McKinney downtown redevelopment proposals include entertainment venue, live-work spaces

Three development teams seeking to partner with McKinney to redevelop four downtown city properties presented preliminary concepts during a City Council special meeting on Tuesday.

Their ideas for how the properties could be redeveloped ranged from boutique hotels, entertainment venues, parks, multifamily-residences and live-work spaces.

During the meeting, the public and council members were eager to ask questions and share feedback, highlighting the importance of sticking with the historic character of McKinney’s downtown. The Council could choose to work with up to all three development teams.

“One thing that stuck out to me with all the projects was the massing,” said Councilmember Charlie Philips in regard to the size of many of the proposed buildings. “They’re too massive for a lot of the folks here in downtown… We don’t have anything more than three stories.”

Residents also pointed to concerns with the scale of the presented buildings.

“It’s overwhelming the size of the buildings they presented,” said Cindy Roberts, who lives near the properties that will be redeveloped. “I’m hoping some of it is scaled back and parking doesn’t interfere with the neighborhood streets we have.”

Other council members pointed to the importance of keeping with “homegrown businesses,” balancing parking with residential and hotel uses and developing open spaces with attention to similar types of uses already in the works near the area. Council member Geré Feltus said the question is which project is going to keep the downtown vibrant decades from now.

Cala Pence has lived in McKinney for 33 years and likes the idea of green space being used for events and other activities. However, she is concerned that many of the presented renderings did not reflect the historical character of downtown.

“The pictures don’t look like historic McKinney to me,” Pence said. “I can see Frisco in the development designs here, but I want it to look more historic. It’s much less expensive to build if you’re using a lot of glass and steel, but our buildings aren’t like that.”

Matt Anderson, who lives within walking distance of the square, said he, among other neighboring residents, do not want to see more multifamily, yet all the presentations included it.

“We don’t want more multifamily, but every single one had that,” Anderson said. “I don’t know if we need it here.”

With the new City Hall scheduled to open in early 2025, city staff will vacate current facilities, including the development services building, the current City Hall, and two parking lots, one to the north of City Hall and the other to the east, leaving room for the redevelopment opportunities.

Council will evaluate public feedback through an online survey that was included in the public meeting agenda and will close it 8 a.m. on Nov. 29 before it finalizes its thoughts on the development teams.

Redevelopment ideas

The development teams are each from the North Texas area, including Hines Interests LP from Dallas, M2G Ventures LLC from Fort Worth and Nack Development LLC from Frisco. The redevelopment concepts presented by each development team are “aspirational designs” that are subject to change as they go through the public input process, said executive director of development services Michael Quint. Input and feedback from staff, council and the public will ultimately help shape the final design.

Here’s what each proposed:

Nack Development

Nack Development LLC proposed an entertainment venue with rooftop patios which would connect via skybridge to a boutique hotel and office with about 100 rooms. The entertainment venue would help support the hotel, as it would have the ballrooms and conference spaces that boutique hotels often lack. The team also proposed a parking garage and vertically integrated mixed use with varied residential spaces— for lease and for sale — and open space.

Donny Churchman, owner and founder of Nack Development has been developing downtowns in Texas for eight years and is the mastermind behind Frisco’s revitalized Rail District. The company solely focuses on downtowns.

“Downtowns are everybody’s neighborhood… and we really thrive and are purposeful in creating that for folks,” Churchman said. “We’re not trying to change downtown, we’re trying to piggyback on what’s already been done and enhance it.”

M2G Ventures

M2G Ventures LLC proposed multifamily residences, live-work units, two small parks, retail with rooftop patios and outdoor dining options and an upscale boutique hotel with about 75-90 rooms and a rooftop terrace. An above ground parking garage would provide about 285 spaces intended to serve tenants of the multi-family space but could potentially be open to public use. The team highlighted the importance of pedestrian connectivity and creating different ways to walk through the downtown and explore it.

“We want to think through what is that organic, community-led version of each of these types of uses,” Jessica Essl, co-founder and president of the company, said.

Further, the team specializes in boutique lifestyle hotels, and in McKinney they envision an oversized lobby with seating and high ceilings to serve as a public space and focal point of downtown. The team noted that the multifamily residences and hotel will bring a vibrancy to downtown not just on the weekends, but on the weekdays too.

Hines Interests

Hines Interests LP focused on bespoke retail, structured parking behind principal buildings not on principal streets, office space, multifamily residential uses and a park that would create a new civic asset at the center of the development.

“Ultimately we’re here to serve you and bring your vision as a community into reality,” said NBBJ Design principal designer Michael Suriano, noting that the team wants to work to enhance iconic landmarks like the water tower. “Fundamentally we want to adhere to what your city thinks is important.”

The centralized and programmed park would fill a need for collected community space within the city of McKinney as it would support community events, nightlife, and outdoor amenities, according to the presentation.

The city initially received 15 responses from development teams hailing from across the country. The responses were reviewed and narrowed down to the top five candidates using evaluation criteria published in the request for qualifications — which was issued by the city earlier this year to find developers who wished to partner with the city on the redevelopment of the land.

Those candidates were then interviewed by an evaluation committee that chose to invite the top three scoring development teams to make the formal presentations at City Hall.