AC Hotel McKinney, restaurant rise on SH 121 near Craig Ranch

McKinney’s southern edge was set to gain a 137-room AC Hotel and a wood-fired bistro at 7600 SH 121, a project aimed at the business and event traffic building around Craig Ranch and Hub 121. The five-story hotel, now vertical, was designed to pull in overnight guests, meeting crowds and local diners as the corridor keeps adding office, retail and lodging options.

Construction began in March 2024 on the nearly 71,500-square-foot building, which includes eight suite-style rooms. Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation filings put the estimated cost at $30.756 million and listed a planned completion date of March 31, 2026, showing how long the project had been working through the pipeline before the structure reached full height.

Inside, the hotel was built around a European-inspired AC Hotel format with an AC Kitchen, an AC Lounge, an around-the-clock AC Store, a fitness center with Peloton bikes and free weights, an outdoor pool and patio with fire pits, and nearly 3,000 square feet of meeting and event space. The Mockingbird Room alone was designed to seat about 200 people depending on layout, giving the property a clear play for business gatherings, small conferences and social events, not just standard room nights.

The restaurant, Good & Proper Wood Fired Bistro, was described by Marriott as inspired by family heritage and prepared in a custom wood-fired hearth. The project architect said the top-floor restaurant had a dedicated entrance for both hotel guests and the community, a detail that matters in a district where the hotel’s success will depend on drawing more than just travelers checking in for the night.

Location is the other part of the bet. The site sits in Parkside at Craig Ranch inside Hub 121, with access to nearby shopping and restaurants and close to McKinney Corporate Center, TPC Craig Ranch and major employers tied to the corridor. That includes Globe Life Inc., which announced on February 3, 2025, that it planned to relocate its corporate headquarters within McKinney and acquire 7677 Henneman Way and adjacent land from SouthState Bank. Later reports said more than 3,000 Globe Life employees would transition to the new headquarters over time.

The AC Hotel is not the only upscale lodging play nearby. The proposed JW Marriott Resort McKinney Craig Ranch is planned for 290 rooms and a 51,575-square-foot conference center on an 8-acre site, underscoring how aggressively McKinney is competing for higher-end hospitality, meetings and dining business along SH 121.