The Colony Planning and Zoning Commission met for its bi-monthly meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 27 at 6:30 p.m. to consider and approve several replats, site plans, and hold a public hearing on a new business.

Within the Consent Agenda this week, the Commission carried two motions for replat items. The first item was a replat for an addition to Grandscape, which consists of 63.26 acres located north of Plano Parkway and east of Destination Drive within the NFM-Grandscape Planned Development. The second item was a replat for a 0.414 acre tract located east of Main Street and south of E. Lake Highlands Drive in the General Retail and Heavy Commercial Zoning Districts.

The only public hearing item this week was the discussion and consideration of making a recommendation to City Council regarding the approval of a Specific Use Permit to allow an approximately 750 square foot Health and Wellness store known as “The Green Room” to be located at 6805 Main Street, Suite 120 within the Shopping Center Zoning District and Gateway Overlay District.

The shop would be within the Oaks Village Shopping Center and sell health and wellness products that include CBD, CBN and CBG, and CBDA products. Site development for the store would remain unchanged. The motion for the health and wellness store was carried.

The Discussion Items for the night included a Site Plan for “Tribute Lakeside Park and Marina” and a Site Plan for “Worldsprings.” The first item would be a 25-acre park and marina located on Lake Lewisville and west of the intersection of Castlebridge and Bridge Lane within The Tribute Community. The second item would be a pool resort consisting of approximately 12,720 square-feet of mineral spa pools, on an approximately 10.3 acre tract located north of Plano Parkway and east of Destination Drive within the NFM-Grandscape Planned Development.

The applicant for the Tribute Lakeside Park proposed the development of an 11-acre park with an 801 slip area (15 acres). The park portion is intended to be under a public classification, offering amenities to the public, but the Corps, the City, and the marina operators have conditions in place the public would need to follow.

Onsite features for the park will include 467 paved parking spaces, unpaved special event parking, a sand volleyball court, horseshoes, a bocce ball court, ping pong tables, and picnic tables. There will also be a stage, a special event area, a restroom building, and path connections to concrete trails and walkways to the marina gateways.

For the marina, there will be a store, a deli with covered patio, a boat club and boat rentals, a fuel dock, public and private restrooms, private showers, and a waste pump-out station. The motion for the Tribute Lakeside Park and Marina was carried.

The applicant for “Worldsprings” proposed the development of the pool resort offering mineral spa pools intended to offer specific mineral calibrations to provide numerous benefits to pool occupants. The resort would consist of six different pods of 10 spa pools each approximately 3,000 gallons to accommodate 10 to 12 adults at a time.

Within the resort will also be a cafe, bar, remote food service facilities, 12 massage treatment rooms and two sauna rooms. The motion for “Worldsprings” was carried.

“His Story: The Musical” will make its world premiere in The Colony’s Grandscape in May 2023, with performances beginning May 5 and running all summer long until mid-September.

The musical, written and created by Anna Miriam Brown, is based on the life of Jesus, focused on a common man who arrives in a big city and defies expectations. Brown’s creation of “His Story: The Musical” was inspired by the history behind the Broadway musical “Hamilton.”

“I got the idea and I think it was from God, like, what if someone could do this with the Bible,” Brown said. “Like, what if someone can do this with the story of Jesus and you know, portray Jesus in this reachable way where you can listen. I wanted to make it for people who might not read the Bible or might not be sure about it, but to have something that they can still get the word of God and hear the story.”

During the announcement on Thursday morning at Grandscape, several Broadway creatives and local leaders spoke on the musical, including The Colony’s very own Mayor Richard Boyer.

“We’d like to thank our partners with Grandscape for bringing this to us and the folks that were involved in getting ‘His Story’ to Texas, to Grandscape, to The Colony,” Mayor Boyer said. “We are so thrilled to have this here and it's going to be just such a great meaningful part of having so many people from the region, from other states come here and get such a positive spiritual message right here in The Colony and I couldn't be more pleased that this is going to be here.”

Some Broadway creatives who are involved in the process of bringing “His Story: The Musical” to life include producer Bruce Lazarus, producers Willie and Korie Robertson, and director Jeff Calhoun, who were all in attendance during the announcement.

“We got a text from Jeff who we’ve been friends with for years now and he said ‘I’ve got a project I think you might be interested in,’” Robertson said. “Willie watched it and would kind of be wiping tears, literally. Now, he’s a little bit more of a softy than you would think, so that didn’t totally surprise me, but from song one, he was like ‘We’re in, we’re all in.’”

When the musical makes its world premiere in May, a state-of-the-art, 1,300-seat Broadway Tent will be constructed in front of Grandscape’s ferris wheel, which is currently an empty lot. The tent was designed by Matthew Churchill Productions, Ltd. and will have plush seating, 360 degree overhead projection mapping, and full A/C and heating.

Arianna Morrison is a reporter for Star Local Media, covering the communities of The Colony, Little Elm, Carrollton, Lewisville, Flower Mound and Coppell. Email her with story ideas and more at amorrison@starlocalmedia.com.

The Colony has grown exponentially in the past several years, becoming a destination for other communities in North Dallas and a thriving place for residents to live.

Learn more about The Colony from the city’s very own City Manager Troy Powell, Deputy City Manager Brant Shallenburger, and city council member Perry Schrag.

What’s the identity of The Colony in North Texas?

Powell: “We have become the entertainment district for the metro. We’ve spent a lot of time recruiting really good restaurants from around the world. Windmills, we’re the only one that has one outside of India. Akira Back, we recruited that out of Las Vegas, a five star Michelin chef. We’ve paid a lot of attention to what goes into what we have and we have the two largest retail stores in North America and so even though we joke and have fun, the reality is, we really want to create something that lasts generations when I’m gone and when the council is gone. Our focus was when we knew we were going to get Grandscape and we knew we were working with Warren Buffet, our thinking was ‘What did the other cities miss that we could make work?’ All the money that goes back into the incentive deal when we did Grandscape, 90% of that stays on the side. It’s hard to think about it now, but 10 years from now when (this business) goes out of business or (that restaurant) goes out of business or whatever, we have the money to go recruit new cool things to go in there that doesn’t cost our taxpayers anything since it's already been saved up in the process. The key for us was creating something. Nobody wants to go to the mall anymore and you might run to a Walmart or whatever, but retail has changed because of online, like Amazon, that kind of stuff. So, you have to have something to get people to go ‘Hey, I want to go here.’”

Schrag: “We set ourselves up to be the place to be. When I first got on council, our tagline, well, I guess our tagline still is this, but it’s ‘City by the Lake’ but that’s all we had at the time was the lake. The unfortunate reality was because of this Corps lake, we have limited utilization to do something, like we're talking about the hole-in-the-donut, everything was developing around us rapid fast until 121, the (Dallas North Tollway) came here and that's when we were able to do something and ever since Troy (Powell) came on board and what the staff and everybody brought, we knew we had to do something different. In fact, he said that. Doing the same thing as everybody else around here is not going to get us anywhere. We have to do something different.”

Powell: “The safe thing to do is what you’ve done before, but we were never going to catch up with Frisco, Carrollton, Lewisville, the cities that surround us if we were afraid to go out and do something big and we ended up doing something big and it worked out for us. People will ask us ‘Well, why are you developing so slow?’ and the reason is because we don’t just want everything else everybody else has got. We're surrounded by great cities. Frisco kills it. They have a ton of money to spend. Little Elm with Matt there, they're doing a great job here. Carrollton with Erin is doing a great job. So we have to do something that makes people want to come here and it's not as easy as people think because Dallas is such a competitive market. Everything is good here, you can go to any city and have a great meal, have a great experience, and so our goal is to find the things that nobody else has and that takes some time and then you got to work out the deal, and you got to do all that kind of stuff, but that's exactly what we've been able to do in bringing things like Akara Back, Windmills and Portillo's out of Chicago and doing those things, a lot of people don't think about that, but when you really go back and look at it, they're the only ones. They're the only ones in the metro. So when you have all this other stuff, if you want to go to Windmills, you either fly to India or you come to The Colony. If you want to go to Portillo’s, you fly to Chicago or you come to The Colony.”

What are some personal hopes for growth that you have for the future of The Colony?

Powell: “My big thing is to continue doing what we’re doing. The Colony used to be just a residential community. It had no commercial. Our biggest commercial was Walmart and so everything was on the back of people living here, like property taxes. The Council, even before I got here, I can’t take credit for it, I have lowered the property tax rates every year in the budget and we continue to do that to switch some of that over to the commercial now that we have commercial. My thing is, we just continue doing what we’re doing and take care of infrastructure stuff. We’ve spent more in the past four years on infrastructure than the city probably spent since it began until then. We’ve got a lot of streets, a lot of older alleys, we’ve got a lot of that stuff that all of this development is helping us get to that. My goal is that we just keep doing what we’re doing. We create an environment where we're on the cutting edge of economic development but at the same time, we make sure we’re retaining and refreshing all those neighborhoods that have been here long before that stuff was even thought of. I live here, I mean, my three daughters that go to school here, it’s my community too. I want to see it grow. I want to see it thrive and even after this job is over, I’ll stay here. I won’t take another city. I’ll go to the private sector.”

Shallenburger: “When we got here, I wasn’t aware of The Colony before I came down here, but I know around here The Colony had a reputation as the place you went to buy liquor because it was a wet place in the county. It didn’t have a lot to do. It was a residential community, but the council that got elected before we came that hired Troy, wanted to do something better than what they were. I think we’ve changed the reputation of The Colony. People in the metroplex don’t see The Colony as the place to liquor up anymore, they see it as the place to go to have a good time. Things used to say ‘Dallas suburb had an event.’ Now it says ‘The Colony had an event.’

How has Grandscape and the commercial development in the area affected the sales tax?

Powell: “We gave incentives to all that stuff, but it’s definitely been a positive influence. It’s definitely been a big positive as far as what our sales tax numbers have gone up to. It’s also helping our property tax because more people want to live here. Not to mention just the commercial property tax and all the stuff that’s developed, it’s helped a bunch. Top Golf wasn’t in Vegas or any of those other places. They were in Dallas and then it was between us and Frisco and they came here and now they’re all over the place. I mean, you can’t go anywhere without finding a Top Golf, any big city. It’s funny because it kind of gets overlooked because of the other stuff, but it was one of the first catalysts that said ‘Hey, you can work with these guys.’”

Do you have any big set and stone plans for The Colony in 2023?

Powell: “I really think what people should look out for here is just a whole lot of cool stuff, economic development-wise, coming to the city. I think we’re going to have some stuff that’s going to blow people’s minds.”

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Arianna Morrison is a reporter for Star Local Media, covering the communities of The Colony, Little Elm, Carrollton, Lewisville, Flower Mound and Coppell. Email her with story ideas and more at amorrison@starlocalmedia.com.

Cosm, a global tech company delivering immersive experiences for sports, entertainment, science, and education, is bringing its new immersive entertainment venue to Grandscape at The Colony. Whether it be a sporting event, concert, or nature presentation, guests will experience immersive content through Cosm’s proprietary dome and curved LED screen display technology, which aims to bridge the gap between virtual and physical realities.

The Colony venue is designed by Dallas-based HKS. The three-level facility will be between 65,000 and 75,000 square feet, have a capacity of about 1,500 guests, and feature a 87-foot diameter LED screen.

“We always knew Dallas-Fort Worth was going to house either our first or second location,” Cosm CEO Jeb Terry—a former NFL player for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers—told D CEO. “We looked at Victory Park, we looked at the fairgrounds, but when we started exploring Grandscape, I was really drawn in by the area’s developers. In The Colony, we will be surrounded by high attention to detail, high-quality tenants, and a fast-growing population. All of that adds up to make our experience dynamic in every way.”

Cosm also is developing a new facility in Los Angeles. Terry wasn’t willing to share specific funding numbers, but says the company is well capitalized through its M&A activity. Cosm’s largest investor is Steve Winn’s Mirasol Capital. Winn is the former chairman, president, and CEO of Dallas-based RealPage.

The first tier within Cosm in The Colony will be a standing-room area with minimal dynamic seating for select productions—picture the pit of a concert or SRO area at AT&T Stadium, Terry said. The second level will be a tiered seating bowl with lounge-type chairs. The third level will be more of a socializing bar area and will feature an open-air deck.

But every level will be high-style, Terry said. “Think about the coolest club section of every stadium or arena venue you’ve been to—that’s really the intent,” he said. “We’re aspiring to be the world’s best immersive producer.”

After a year-long design process, Cosm recently broke ground on its Los Angeles location; also designed by HKS, it’s expected to open in May 2024. The Colony location is already in the design process and expects a more compressed timeline than the LA site.

“It takes us about a year to go through the full design process, get things priced, and then start construction,” said Mark Williams, HKS’ leader for sports stadiums and venues. “Our timeline is all dependent upon the economy and supply chain, but I am anticipating it to be a bit tighter.”

The Colony venue will be similar to Los Angeles’, but HKS and Cosm plan to make it distinctly Dallas.

Cosm was built on the backbone of the experience a planetarium delivers—and the company deploys its tech in 700 planetariums worldwide. “The planetarium was the world’s first experiential theater and immersive experience,” Terry said. “The goal is to take you to space—as well as educate, inspire, entertain. And that’s really what we’re doing but applying it to sports, entertainment, and other things.”

The company’s flagship location is at the Cosm Experience Center in Salt Lake City. The location is a mini version of what is coming to Los Angeles and North Texas. In 2022, Cosm—which has more than 200 employees—partnered with NBC to broadcast the Winter Olympics in the world’s first immersive 8K virtual reality live stream.

“All of a sudden, today’s world is coupling the physical environment with the virtual environment,” Williams said. “At a Cosm, you can literally be taken anywhere in the world and have a front row seat. But you won’t just watch it, you will feel like you are there.”

Cosm has grown through a series of acquisitions. The deal that anchored the company, Terry says, was its purchase of Evans & Sutherland, which was founded in 1968 and pioneered the planetarium and immersive computer graphics fields. Cosm also acquired LiveLike VR in 2020.

Looking ahead, Terry says his team is currently identifying the next eight markets for Cosm. “Our aspiration is scale,” he said. “Over the next five to ten years, we plan to have many more.” As the scaling efforts intensify, Terry is studying the early success of Dallas-based Topgolf. “We’re really trying to model our efforts after them,” he said. “And eventually, I think Dallas-Fort Worth can be home to more than one Cosm.”

Grandscape, the outdoor shopping, dining and entertainment destination in The Colony, has forged a partnership with Choctaw Casinos & Resorts, the chain of gaming, hotel, and resort properties owned by the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.

Choctaw is now Grandscape's "official casino and resort/sports betting partner." Alas, this does not mean that gambling is coming to The Colony. Instead, the partnership is about Choctaw branding, especially at the northeast entrance in the Terrace.

Other branding opportunities will be deployed at Grandscape's live events. Choctaw will now be "presenting sponsor" at concerts, fitness series, and festivals, taking place at the already-branded Topo Chico Hard Seltzer Stage & Lawn.

According to a release, it'll roll out in 2023, and will last for five years.

Other Choctaw perks will include a possible incentive program, with a rewards card that gets patrons exclusive offers at participating Grandscape businesses.

Patrons will also get special offers and promotions redeemable at any Choctaw property in Oklahoma, including the flagship casino and resort in Durant, Oklahoma — which the release cheerfully points out is less than an hour from Grandscape.

Choctaw is very much all up in Dallas-Fort Worth, including earning the right to name the old Texas Rangers stadium in Arlington. (They named it "Choctaw Stadium." Smiley emoji.)

In May 2019, Choctaw became the Official and Exclusive Casino and Resort of the Texas Rangers. Now, they're at Grandscape, too.

The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma is the third largest Indian Nation in the U.S. with nearly 200,000 tribal members and 10,000 employees. Their Choctaw Casinos & Resorts encompasses properties throughout southeastern Oklahoma including Durant, Grant, Pocola, Idabel, Broken Bow, McAlester, Stigler, and Stringtown.

In August 2021, they expanded the Choctaw Casino & Resort – Durant with the addition of the Sky Tower, featuring 1,000 new hotel rooms, 3,300 additional slot machines, table games, a new poker room, restaurants, bars, movie theaters, and swimming pools.

“As one of the most popular entertainment destinations in North Texas, Grandscape is the perfect partner for Choctaw Casinos & Resorts,” said Erica Kosemund, Senior Director of Gaming Brand & Partnerships at the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. “With one-of-a-kind entertainment, shopping and dining, Grandscape and Choctaw Casinos & Resorts share an innovative approach to exceeding guests’ expectations and this partnership brings new and exciting opportunities to both North Texas and Southeast Oklahoma.”