Frisco Hopes To Bridge Neighborhoods With Public Market
Follow CBSDFW.COM: Facebook | Twitter
FRISCO (CBSDFW.COM) - Frisco is growing so fast city planners are looking at ways to make sure it doesn't grow out of control. That's why one new project hopes a giant open market will build a bridge between properties.
If you look west of the site of the future market, you have Toyota Stadium. South of that is Frisco Square, and to the east is old downtown. That makes this spot a key hub that planners hope will become the pedestrian gateway for all these areas.
The people strolling through Frisco Square and the athletes a couple blocks north competing in ultimate frisbee have one thing in common. They all have to eat. That's why Frisco wants to connect all the surrounding developments with a large open market like the one in San Miguel, Spain.
"It definitely would be cool, kind of have that European vibe with the open air market," said Plano resident Brooke Wooldridge.
The model has already seen success in places like Boston Public Market and Milwaukee Public Market. Now developers plan to make an open market a key part of the 30-acre mixed use development set to occupy the empty field between Frisco Street and John W. Elliott Drive.
"I just like when people interact outdoors. You can have little places to go, like cafes, sit down, chat for an hour or two," McKinney resident Wanda Lewis said.
City planners hope the public market will encourage foot traffic between all the fast-growing surrounding areas.
"Anything that happens in this area we're very particular about how it interacts with everything around it," Frisco Director of Development Services John Lettelleir said.
City planners expect construction on the site to begin by next summer.
(©2015 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
