Construction starts on previously stalled billion-dollar, 217-acre Texas project

An aerial render of the future Firefly Park residential, commercial and entertainment district in Frisco, Texas, US. (Image courtesy Wilks Development)

Wilks Development (through subsidiary Frisco North Development) received approval on three sets of site plans in September from Frisco’s Planning & Zoning Commission, which represents a major step for the once dead-on-arrival proposal, which first started about ten years ago.

Named Firefly Park, the site will be a sprawling urban redevelopment for residential, commercial and recreational space that’s expected to cost between US$2 billion and $4 billion.

Located in the northern end of the City of Frisco – part of the greater Dallas-Fort Worth metro – initial construction of infrastructure started this summer working off schematics provided by a project design team consisting of Texas-based BOKA Powell, Kimley-Horn and Michael Hsu Office of Architecture, Massachusetts-based Sasaki, Maryland-based Hord Coplan Macht and Netherlands-based UNStudio.

The plan seeks to construct 230 luxury town homes, 1,200 hotel rooms, nearly 2,000 mid- and high-rise residential units alongside 400,000 sq ft of commercial and retail space, 3 million sq ft of office space, and a 45-acre park all inside a 217-acre plot near a major Texas motorway.

The property is jointly owned by Wilks (159 acres) and the Frisco Economic Development Corporation (59 acres).

Why was the Firefly Park project scrapped then resurrected?

A render including a view of a portion of the 45-acre park, which developers called the “crown jewel” of the project. (Image courtesy Wilks Development)

Wilks purchased the land in 2015 with initial plans to advance the space as a mixed-use development.

First designs, however, had vertical development facing away from the area’s largest natural feature: a more than 40-acre undevelopable floodplain. Texas-based media reported Frisco’s then-mayor disapproved of the idea and encouraged Wilks to highlight the open space instead of hiding it.

At the time of Wilks’ first proposal in 2018, too, a plan to relocate the Professional Golfers’ Association of America (PGA) of America headquarters to Frisco was at best a murmur. In December of that year, the deal was made official, and the major sporting league has since developed 600 acres just down the road from the Firefly Park site.

Universal Studios is also building a theme park and 300-room hotel near the Firefly site after a 2023 approval in addition to increased general development around the area PGA now calls home.

Sensing a unique opportunity for the region and taking note of additional outside interest, Wilks took city officials’ criticisms to heart, restructured its schematic to emphasise the site’s natural spaces, and they were rewarded with initial approval of the plan in 2021.

In a 13 September update, the Firefly Park project webpage called the 42-acre park created by the redesign the site’s “crown jewel”.

Timeline for construction of Firefly Park in Frisco, Texas

Render of the Dream Hotel at Firefly Park. (Image courtesy Wilks Development)

Phase one started with a groundbreaking in April 2024.

Horizontal infrastructure construction got underway in June and is expected through the remainder of this year and into the second quarter of 2025, Wilks CEO Kyle Wilks said.

Utility and infrastructure works, including installation of duct banks, utility lines and sewer infrastructure, were expected to run from July through September 2024.

The initial phase will include construction of the luxury 191-room Dream Hotel, with a 2027 estimated completion date for the first-stage works.

Phase two will immediately follow completion of phase one, Wilks said.

Construction contractor and subcontractor details and a projected completion date for phase two were not available.