Entrada developer Michael Beaty spoke to council about plans from Ray Mickens from Mickens Inc., a real estate holding and development company from Southlake.
Mickens, who played in the NFL for three teams from 1996 to 2007, had proposed developing a 2-acre lot that would include 18 residential lots, a B1 Bank and another commercial development.
The Westlake Planning and Zoning Commission approved the commercial developments but not the residential lots. After more than an hour of discussion, council voted to allow the bank project to go forward. Mickens can resubmit the plan for the residential and the other commercial lot in a future meeting, Town Manager Wade Carroll said.
The background
Beaty said the original plan for this part of Entrada was 117,000 square feet of office space, but he said after 11 years there hasn’t been much interest.
This particular 2-acre lot was supposed to be an underground gunnery range, which was approved four years ago, but the project never came to fruition, Beaty said.
Beaty said he presented a public improvement district reassessment in 2023 but has struggled to get many of the projects approved.
“I’ve had an entire development ready for a year and asked for a meeting, but I never could get past [the now-retired director of planning and development]," Beaty said. "I would love to have a workshop, but there’s a plan to finish Entrada.”
Beaty said he is using six different listing brokers to help fill the buildings in Entrada that are already constructed. He asked council to approve Mickens’ plan since the funding is in place.
Zooming in
Mickens said he wanted to talk to his lenders for the property, as his funding for the development was tied up in the commercial and residential areas.
Tammy Reeves, a new council member, was formerly on the planning and zoning board. She said commission members were against the idea of residential houses so close to the SH 114 corridor. Reeves said the recommendation from planning and zoning was to approve commercial only.
Beaty said the 18 houses Mickens had proposed would be allowed in the mixed-use development.
“Mr. Mickens is ready to go, and the use of this pad represents the highest and best use of land in the market today," Beaty said.
Mickens said he plans to move his office from Southlake to Westlake if the additional commercial development is approved at a later council meeting.
Quote of note
“We’ve had these projects come time and time again, and they don’t go anywhere,” council member David Quint said. “It'd be nice to know, do we have actual tenants? Are they ready to go and ready to build? What had been planned gets moved, and then someone comes back and asks for another change, and before you know it, you don’t even remember what you’d all agreed to in the first place. It is really challenging.”
