One of Dallas' first northern suburbs is launching a rebirth of its historic downtown district.
While old downtown areas in Plano, McKinney, Frisco and other Collin County cities north of Dallas have already gotten a redo, the original business district in Richardson has lagged.
That's about to change with a major redevelopment in the works.
Developers Durkin Properties and Catalyst Urban Development have teamed up with the city of Richardson to plan big changes for the stretch of Main Street just east of North Central Expressway.
Richardson is already building a new $80 million, 108,000-square-foot public safety complex at Main and Greenville Avenue.
Between there and Central, plans are in the works to revamp Richardson's aging downtown with street improvements and new buildings.
Keeping some of the old commercial buildings along Main Street is part of the redevelopment, said Manasseh Durkin of Durkin Properties. "The city originally wanted to tear a lot of it down" to widen Main Street, Durkin said. "We want to maintain some of the old buildings.
"There is just enough left that it harkens back and gives us a good mix," he said.
Four years ago, the city approved new urban zoning for the Main Street neighborhood. And earlier this year, Richardson OK'd $21 million to rebuild the streetscape through the district. The extensive reconstruction project is scheduled to be completed next year.
"We hope to create a pedestrian-friendly, very walkable district where small business can thrive," said Don Magner, Richardson's deputy city manager. "We are reinventing what is historically known as our downtown area and now is known as the core district.
"It's a complete rebuild of Main Street — rebuilding the road to include a boulevard."
Durkin Properties is working with Dallas-based Greenway Investment Co., which has bought up more than a dozen properties in the downtown area.
The developers are talking with restaurants, breweries and coworking office providers who want to move into the district, Durkin said.
The first phase of construction will start around the Chase Bank tower at the northeast corner of Main and U.S. 75.
Last fall, the city approved zoning for a 15-acre urban village called Town Central that will replace parking lots and a motor bank that surround the office building.
"The idea is to re-energize and redevelop the core of downtown," said Paris Rutherford, principal with Catalyst Urban Development. "We are trying to create an authentic destination for the broader community."
Rutherford said that demolition work will begin on Main Street in the next few weeks to make way for the new mixed-use development. "We are starting with apartments and ground-floor retail," he said. "There will also be some townhomes.
"We will have some pretty dynamic architecture that will be eye-catching from the highway."
A green strip that parallels DART's commuter rail line through downtown Richardson will be enhanced with more public areas and walking trails.
"We are kind of creating a version of Oak Cliff's Bishop Arts District in Richardson," Rutherford said. "We are amazed by the amount of millennial interest in the community and the number of people buying homes in the surrounding neighborhoods.
"It's a very rich mixture of opportunity as we see it."
