Frisco City Council on Nov. 2 outlined plans to expand the city’s first tax increment reinvestment zone, which encompasses Stonebriar Centre mall, by just over 585 acres.
These zones, often called TIRZs, collect growth in property tax value of a certain area. Money generated within a TIRZ funds public improvements within the area without creating new taxes.
The city’s discussion came after planning for a new seventh TIRZ related to the expansive Fields project.
Construction of three public golf courses—two 18-hole courses and an executive short course—and related facilities associated with the PGA costs $35 million, according to a presentation given by Deputy City Manager Ron Patterson. The TIRZ expansion would fund $19.1 million of that cost, he said.
A total of $6.3 million from the TIRZ would go toward the city’s conference center at Hyatt Regency Frisco-Dallas, which has a total cost of $16.5 million. An $18 million parking structure at the Stonebriar Centre mall would also be fully funded by the TIRZ expansion.
Patterson said he remembered City Manager George Purefoy telling him to “check out this TIRZ thing” over 20 years ago after reading the state’s economic development handbook in an old City Council meeting back when City Hall was on Main Street.
“One of the things we wanted to make sure of is ... that we have a whole piece of property that can function by itself if need be in the future,” Patterson said.
Council Member John Keating called TIRZ 1 “the granddaddy of them all.”
Securing Stonebriar Centre mall on Frisco’s side of SH 121 and establishing the first reinvestment zone about 20 years ago were the start of Frisco’s economic success, he said.
“It is the golden goose that lays the golden eggs,” Keating said. “These public-private partnerships are what fund our homestead exemptions. It’s what brings Corporate America here to Frisco. It's what helps us build the city on sales tax revenue rather than on ad valorem taxes.”
On Nov. 16, City Council will hold a public hearing on TIRZ No. 1 and will vote on whether to approve amendments to the zone.
