Developers Can Finally Begin Fixing A Notorious Frisco Eyesore With Approval Of The Mix
A massive hole that has blighted the city of Frisco for more than five years will finally be filled following city council’s approval of The Mix.
The 112-acre project will include 2M SF of office space, 375K SF of retail, two hotels, for-sale townhomes and thousands of high-end apartment units. Development will be centered around a 9-acre park that adds to the site’s more than 16 acres of green space.
“This is the final product of years and years of work,” Frisco Mayor Jeff Cheney said at the city council meeting. “I don’t think anyone is happier tonight than me.”
The site at the intersection of Lebanon Road and the Dallas North Tollway was once slated for Wade Park, a $2B mixed-use development that became defunct after lenders seized the property in 2019.
More than a year later, Georgia-based owners Wade Park LLC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and accused the lenders of fraud, a claim that was eventually thrown out by a New York judge, per The Real Deal.
The partially completed Wade Park project left behind a huge hole in the ground. The excavation site has for years been both a pesky reminder of Wade Park’s demise and the driving force behind the city’s desire to see something new built in its place.
“While it’s an eyesore today, the final story that will be told about Wade Park and now The Mix will be a positive story,” Cheney said. “I always believed that the site was just too great of a site.”
Streetlights Residential, in partnership with New York-based investment firm JVP Management, filed plans to resume work on the site in 2021, according to Community Impact Newspaper.
Firm executives said it will cost upward of $100M to fill the hole, which they plan to turn into an underground parking garage.
“It’s been long enough that the city has been looking at dilapidated buildings and a hole in the ground,” JVP Management’s Tim Campbell said at the Aug. 19 council meeting. “Together we are ready to move forward to create something beautiful.”
The development agreement requires the project be done in phases. In other words, developers will only be allowed to build the entirety of 2,800 residential units once they deliver a certain amount of Class-A office, retail and hospitality space.
Developers will kick off the project by building 653 apartments, 100K SF of retail, a 120K SF medical office building and a portion of the central park. Phase 1 is expected to take three years to complete.
