McKinney mayor

Mayor Brian Loughmiller was elected as mayor in 2009 and again in 2013 after serving six years on the McKinney City Council. He has seen the city rise to No. 1 on Money Magazine's Best Places to Live list and the completion of one of the city's longest construction projects—the Sheraton Hotel and Conference Center. Now, with the hotel project completed, Loughmiller said he is focused on the growth of the city and the completion of the US 75 expansion project.

What do you feel makes McKinney the best place to live in the U.S.?

I think the main thing we focused on this year was the completion and progress of some major projects—including the widening of US 75. Also, we have a very low unemployment rate, our housing is affordable, our school districts are highly rated and we have a lot of good businesses here. People who live here are also very positive about McKinney.

With all of the corporate headquarters and big businesses moving into the area, how is the city prepared to handle that growth?

That's a good question because we are prepared for the growth and have been for the past several years. If we go back to 2010 we really talked at length about developing a corporate center, enhancing the airport as well as the areas of development that are now under construction.

We wanted to be proactive and have the proper infrastructure in place, and I think that's the No. 1 thing companies look at when they look to relocate. I think the big challenge for us, planning for the future, is to get some infrastructure on the north side of town north of US 380. But we are planning for that and just approved a 10-year capital improvement plan that has $100 million worth of roads, three new fire stations as well as expansion at the airport, and those are projects we will need to complete in order to stay ahead of the growth.

The northern portion of the city is fairly undeveloped. Are there certain developments you hope to see there?

One of the things we have always talked about is the lack of national retail similar to what they have at the Village at Fairview on the north side of the city. The area that we would target for that would be the area near the Trinity Falls development on FM 543/US 75 location. Major retailers will not build another store within 10 miles of another. This area is outside that radius.

We do have some local retailers that are doing quite well, especially in downtown and the shops on Eldorado Parkway, but this is an entity that people want and we will work on that. Another area in which I think we will see some development is near the courthouse since the county has centralized all of their offices to Bloomdale Road. I think we will see some office buildings out there. We will also be spending the next 18 months looking at our comprehensive plan and our land-use plan, which includes density in our residential neighborhoods.

How has the opening of the Sheraton Hotel and Conference Center helped move the Gateway project along?

The Sheraton has been really nice, and it's definitely creating some buzz. ... I think the next thing we will see is a major office building. I think the other businesses currently located on the site are hoping for some restaurants. There's just not a lot of places for people to go on that site. We have always wanted the Gateway property to focus on commercial properties. But, I hope to see the development be something similar to Watters Creek.

We had originally thought that we didn't want any residential properties on the site, but we are rethinking that at this time. We spent so much time in the earlier years trying to force the market, but because of going through the recession we are allowing the market to dictate what we do. The most important thing about the hotel and conference center is that it's finished. We stood by what we said we were going to do, and now we can move on to other developments on the site.