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TJ Reilly and his wife, Ashley, opened their gelato shop in downtown McKinney in mid-March. On April 5, they got a letter from the city: a project could force them to move.
Their business is housed in one of the five properties that would be acquired if the city moves forward with plans for an inverted deck park that would create a pedestrian connection across State Highway 5 at Louisiana and Virginia streets.
“The City of McKinney has been working with an engineering consulting firm to develop alternatives to improve the pedestrian connection between the east and west sides of State Highway 5 in downtown McKinney,” the April 5 letter read. “One or more alternatives being considered could impact your property or business.”
During a work session on April 18, the McKinney City Council was presented with three alternatives for the connection — a deck park, an inverted deck park and a crossing at-grade. After more than an hour of discussion, Mayor Pro Tem Rainey Rogers said the majority of the council would like to pursue the inverted park, which would go underneath the highway and cover about 2 acres, requiring the acquisition of the five properties.
The five impacted properties — identified in a presentation shared during the council work session — house at least 12 businesses: Donuts R More, Jinyi’s Salon, Cricket Wireless, Q Cleaners, Metro by T-Mobile, Koji Sushi, Terri’s Gelato Cafe, El Juarez Mexican Restaurant, Kutz N Fadez, two smoke shops and an insurance company.
“We signed the lease in October or September and then right when we open, we hear the news. Just to know in two years we might have to start over — we might have name recognition, but it’s terrifying,” Reilly said. “It was made to be a family business, a tribute to my late grandmother, and it going away so quickly would be devastating.”
Losing legacy
Terri’s Gelato Cafe was named after TJ’s late grandmother, who was Sicilian. The shop’s exposed brick walls are painted her favorite shade of purple, and the ice cream, pastries and espresso are all made the Italian way.
A wall of polaroid photos shows smiling customers and a picture of the Reillys’ daughter: “The Real Terri’s Boss” is written in pink across the bottom.
Reilly used to work in construction but left to create something that the whole family could be a part of: The pastries are made from family recipes — Cousin Joanne’s Rainbow Cookies, Cousin Joseph’s Biscotti, TJ’s Cannoli. In the freezer case a mint cookies and cream gelato is labeled “Ashley’s favorite”; pistachio, “TJ’s favorite”; and Baileys and caramel, “Terri’s favorite.”
“She didn’t drink that much, but when she did, it was Baileys with coffee and caramel,” Reilly said.
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Families walk through the door with children who sample flavors made on site with a $60,000 gelato machine imported from Italy. Teens hang out in the lounge area and chat while they lick their spoons. Reilly said the shop serves 300 to 400 customers a week.
If they had to move, Reilly said he doesn’t know if they’d be able to reopen right away, as the couple had to take out loans to open the shop and spent their life savings on improvements. It took six months to renovate the 100-year-old building that used to be a comic book store with foundation issues.
Other businesses that would be impacted have been serving the community for decades.
At Kutz N Fadez, Benjamin Salas buzzes about 50 heads a week. People come to him for skin fades, bald fades and taper cuts. Youngsters sit in his chair asking for undercuts — long on the top, short on the bottom. Salas opened the shop in 2005. It’s where he first started working as a barber.
“It’s hard to find people who do these types of haircuts,” Salas said, as he took a razor to Erika Herrera’s short black hair. Herrera is one of many longtime customers.
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“I bring my son here and refer as many friends as I can,” Herrera said. “These little downtown areas, as they bloom, it’s like they forget what was all there at one point. It’s nice to come into McKinney and get a sense of what it was to begin with.”
Salas said he doesn’t want to go anywhere.
“I like the location. I get a lot of traffic coming through here,” he said. “It would be hard to find something else that would match this. Finding a shop this size would be tough. I’d likely have to move to a suite if I were displaced.”
Why a deck park?
Mayor George Fuller said the deck park is an amenity that will encourage more development and “stitch together” the historic downtown footprint on the west side with the old mill district on the east side.
“If we’re able to connect those two areas and have a continuity between them, that encourages exponential growth of that area, and that exponential growth produces jobs, it produces sales tax dollars, it produces community space,” Fuller said. “The purpose behind it is to expand, to double and triple the footprint of our historic downtown.”
The inverted park would cost $40 million to $45 million with annual operations and maintenance costing up to $2.5 million. The North Central Texas Council of Governments has committed up to $30 million for the inverted park option. The council steered away from the standard deck park option, as it would cost double the amount of the inverted park and would require the acquisition of 27 properties.
Fuller said the five pieces of property that will be affected if the project moves forward are older and are going to be redeveloped at some point.
“As the city grows and matures and new infrastructure comes in, there’s always going to be impacts on individuals, and we try to mitigate those, we try to compensate for those, but at the same time we’re making decisions for the collective whole,” Fuller said. “These are always tough decisions, and it’s terrible, so why do we do it? Well, we do it because there’s a benefit that’s larger than this one impact.”
Business owners will likely be compensated if they are moved, as eminent domain includes provisions for both property owners and tenants. However, the city exercises eminent domain only with council approval on a parcel-by-parcel basis, and the city has not gotten that far on this project yet, said Assistant City Manager Kim Flom.
Building the inverted park would require Highway 5 to be taken off the Texas Department of Transportation’s maintenance and control system, according to a powerpoint presentation at the April 18 work session.
In June, the city will begin coordination with TxDOT and NCTCOG on the recommended alternative, and NCTCOG has committed to taking the lead in discussing the phasing with TxDOT.
But there is no timeline on the project yet, Flom said.
“We are still communicating with TxDOT and NCTCOG to map out the schedule and agency responsibilities for this project,” Flom said. “We will have a better understanding of what acquisition is needed, who is doing it and how it will occur when those discussions are complete.”
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