How Plano, Texas, Is Taking The Lead With Innovative Redevelopment Projects

Plano, Texas, has experienced impressive growth in the last decade. 

The city has gone from more than 260,000 residents in 2012 to nearly 292,000 in 2023, becoming home to more than 13,000 local and international businesses. Now, Plano is shifting its focus to reinvestment and redevelopment of the approximately 4% of vacant developable land left in its borders to keep up with growth. 

Plano Economic Development, an agency that provides support for existing and new businesses, is evolving the city’s office, retail and restaurant scenes while striving to maintain the city’s authenticity.

“Not only are we helping the city stay attractive and competitive, we want to be part of its evolution for another two decades without compromising its identity,” Plano ED Director Doug McDonald said.

Leading the region in large-scale redevelopment projects, including Collin Creek Mall, the new Assembly Park developments and an office modernization program it launched in August, the city continues to build momentum with its economic development initiatives, and private-sector partners are heading up the drive. 

One example of this mission in action is the revitalization of Collin Creek Mall. Opened in 1981, this mall turned the suburb into a bustling city. It not only provided significant economic growth and anchored the U.S. 75 corridor but also became a beloved community institution for families, said Peter Braster, director of special projects.

Yet, like other regional shopping malls, the rise of discount superstores and the convenience of e-commerce caused this once-flourishing retail spot to become another tumbleweed blowing in the wind.

Today, the tides are changing as Collin Creek gets a much-needed makeover, going from its former big-box retailer motif to a thriving mixed-use retail corridor with the help of Texas-based development firm Centurion American.

A public-private partnership was formed between the city of Plano and Centurion American in 2019 to redevelop the 99-acre site into a regional mixed-use activity center, Braster said. 

The city used public financing tools, including two public improvement districts, to help finance $46.2M in public infrastructure revenue bonds and established a tax increment reinvestment zone. It sold the tax increment revenue stream for $38.5M to fund the mall’s parking garage and benefited from grants, including $10M in retail revitalization funds and $2.2M in parkland purchases.

“This redevelopment project will impact Plano in several ways, from being a catalyst to propel the northward redevelopment efforts of the U.S. 75 corridor through the city, to providing the region with its first all-weather retail main street to mitigate the hot Texas summers,” Braster said. “Additionally, the project will add diversity to the site by providing office, entertainment, a hotel and 3,000 housing units to support the retail.”

Another redevelopment project helping to evolve Plano’s landscape is Assembly Park, formerly Market Square Mall. The project is a partnership between the city and Triten Real Estate Partners. 

John Hardaway, who joined Triten as a partner in 2021 and heads all of the company's DFW projects, said the initial challenge with converting this space into a vibrant mixed-use corridor was putting the steps in motion to actualize the vision shared by the city and Triten. 

“It required many steps, from coordinating with the city of Plano on entitlements, partnering on the right design, organizing and aligning engineering and construction teams, and capitalizing the transaction right as the economy started to slow down,” he said.

Hardaway added that the team wanted to ensure a cohesive sense of place, with an end goal of creating an ageless destination for the community of East Plano once the project is completed. 

Whether it's the residents, families from surrounding communities or office workers, the city and Triten aim to ensure that Assembly Park goes above and beyond to deliver a convenient, enjoyable and vibrant mixed-use experience for all its inhabitants.

“Each restaurant, office and apartment offering from Assembly Park is elevated by a unique design and curated programming with a common thread of community and partnership,” Hardaway said. “It truly is a location that is made with the community’s peak enjoyment in mind and to create an ease in the visitors’ life through being an ideal one-stop destination to share with friends and family.” 

Retail is not the only property type seeing improvement. Plano also has a new tool to help with modernizing its office inventory known as the building modernization grant program.

The goal of the program is “to meet the evolving needs of businesses and support the introduction of modern amenities and upgrades, ensuring these office campuses seamlessly blend tradition with contemporary functionality,” McDonald said. “This investment will ensure Plano’s office market will remain attractive and competitive.”

Vacant office buildings are outdated, and rising inflation and construction costs delayed property owners from making improvements, putting such projects on pause until a large tenant wanted to move in, he said. 

Due to the office slowdown and demand for move-in ready space increasing, the city of Plano found that the grant program could help encourage property owners to make investments, upping the number of spaces that will already be amenitized once the office market picks back up, McDonald said.

“The first modernization project was recently approved by Plano’s city council,” he said. “Alvarez & Marsal are making a $21M investment to transform the former Southern Methodist University Plano campus into a new creative technology hub called Elevar. The city’s participation with this project is just under 10% of the overall improvement costs. Since August, we’ve spoken with over a dozen other office and industrial property owners who are interested in this program.”

The city works with property owners to review the project scope and identify items that could not be included or are at risk of being value-engineered out of the project scope without the city's participation, McDonald said. 

That can include outdoor features and fixtures, furniture and equipment such as shade structures, pickleball courts, sidewalks, central lounges and fitness centers, public art and coffee bistros.

“We believe these investments will help the buildings lease quicker by offering highly amenitized facilities for companies that are looking to bring their employees back into the office,” he said. 

Just recently, the economic development department and special projects team presented a new retail revitalization program to assist aging retail centers with new grant types for paving, lighting, facades and even lease buy-downs, McDonald said. He added that this is just the beginning of Plano’s future growth, and its economic development will be integral in this new phase of expansion.

“As Plano enters a new phase of economic development, the city will continue to prioritize investing in infrastructure and commercial real estate to support its growth and redevelopment for future decades,” he said. 

This article was produced in collaboration between Studio B and Plano Economic Development. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.

Studio B is Bisnow’s in-house content and design studio. To learn more about how Studio B can help your team, reach out to studio@bisnow.com