Plans between the City of Frisco, Frisco ISD, and development firm Hall Group to bring a performing arts center to the town have been dissolved as of August 11.
In June 2021, the Frisco City Council approved the plan to build a center at Hall Park, a 162-acre development. The plan involved setting aside $130 million in taxpayer money to build the center, garage, and a surrounding park à la Klyde Warren Park.
The facility would have had a capacity of 1,250, doubling the size of existing auditoriums in Frisco. It was set to open its doors in early 2024.
However, the plan has since been abandoned after the partners realized they had different visions for the project, each with their own “unique priorities,” according to city officials.
Consequently, there are now two plans for two different performing arts centers.
Frisco ISD intends to build a performing arts center with a “student-first focus” on land the district already owns, per a city news release.
For its part, Hall Group wants to “create a community-centric and commercially viable facility.”
Craig Hall, founder and chairman of Hall Group, stated that the group is “still actively supporting the City of Frisco’s development of a programmed community park.”
Frisco ISD school board president René Archambault said in a statement that “the community’s investment in arts education will ripple throughout our community for generations.”
The district’s commitment to arts education appears to be matched by a commitment to education fundamentals, especially when compared to Dallas ISD.
A four-year longitudinal study on the class of 2020 showed that an impressive 96.8% of Frisco ISD students graduated high school on time, compared to a statewide rate of 90.3% for that year. In contrast, only 82.8% of Dallas ISD’s class of 2020 graduated on time, roughly eight points lower than the state average. Â
