Frisco approves $43 million contract for first Grand Park phase

Mayor Jeff Cheney stood as the Frisco City Council formally greenlit construction of Phase 1 of Grand Park, authorizing a $43,392,662 guaranteed maximum price amendment with Crossland Construction Company, Inc. that the council approved in its April 7, 2026 vote. The contract funds a Civic Park on roughly 68 to 68.9 acres near Cotton Gin Road and Legacy Drive and directs bond funds to the work.

The April 7 agenda memo breaks the numbers down precisely: a construction GMP of $40,642,662, a $2,750,000 construction contingency, $15,000 in preconstruction fees, $1,150,348 for general conditions, and a construction-phase fee of 2.25 percent, for a total Phase 1 budget of $43,392,662. Crossland was selected earlier, when the city awarded RFP #2506-092 to the firm on Oct. 7, 2025, and the agenda memo confirms the funding source as bond proceeds.

Phase 1, described by city staff and designers as the Civic Park district, includes renderings and program notes for a roughly 5-acre pond with a peninsula, a splash pad, climbing features, a kayak launch, a food-truck zone and an event lawn sized to hold up to 7,500 people. The city’s master-plan materials place this near-term work within a 287 to 300-acre focus area that ultimately sits inside a 1,011-acre Grand Park footprint stretching from the Dallas North Tollway west toward Lake Lewisville and FM 423.

City officials framed the approval in aspirational terms, saying, “Grand Park is envisioned as a world-class oasis, blending nature, recreation, and community gathering spaces.” The Council’s action follows earlier investments: a $4.84 million design and master-plan contract approved Oct. 1, 2024, and the staged public access already delivered by the 2.2-mile Big Bluestem Trail, which opened Nov. 19, 2022.

Environmental cleanup drove much of the delay before April 7. The park area includes land tied to the former Exide Technologies battery recycling plant, which operated as a secondary lead smelter from 1964 through 2012. State and local remediation funding accelerated the timetable, with up to $24 million in state assistance announced in June 2025 and a March 3, 2026 city approval of a nearly $22.4 million increase in local cleanup spending, bringing city estimates for the remedial program to just over $62 million.

The city scheduled a ceremonial groundbreaking at the Big Bluestem Trail trailhead, 5001 Cotton Gin Rd., for April 13, 2026 with April 27 as a backup, and the April 2026 council materials project Phase 1 construction completion in Q3 2027. Earlier public reporting had cited a lower Phase 1 estimate near $35 million during the selection process, a figure now superseded by the April 7 GMP amendment.

Grand Park’s approved first-phase reality narrows the vision to a near-term Civic Park that will deliver visible amenities within 15 months of construction start, but the council authorization leaves key operational and event logistics unanswered: the city has not published a precise event-day parking capacity for a 7,500-person lawn nor a multi-year operating and maintenance cost estimate for the whole park. Mayor Cheney has long teased the project as “our favorite urban legend,” and with the GMP signed the legend now becomes a highly concentrated, bond-funded project with measurable costs, a set schedule, and a short list of follow-up policy items for traffic, permits and long-term funding.