Economic and Community Development Director Charlie Mitchell told the council July 7 that his department is advancing 10 objectives across economic-development goals, including adoption of the Lockrail node master plan, continued work on 791 Main Street, rezoning steps and follow-up on the mill site.

Mitchell said the Lockrail node master plan was adopted before the June 30 deadline and can be considered complete. “We did that one already. So we can count we can cross that one off,” Mitchell said.

On 791 Main Street, staff completed the solicitation for a development partner but have not yet secured a partner. Mitchell said the city is amending a professional services agreement with a consultant to refine next steps and strategy for attracting appropriate developers. He told councilors that attracting developers depends on available product — “willing property owners, infrastructure in place” — and that marketing or recruitment efforts are constrained by resources.

Mitchell said the Rite Aid property is corporate-owned, is being marketed through a broker and that the city has identified at least two leads; he said the property “is going to go out actually for, for auction” and likened the process to how the city handled 791 Main Street solicitation.

On rezoning the Lockrail node, Mitchell said the process has a timeline that will carry another year and that the council will see items later in the year. He reported the mill-site development plan was completed about a month ago and that final consultant material from a TGM project is still pending; he said the Ash Creek portion of the mill-site work is likely the most costly and one of the first pieces to address.

Mitchell outlined other continuous objectives: business attraction and retention (ongoing outreach to local firms), partnership with regional organizations to promote tourism (work with the Chamber and Explore Dallas), and development-code revisions to prioritize larger park space (a joint objective with public works and parks dependent on a new parks master plan).

Councilors asked technical questions about whether the public input-driven development program at 791 Main Street may have discouraged past developers; Mitchell said the city may refine strategy but does not currently plan to restart the whole process. Councilor Holzapol and others asked about recruitment of businesses from outside the region; Mitchell said the city relies on partners such as Sedcor and the state for leads rather than funding costly direct recruitment campaigns.

Next steps: amend the consultant services agreement for 791 Main Street to refine strategy, continue rezoning and implementation steps on the Lockrail node over the coming year, await final TGM consultant deliverables for mill-site prioritization, and coordinate parks master-plan work with development-code revisions.