Construction begins on Frisco Station, the largest project in the TX '$5B mile'

Dive Brief:

Construction has begun on the largest project of the Frisco, TX, "$5 billion mile," the $1.5 billion, 242-acre, mixed-use Frisco Station, The Dallas Morning News reported.
Frisco Station's first structure is a 228,000-square-foot, seven-story office building, and developers are set to break ground on a multifamily project in the near future, according to one of the project's developers, Ross Perot Jr. The office building is located across the street from the Dallas Cowboys' own mixed-use development, The Star.
Ultimately, the Frisco Station project, which will encircle the Cowboys' headquarters and training facility, will boast 5.5 million square feet of office space, 2,400 apartments, a 40-acre medical complex, 650 hotel rooms and 300,000 square feet of retail, dining and entertainment space. Perot said Frisco Station could be in for a steady stream of groundbreakings, depending on how leasing pans out for the first building.

Dive Insight:

Frisco, once a popular dove-hunting destination, has seen an extraordinary surge in development over the last few years. Aside from the "$5-billion-mile" projects, city officials estimated that there are another $2 billion of development underway in other parts of Frisco as well.

This and other North Texas developments — like the $1 billion 500-acre mixed use development in Prosper, TX, just down the road from Frisco — are helping to take the sting out of a dive in energy prices in the region. Developers in the Houston Energy Corridor have put the brakes on their own projects because of the downturn, including a 35-acre mixed-use project featuring high-end retail and luxury hotels.

Like many other cities in the U.S., Frisco is responding to increased demand for live–work developments that provide an urban, walkable community atmosphere. That's driving the rise in mixed-use developments, Mary-Claire Burick, president of the Rosslyn Business Improvement District in Arlington, VA, told Construction Dive in June, adding that as much as one-third of the population has indicated that they want to live in a walkable, mixed-use community.