Prosper Council Approves $2B Venice-Style The Marco Development; Financing, Incentives Unresolved

Prosper's City Council approved rezoning for The Marco, a 143-acre, $2 billion mixed-use development by Texas developer Jeff Blackard, modeled on Venice. Financing is not finalized and no public incentives have been agreed, leaving a long path before construction begins. Plans include 4,000 residential units ranging from senior living to luxury condos priced up to $10 million, two hotels, 1 million square feet of office space, dining and retail, a grocery store and a 15-acre lagoon. The site sits at the northeast corner of University Drive and the North Tollway. Council members raised concerns about apartment density and discussed requiring the lagoon in the phase preceding the first 1,000 apartments. Blackard, who delivered the $350 million Croatian-inspired Adriatica in McKinney, is partnering with Bill Cawley of Cawley Partners. The Marco is three times Adriatica's size and is planned as a car-free community with parking at its edges. Construction is tentatively targeted for winter next year and would take at least five years, possibly a decade, to complete.