Former Mayor of Frisco 2017–2026. Real estate broker, developer, community builder, and passionate advocate for creating places people love to live. Texas Ex 🤘
Frisco, Tx
Joined February 2009
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North Texas suburbs built around the car are now spending well over $200M to rebuild walkable downtowns.
City by city — who's spending what, and what they're building first:
Van Alstyne is running the same playbook at small-town scale.
~$9M Downtown Streets Phase 4 mid-build. Up to $5M CDC bonds. $2.6M for key downtown land. ADA sidewalks going in. CDC picks a preferred developer Nov 5.
The pattern is the same: the city builds the bones first. Private investment and small businesses follow.
I've said it for years. The heart and soul of any city is their downtown. There is no world-class city without a great downtown.
Full city-by-city:
cheneygroup.com/blog/downtow…
Morgan Stanley planning a $1.3 billion regional headquarters in Uptown, and ULI just ranked DFW the top real estate market in the country for the third straight year. Financial firms aren't testing North Texas anymore. They're building here for the long run, and the jobs will be felt from Uptown all the way up the Tollway.
Morgan Stanley's $1.3 billion regional headquarters in Uptown has a new partner and could break ground in early 2027. bizjournals.com/dallas/news/…
AI is already doing a lot of the first-draft work that used to train young people: the research, the comps, the summaries. I think leaders have to be intentional here. Use the time AI saves to put junior people in front of clients sooner, not as a reason to stop hiring them.
If entry-level work starts disappearing, where do future leaders get the experience they need?
Anthropic’s workforce data shows junior hiring falling while more employees shift toward higher-level, AI-supervisory work.
The productivity gains are real, but so is the pipeline problem.
I explore what this means for hiring, development, and succession in my latest article, Where Do Future Leaders Come From?
linkedin.com/pulse/where-do-…
In the North Texas ZIPs we track, about 6 in 10 active listings have already had a price cut, and last week price cuts (658) nearly matched new listings (692). Homes that do sell are closing around 97% of list price.
That isn't a crash. It's a market where pricing it right from day one matters more than it has in years.
When Toyota Stadium opened in 2005, the Tollway didn't even reach it. A big bet on what Frisco would become.
Now a hotel and convention center plus a $215M renovation make it busy year-round, not just on game days. The 20-year story:
cheneygroup.com/blog/toyota-…
Code enforcement is one of the most personal things a city does. It's somebody's house. AI can spot problems faster than an inspector driving every street, but finding more violations only helps if there's a path to fix them. Pair the tools with real repair help for owners who can't afford the fix, and you get better neighborhoods instead of just more citations.
AI code enforcement works. But support is needed | Opinion dallasnews.com/opinion/edito…
Mortgage rates ticked down this week for the first time in about two months, but they're still above 7%. In North Texas, the bigger factor for buyers right now is builder incentives. A lot of new construction comes with rate buydowns that resale sellers can't easily match. If you're selling, know what the builder down the road is offering, because that's your real competition.
I use AI every day in my business now. It drafts reports, sorts research and flags what needs my attention. The rule I've landed on: it prepares, I decide. Anything that goes out under my name or touches a client's money gets a human look first.
Avelo opens at McKinney National Airport on Nov. 11 with 11 nonstops and about 150 jobs. Most people see an airport as a travel story. I see an economic development one. Commercial service in Collin County changes where companies look and where families decide to live.
Avelo Airlines is expanding again at McKinney National Airport ahead of its November launch. bizjournals.com/dallas/news/…
Early voting opens today. The cycle I saw at City Hall: colleges train talent, employers follow talent, housing follows jobs. With up to ~11M sq ft of office planned at Fields, the talent pipeline matters. I support Collin College Prop A. cheneygroup.com/blog/collin-…
Not long ago people said Frisco was too far out. Anna is that place now. 1,800 homes breaking ground there tells you the growth line hasn't stopped moving north. The cities that do well with it plan the commercial side early, so families aren't driving 20 minutes for groceries.
1,800-home development in Anna breaks ground, other D-FW real estate news dallasnews.com/business/real…
Every city in North Texas competes for every deal, and that's healthy. But companies pick the region first and the city second. The cities that win the most are the ones that help land the deal for North Texas even when the site ends up next door.
from @REBusiness: North Texas economic development professionals from @cityofplanotx @FriscoTXEDC @gp_tx @AllenTXEDC @CityofBonham_Tx and others discuss the balance between collaboration and cooperation that keeps their region booming
rebusinessonline.com/co-opet…
