Frisco Plans $12.8 Million Animal Services Facility With Private Operator Lease

Nicole Kohanski walked into a Frisco City Council work session last week with rescue-dog stories, two decades of local roots, and a pitch to run a $12.8 million animal facility the city would build and hand over to her on a 20-year lease. The room was not unanimously convinced.

City officials reviewed updated design plans on March 17 for the proposed two-story, 19,000-square-foot facility, which would sit on roughly four acres owned by the Frisco Community Development Corporation south of PGA Parkway, adjacent to the under-construction Balcones Recycling facility. The city would fund, design and build the structure, retain ownership, and lease it to Kohanski, founder of Wiggle Butt Academy and a 20-year Frisco resident, under terms that include $32,000 a month in rent and at least 15% of net profit paid to the city after the first year of business. City staff projects rent and private business revenue will recover about $7.7 million of the total investment over the 20-year term.

Kohanski described the concept as a "care campus" where commercial services, including boarding, grooming, training, daycare and veterinary care, generate revenue that subsidizes public services: temporary holding for lost pets, adoption events, volunteer programs, a pet pantry and community education. "We can do better for the animals and the people who love them," she told the council, recounting how a rescue dog helped her own family.

The facility's first floor would feature daycare areas, play yards and kennels for boarding and quarantine. Medical facilities would include exam rooms, radiology equipment and surgical suites. Dr. Markie Schiller, who brings over a decade of experience in emergency and mobile veterinary practice, is the proposed clinical partner. The building would also support medical care for Frisco police working dogs.

Under the proposed lease structure, Kohanski would cover operating and maintenance costs. Frisco's director of special projects, Ken Schmidt, noted that rent obligations could be satisfied in cash or through in-kind animal services, such as hosting adoption, vaccine, microchipping or spay and neuter events, with the operator permitted to pay up to 100% of base rent in services rather than cash.

Chief of Police David Shilson, who oversees Frisco Animal Services, framed the project as a deliberate departure from traditional sheltering. "This facility is designed to keep animals out of the shelter," he said. The city is intentionally calling the building an "animal facility" rather than an animal shelter. Current Animal Services operations will remain at Frisco Police Department headquarters.

The proposal draws on a financial reality Frisco has long faced at the Collin County Animal Shelter in McKinney: the city of roughly 235,000 accounts for 11% of the county shelter's animal population but 33% of its funding. City officials said they will maintain a contract with the county shelter but are open to renegotiating its terms later. The public-private structure mirrors arrangements the city has used for other facilities, including The Star and Toyota Stadium.

Not everyone in the room supported the direction. Volunteer shelter workers and foster caregivers urged the council to commission a formal feasibility study and pursue a full municipal shelter rather than what opponents characterized as a holding-facility model. Their sharpest concern centered on a five-day holding period: animals not retrieved or placed within that window could be transferred to an already-strained county shelter that has faced disease closures in recent months. "If you send them over and stress them out again, they're going to be euthanized in 15 to 30 days," said Shannon Grier, a local volunteer.

The council gave staff a greenlight to continue working on a formal partnership agreement, though the Dallas Express noted no specific timeline has been announced for completing those negotiations. The project still requires the council to negotiate and approve final partnership terms before construction can begin.