BOOMZONES NORTHERN EXPOSURE

FRISCO, North Texas’ biggest growth market?

It may sound strange, but imagine how such talk about Piano must have wrinkled noses just one generation ago. The Dallas-Fort Worth area thrives on its booms that, by and large, have led northward. Now the incursion is even further north than most people would have imagined possible.

Just 40 years ago, Richardson and Piano were isolated farming communities more concerned with cow chips than the silicon kind. Now they are home to some of the nation’s largest companies and the region’s greatest concentration of high-tech firms.

In the 1970s, the entire Dallas-Fort Worth region experienced a healthy 32,1 percent growth in population, but the most remarkable numbers came from the Plano-Richardson area, which grew 108.5 percent during the decade.

Expansion didn’t stop there. The Frisco-Allen-McKinney area has experienced a population growth of 292 percent in the past two decades. And that’s small potatoes compared with what analysts predict the area will see in the next five years.

Bill Sproull, president of the McKinney Economic Development Corporation, explains that Frisco, Allen and McKinney are in the top 10 hottest housing markets in the area and. when counted as one entity, are “neck and neck” with Piano in new housing starts. The North Texas Council of Governments predicts a 116 percent population growth in the McKinney-Allen area by 2010. That would mean a population equal to Piano’s in 1986.

Of course, population growth brings development-Columbia hospital facilities are under construction in Frisco and McKinney, and General Growth’s mall project at Preston Road and Highway 121 will be complete in 1998. It will house 1.2 million square feet of retail space and a 30-screen movie theater. A$35-millionWestin Hotel with 300 rooms and more than 30,000 square feet of conference and office space is under way at the intersection of Legacy and Highway 121 in Frisco.

Frisco, Allen and McKinney hope to draw big business to the area as well. Jim Gandy, executive director of the Frisco Economic Development Corporation, says. “We are working aggressively to attract corporate office locations and high-tech industries to an area that is 88 percent undeveloped.” Compare that to Addison’s occupancy rate of 96 percent, and the northward migration makes sense.

Sproull adds that the McKinney area also has “all the elements for an enviable business environment” because of the abundant housing, the excellent schools and the triple freeport tax exemption (which video giant Blockbuster is taking full advantage of with its new national distribution facility).

Where will it all stop? In 10 years, will we be pondering whether Sherman will be Dallas’ next major suburb? It’s not as sure a deal as the current explosion-McKinney, Allen and Frisco have always sustained growth, even when the rest of the region foundered. However, success breeds success, and Texas booms always seem to exceed our wildest expectations.