McKinney approves zoning for $200 million Rowlett Station redevelopment

The biggest change in McKinney is taking shape on South Stonebridge Drive, where a former corporate campus is being reset as a mixed-use district with housing, offices and retail. McKinney City Council approved the rezoning that unlocked part of the project on June 2, and Craig International formally unveiled Rowlett Station six days later.

The project covers nearly 58 acres at 3700 S. Stonebridge Drive and includes 300,789 square feet of existing office space, giving the redevelopment a scale few local projects can match. The council vote covered a 14-acre portion of the property for multifamily use after a recommendation from the McKinney Planning and Zoning Commission in May. David Craig, founder and CEO of Craig International, described the zoning request as “one component” of a larger mixed-use plan, and the company’s initial estimates place the project’s total ad valorem value at or above $200 million.

The timing matters because Globe Life had already announced plans in 2025 to move its headquarters about four miles away to another McKinney office building, leaving the west-side campus open for reinvention. For nearby residents and drivers, that means the area around Stonebridge Drive is headed toward a very different daily rhythm, with a mix of future apartments, commercial space and office use replacing a single corporate footprint.

Downtown, the change looks smaller but just as revealing. The Empress House at 201 E. Virginia Street, Suite 5, has turned a Historic Downtown McKinney storefront into a mahjong studio and social club, with Mahjong 101 classes, open play for single seats and groups of four, private parties and community events. It is the kind of business that shows how the downtown core is widening beyond restaurants and retail into more social, hobby-driven gathering places.

East McKinney is seeing its own version of that shift at Tupps Brewery, where Fields of Fidelis sells lavender-based products out of a renovated grain silo on the brewery property. The business is owned by Army veterans AJ and Lenda Fidelman, who grow the lavender on their farm in Anna, and the shelves include candles, bath bombs and essential oils. The Silos at TUPPS launched with a grand opening on March 7 and now includes six permanent retail spaces, part of a Build-Your-Own-Business model meant to lower overhead for small operators.

Another new downtown venue, Gather on the Square, opened on June 12 under the McKinney Chamber of Commerce and can hold roughly 200 people depending on the setup. It can seat about 150 for a dinner with a dance floor or 200 for mingling, another sign that McKinney’s growth is not happening in one place or one format, but block by block.