A Richardson office building is on track to include retail and other businesses after the City Plan Commission unanimously approved a rezoning July 21.
In addition to existing office uses, the building will now be allowed to house a bakery, barbershop or beauty salon and retail businesses.
The overview
The 5,300-square-foot office building is located at 200 S. Cottonwood Drive near Cottonwood Park. City planner Christine Ross said the current owners purchased the building in 2015 but have had difficulties attracting tenants.
“We’ve had this property vacant for a long, long time. We are struggling with this thing,” owner Jay Farooqui said.
The area used to be primarily doctor and dentist offices, Farooqui said, but slowly many of these businesses have phased out. Ross said the only tenant currently in Farooqui’s building is a church.
“We have all the time inquiries regarding retail, coffee shop, barbershop or beauty salon, yoga center or exercise place, but due to the [zoning] restriction we could not even rent these spaces,” Farooqui said.
Ross said the owners also requested modified parking standards that reduce the required parking ratio on-site in order to provide more flexibility to the property.
Looking ahead
Farooqui said six neighboring office buildings are also largely vacant because of zoning restrictions and the loss of dentist and doctor offices.
“[This request] is almost like curing a hardship from the zoning to try to bring back some other usage cases,” Vice Chair Jeremy Thomason said. “The last thing we want is the whole sector to be a bunch of vacant buildings.”
After the commission’s unanimous approval, City Council will consider the zoning case at a future meeting.
