Plano Cuts Office Space at Heritage Creekside, Adds Hundreds of New Homes

More than a decade after breaking ground near the President George Bush Turnpike, Rosewood Property Co.'s Heritage Creekside is pivoting hard away from the office-heavy vision that once defined it. Plano City Council voted March 23 to approve sweeping modifications to the 156-acre mixed-use development's master plan, eliminating 1.3 million square feet of planned office space and replacing much of it with hundreds of new homes.

The council approved a rezoning ordinance allowing a mix of retail, entertainment, single-family and multifamily residential uses, with the ordinance rezoning 4.1 acres on the southeast corner of Plano Parkway and Custer Road from light industrial to urban mixed-use.

The approved plan adds housing, office space, retail and entertainment to the growing mixed-use development. Under the revised program, plans call for 342 single-family units, 2,000 multifamily units, 292,766 square feet of office and 109,000 square feet of retail, totaling more than 2,300 homes across the site. The zone modifications break down to 53% residential use, 39% office and professional use, and 3.1% retail and service use.

The shift represents a sustained retreat from the project's original office ambitions. Heritage Creekside launched as a 156-acre mixed-use development between Custer Road and Alma Drive along Plano Parkway, envisioned to feature thousands of square feet of office development alongside residential and retail options. Planning for the project began in 2014, when developers worked with Plano leaders to enact the city's first "urban mixed-use" zoning designation, intended to create a more pedestrian-friendly environment that promotes social interaction and efficient use of land and resources. Rosewood amended the project in 2017 and again in 2021, with office uses steadily downgraded and residential uses steadily expanded through each round of changes. The March 23 action is the latest and largest step in that pattern.

The revised layout divides the development into distinct zones by block. The northwestern portion is slated for multifamily development, retail and restaurants, while the southern portion will carry a mix of office, retail, restaurant and multifamily uses alongside open space. The eastern portion remains designated primarily for office use. Two blocks within the development are set aside for what the plan calls "commercial amusement," described to include game courts, table games, mini golf and similar leisure activities.

The entire development spans an area south of Plano Parkway and north of the President George Bush Turnpike between Custer Road and Alma Drive. Since groundbreaking on the first phase in 2016, Rosewood has overseen the construction of 636 apartment homes, 200 townhomes and 59 single-family tracts, along with more than 23,578 square feet of retail and restaurant space, including neighborhood spots like Rodeo Goat and Flying Fish.

The developer's marketing materials describe Heritage Creekside as "an all-encompassing modern urban environment" with apartments, townhomes and single-family homes within walking distance of shops, restaurants and offices, and emphasize existing creeks and tributaries flowing through the site as a core community feature. Those materials note that the preliminary site plan may still be altered depending on future tenants and additional city approvals.

Questions that remain unanswered include the official council vote tally, a construction and phasing timeline for the newly approved residential blocks, and any traffic or school-district impact studies submitted during the zoning hearings. The City of Plano Planning Department and Rosewood Property Co. had not responded to requests for comment by publication time.