Tag Archives: economic development

local news

Huge project on the rocks

A gigantic construction project that began along Princeton’s major thoroughfare has hit what one must describe as “not your everyday construction hiccup.”

A huge luxury apartment complex has seen work stopped for several weeks over some sort of dispute between the developer and the general contractor. The complex has arisen partly next to Wal-Mart on U.S. 380.

The Princeton Herald reported this week that construction is expected to resume next month once the developer hires another contractor. The developer says he has “identified a new team to continue the project” and is working out the details to sign them up to get cracking, the Princeton Herald has reported.

Oh, brother. I am shuddering at the prospect of this half-built complex comprising several hundred apartment units sitting there … unfinished and unoccupied for only God knows when.

I do not know this as fact, but I have to believe that City Hall’s senior management is set to move every obstacle out of the way to get the developer, Frontline Construction Management of Coppell, hooked up with a general contractor … as quickly as possible!

The developer and the former contractor got into some sort of snit that brought construction to a halt on May 19, according to the Princeton Herald. The stoppage does not mean the project is in financial peril, says the developer. Man, I hope he’s telling us the truth.

I am not going to push any panic buttons on this matter, given that I am just a chump civilian … who also pays his taxes that help pay for the city’s myriad levels of municipal government.

One of them happens to be the senior administration, which has the task of ensuring that this job gets completed.

I am one taxpaying resident who wants to see that job swarming with workers and construction equipment. The sooner the better.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Waiting for new ‘home town’ to spruce up its downtown district

I have devoted a lot of space and effort on this blog praising Amarillo civic and business leaders’ efforts to revitalize that city’s downtown business district. I still applaud those efforts.

It’s time to turn my attention, though, on the efforts being launched in Princeton, where my wife and I now call home.

Princeton sits astride U.S. 380, which runs east-west through the city. Just a bit north of that highway — which is undergoing a major makeover at this moment — sits a downtown district that is now in the sights of the city’s political leadership.

The work has just begun. City Hall has developed a master plan. The goal is simple and straightforward, as it has been explained to me by City Manager Derek Borg: The city wants to make downtown a destination for those who live here and for those who are visiting.

Princeton is in serious growth mode. Its population is exploding. I am reasonably certain that the next census will reveal a population that virtually doubles the 6,800 residents listed on the 2010 census.

Borg has revealed plans to redevelop the city’s Veterans Memorial Park, to reroute a major street through downtown and to use property tax revenue collected within the city’s Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone to improve public infrastructure.

Much of this mirrors part of the strategy that Amarillo has employed to help spruce up its downtown district and from what I have seen when we return to the Panhandle city, it is working.

It is my fervent hope that Princeton succeeds mightily with its own downtown revitalization effort.

I do not intend to douse the city’s downtown effort under a bucket load of icy water, but I do need to point something out that might work at counter-purposes with that effort.

The city wants to relocate City Hall to a location a good bit east of downtown along U.S. 380. It has purchased a significant bit of land where it intends to build a municipal complex. It will seek private business investment to add retail establishments and also plans to develop a magnificent park complex.

All of that will occur about three miles east of downtown.

Now, does that distract attention from downtown? Not necessarily. The city has access to marketing gurus who can assist it in its effort to sell downtown to more retail establishments while gussying up the downtown district.

To be candid, downtown Princeton, Texas has some distance to travel. Then again, so did Amarillo when my wife and I moved there in early 1995. That city is making great strides in its quest to revive its downtown district.

I do not see any impediment to Princeton doing just as well in its own effort to remake its central district.

We look forward to watching our new home town progress.