Get a first look inside the newly built Frisco Landing building on the UNT at Frisco campus
Walking through the green-accented halls of the four-story building on Preston Road, there’s no question of the implications of what the brand new facility means for the future of Frisco.
Walking through the green-accented halls of the four-story building on Preston Road, there’s no question of the implications of what the brand new facility means for the future of Frisco.
“This is going to serve students here in Frisco for generations,” Frisco Mayor Jeff Cheney said.
It was a remark that came on the heels of a tour through the newly built Frisco Landing, the first permanent building at the University of North Texas’s new Frisco campus on Tuesday, Nov. 15. The 135,000-square-foot campus, slated to welcome students for the first time in January, is expected to be a center of operations for the over 2,500 students enrolled at UNT at Frisco.
The Tuesday tour marked a milestone in a journey that has been years in the making. Cheney said bringing in a Tier 1 research university has long been a dream in Frisco.
That dream has since become a reality as UNT began offering classes in Frisco in 2016. Now, starting in January, that dream will be anchored by the building and clock tower located off of Preston Road.
“It’s going to serve students not just from Frisco but the entire region,” Cheney said. “It’s going to help our business community grow and thrive as it creates a work-ready workforce. They’re going to design curriculum specific to the industries here in Frisco, so it’s a big win for Frisco.”
The university’s location in Frisco also has implications for the city’s economic development.
“Having access to intellectual capital is one of the biggest drivers when businesses make relocation decisions,” Cheney said. “And so it used to be part of our RFP (Request for Proposal) process that we had a weakness in. We determined we needed to make that a strength, and so working with Collin College and of course now UNT at Frisco, it is now a source of strength here in our community.”
Construction began on Frisco Landing in fall 2020. The building now sits on 100 acres of land at the southwest corner of Preston Road and Panther Creek Parkway. The land was provided to UNT by the city of Frisco as part of a partnership, according to documents provided by UNT.
“The ability to say we’re closing the gap between the corporate world and the educational world by creating intentional education around collaboration, teamwork, by pulling the corporate community in, and then seeing how that’s possible through a built space is really exciting, and I hope everybody else kind of feels it captures the spirit of Frisco,” said UNT President Neal Smatresk.
For Smatresk, the spring semester is just the beginning.
“I think come fall, we’re really pushing, we’re going to be standing up some new programs, some exciting, very focused programs on the needs of this community that offer integral internships and work development,” Smatresk said.
The future of UNT at Frisco will continue to unfold into the future. Part of the plans for the forthcoming Fields development in Frisco includes a section dubbed “University Village” that is slated to include student housing and services.
“They think that one day this campus may have more students than even UNT Denton,” Cheney said. “And so this is going to be a large college campus.”
In addition, there are plans for the couple hundred acres nearby owned by the city of Frisco that will serve as future parkland, including ball fields, Cheney said. That introduces an opportunity for using the park land for intramural sports with the university as well as shared parking opportunities, he said.
“So it was a shared vision of, ‘How do we take the city’s assets with the university’s assets and make something really special,’” Cheney said.