FRISCO, Texas — This article was originally published by our content partners at the Dallas Business Journal. You can read the original article here.
A $3 billion mixed-use project is advancing in Frisco, with plans to include a $400 million Las Vegas-style hotel among its many amenities.
Frisco Railhead, located along Dallas North Tollway north of Main Street, will feature multifamily apartments, hotels, retail, offices and entertainment. Infrastructure construction, which included utilities, roads and sewers, finished in early November.
As of today, Plano-based Heady Investments is selling tracts on the 80-acre site for development. The land is priced between $27.50 to $60 per square foot, said Randy Heady, CEO of Heady Investments. That works out to roughly $1.2 million to $2.6 million an acre. As of today, the firm has sold land to four developers, including Dallas-based apartment developer JPI and Jordan Wallace of Wallace Ventures.
Wallace, who acquired roughly 6 acres, will bring retail and a 16-story hotel to the site. Heady Investments has already pre-leased 36,000 square feet of retail space, which will include a cryotherapy center, boutique salon and a sushi restaurant with an adjoining nightclub.
The Frisco Planning and Zoning Commission approved a site plan for Wallace's development on Nov. 12. The project is located at the northeast corner of Branch Line Street and Wyndham Lane, according to the site plan document.
Plans are also underway for a $400 million, 32-story Las Vegas-style hotel on the property. Heady Investments declined to share additional details about the developer, operator or brand involved in the hotel. Construction on both hotels is expected to finish by 2026.
Frisco Railhead will also include 1.5 million square feet of office space on 18 acres, targeting financial groups and tech firms. The site will offer high-speed fiber internet and a 5-acre central park with food trucks, live music, an amphitheater and an upscale restaurant. Additional plans include a 500-car garage with a rooftop movie theater.
"My goal is to turn this into essentially a smart park," Sayres Heady said. "You're [going to be] able to analyze parking, [and] how many people are coming and going each day."
Other projects underway at Railhead, include a daycare and an upscale fitness center. Furthermore, Heady Investments is in discussions with a company interested in relocating its corporate headquarters to a 120,000-square-foot office building within the complex.
With all that's planned, Sayres Heady anticipates "over 8,000 people" to visit the park daily. To put that in perspective, his estimation accounts for nearly 3 million people a year. These figures align with the current visitation figures of Hall Park, a sprawling office campus just five miles from the Railhead development.
"While we don't have a crystal ball, we will certainly be done in less than a decade," Sayres Heady said. "The sites are zoned, and developer ready. We have been getting phenomenal interest from all over the world, from professional sports teams to art installations from New York [to] Los Angeles."
Residential development
In 2021, JPI purchased roughly 25 acres for multifamily development at Frisco Railhead. The developer broke ground on the three-phase project in 2022.
Phase one, known as Jefferson Railhead, will feature 453 apartment units. Currently, 100 units are constructed, and 30% of those have already been leased. Rooms range from 570 to 1,710 square feet and are priced between $1,479 and $3,337 per month. The remaining units should be ready by early 2025.
The second phase, Jefferson Parkhouse, will add another 450 units and is expected to finish construction in line with the first building. Phase three, planned to offer 377 units, is in early design stages and is anticipated to break ground in 2026, said Aaron Douthit, JPI's vice president of development.
The entire 1,280-unit project is set to be completed by 2028. The development will also add about two acres of green space to the overall Railhead development.
"[If you can] deliver apartments first, it makes the rest of the retail, office and hotel development much more attractive because now you've got the infrastructure already in and you have this apartment community that's there and thriving," Douthit said.
Economic overview
Once complete, the Frisco Railhead is expected to bring roughly $3 billion of development to a city, which has seen a thunderous boom in mixed-use communities over the last nine years.
Current multibillion-dollar projects underway in Frisco include the $3 billion development of The Mix, the $4 billion Firefly Park, the $2 billion Fields West and $1.3 billion in upgrades to Toyota Stadium. Those projects are also expected to bring a slew of retail and restaurant amenities to Frisco, which has grown by more than 200,000 people over the last two decades.
The rise of new mixed-use projects reflects the foundation laid by developments like The Star, Legacy West and Hall Park. These earlier projects marked a shift in the office landscape, whereby employers are seeking locations that not only benefit their goals but also the daily lives of their employees.
"Frisco is a searing hot market, and everyone seems like they want to be here now," Sayres Heady said. "Having Lifetime and H-E-B to the south, FC Dallas across the street, and Universal about to break ground just northeast of us, we believe that we are in the very center of the action."
