With cranes, backhoes and other heavy machinery operating in the background, a crowd gathered for the Aug. 20 ground breaking ceremony of the Tower At Frisco Square, a 165,821-square-foot office building across from Toyota Stadium.
The top two floors of the Frisco Square office building will be occupied by Gearbox Software, which is moving its headquarters from Plano to Frisco.
"I know it has been complicated," said Mayor Maher Maso. "I know there have been a lot of moving parts, but I can tell you the city never wavered, it is very committed. I can't tell you how excited we that we are standing here today. This is something that is important to all of us."
Jim Leslie, managing partner at Wolverine Interests, said it has taken 1,401 days for the project to get to this point.
About 400 days in, he said they hit "a little bit of an economic hiccup. I went through 671 days of turmoil and hell trying to keep this thing together and bring it together. It wouldn't have happened about the commitment of the team."
He said while his own team and the city gave continue support, it was the support of Gearbox Software that kept the project together.
Randy Pitchford, president of Gearbox Software, said the success the company has seen has been fortunate for its ability to entertain people and the health of the company, but that success also caused it to outgrow its current Plano facility.
"It came time for us to look for something new; a place we can call ours and we can build specifically for the way we work," he said. "When we learned about what Frisco had to offer, what life was like here and what the future looked like, what the vision from [City Manager George Purefoy] and the mayor had in store for the city, it was very exciting and we were committed."
Pitchford said hopefully in a year's time he and the Gearbox Software team of close to 250 employees will move into the building.
The ground floor of the building will have retail and restaurants.
"One of those restaurants is going to be called the XP Bar and Restaurant and it is actually themed around video games and information technology and culture," he said. "There are some other exciting things that you'll hear more about I'm sure as we forward, but my commitment to Frisco and my commitment to making this the best place in the world for us to work will bring to all of our benefit."
