on Jan. 2. Additional work including a decorative screen is expected to wrap up by summer.
There will also be police stationed to escort students and other pedestrians through the University Parks underpass on Interstate 35 and across the frontage road.
Cain said the city will clear part of University Parks Drive of dirt and debris to make it driveable for game days. Within the next few months the city intends to repave road and be able to open some lanes while the work progresses, Cain said.
“Over the next few months, we’ll be repaving the sections,” Cain said. “So it’ll be cleaned up, and the old pavement will be there underneath. There may be some places where we’d have to put rock in, because we’ve dug trenches smooth and smooth it over. That’s the interim solution.”
Cain said the city expects University Parks Drive to be open by June. He said to expect more partial closures in the second to third quarter of 2024, when additional construction is planned for the road from Jackson Avenue to Washington Avenue.
While Foster Pavilion races to completion, other parts of the Riverfront district have been delayed, according to information presented to the Waco City Council during its Tuesday meeting. Cain said the first phase of Catalyst’s mixed-use project is now expected to be completed in June after first being projected to finish this October.
The Clay garage has been delayed to June and the mixed-use elements planned for Clay Avenue have been delayed to September 2025, he said.
During a media tour of Foster on Monday, crews scrambled to prepare the arena for game day. While the court and stands were mostly completed, with only the goalposts needing to be installed and lines on the court needing to be painted, the rest of the arena’s interior was a different story.
Howard said work crews will be working around the clock until Jan. 2, but work on the practice courts, outside sections of Foster and the development center, which includes practice and recovery areas for athletes, will continue until the summer.
“Once the guest gets in here, I don’t think they’re going to notice anything that isn’t normal for a normal game day,” Howard said. “It’s really some of the things that are on the outside of the stadium. Some of the landscaping, some of the roads may be temporary solutions, but within a few months, we’re going to have everything complete for that game day experience.”
With about 3,000 fewer seats than Ferrell, Howard said Baylor aimed to pack in fans and keep them closer to the action. At Foster, the farthest seat from the action is 54 feet closer than the farthest at Ferrell.
Fewer seats means fewer tickets, including for students, who can attend at no charge. But Brent Ingram, assistant athletic director for communications, said the proportion of tickets designated for students will remain the same as at Ferrell.
Baylor on Wednesday also announced a “ticket return program” in which season ticket holders who cannot attend a game can send in their ticket to be available for faculty, staff and students.
Single-game tickets are not being sold for the men’s opener at Foster Pavilion on Jan. 2, but tickets went up for sale this week for the Baylor women’s game at Foster on Jan. 3 vs. TCU.
For updated game and ticket information, visit baylorbears.com/fosterforward.
