A multibillion-dollar mixed-use development under construction in Frisco is still on track despite a pair of site plan denials from city officials.
:quality(75))
The Frisco Planning & Zoning Commission denied two site plans for the 217-acre master-planned Firefly Park development during its Tuesday meeting. The rejected plans for the corner of Brixley and Breezeway boulevards included a hotel and office building, a parking garage and a plaza, the Dallas Business Journal reported.
Commission Chair Jon Kendall said the denials were due to engineering issues that needed to be “cleaned up.”
“This is not canceling a development,” Kendall said during the meeting. “These are just phases of getting plans approved. Needing a little more detail on these doesn’t mean we are stopping projects, rather just letting them finish getting those details done.”
City staff had recommended denial of the plans due to minimum requirements that needed to be met for parking and planned developments as well as issues related to signage, easements and more.
No representatives of Wilks Development, which is overseeing construction of the project, spoke during the meeting.
But the company said the denials were expected and the firm is working with the city to resolve the issues. Submissions are required to be turned in 10 days before the meeting, and the commission is required to act on plans within 30 days of receiving them.
“On a project of this scale and magnitude, it is a very short period of time to work back and forth with them and have all the project details ironed out,” Wilks Development Director of Marketing and Communications Nicole Ellis said via email. “The city allows for one round of comments before moving you to a ‘disapproval submittal,’ which is where we are.”
The developer expects the plans will be approved when they are resubmitted to the commission.
Construction on the $2.5B to $4B project at the intersection of the Dallas North Tollway and U.S. Highway 380 began last spring. Once completed, Firefly Park is slated to offer 3M SF of office, 400K SF of retail, dining and entertainment, 1,200 hotel rooms, 230 townhomes and nearly 2,000 mid-rise and high-rise residential units.
The first phase of construction, which was estimated to cost more than $25M in a filing with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, is slated to be completed in 2027. That initial phase will include a 190-room hotel with attached office space, a 25K SF amphitheater and the 230 townhomes.
Infrastructure work on the first phase of the project is expected to finish later this year, after which the project will begin going vertical, Ellis said.
Two additional phases of the project are planned over the next decade, the DBJ reported.
Kimley-Horn, BOKA Powell, Michael Hsu Office of Architecture, Sasaki, Hord Coplan Macht and UNStudio are also working on the project in different capacities.
The development is one of several high-profile projects coming to Frisco.
Work started earlier this month on the $3B mixed-use development The Mix at the corner of Lebanon Road and the Dallas North Tollway. That project will boast more than 2M SF of office space, 375K SF of retail, a pair of hotels and 3M SF of residential.
The $2B Fields West project from Legacy West developer The Karahan Cos. is also underway on 55 acres in Frisco.
The city also approved $182M in improvements to the city-owned Toyota Stadium in September that will turn it into the centerpiece of a mixed-use sports and entertainment district.
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)