The_Overdog wrote:A few months ago, the Plano City Council rejected a proposal by the Plano Housing Authority to sale/leaseback the land east of the Parker Road Dart Station to build low-income and market-rate housing. They did put the land up for sale, and Plano Housing Authority has decided to purchase it instead for the same project -a 254 unit apartment complex. The land is currently empty except for a Rent-A-Tire shop on a small corner that will be bulldozed.
I wondered what was going on with that property. It will be interesting to see how many tenants will be there for its proximity to transit--or even if it attracts other potential residential TODs, as the Parker Road station, one of DART's older transit centers, has really not had any new development directly related to it, happen before now.
The corner lot was originally a Kinney Shoe store (I was at the grand opening with my dad) which opened in 1972. The store had snagged then-new Texas Rangers pitcher David Clyde to come make an appearance. Meanwhile, the bigger part of the lot was occupied by a Gibson's store starting in the (I think late-) 1960s, and into the 1970s. I'm not sure when it was closed and torn down. Strangely enough, an old parking lot light from the Gibson's era still stands, and wasn't knocked down with the rest of the store. That store was Plano's sole discount center until the much-later arrivals of Kmart and Walmart.
Will be interesting (and strange) to see something else on those lots besides retailers of the past.