New details in Flower Mound’s plans expect the Performing Arts Center at the River Walk to open spring 2029, according to a presentation at Monday’s town council meeting.
The River Walk is a 158-acre mixed-use development featuring a central tree-lined waterway that connects a unique mix of retail, dining, residential and event spaces.
“The River Walk has been a place that everyone identifies with as being very beautiful and I know it has lacked a home for the activities that were promised at the onset of building this River Walk,” said Mayor Cheryl Moore. “Now, we’re making a change and putting in a performing arts center, so I’m excited about that. It will definitely bring culture, vibrancy and connection to this area.”
Council approved an agreement for pre-design phase services to begin with architecture firm Hoefer Welker, which will partner with Bora. The center will be located on 3.67 acres in the River Walk, behind the Courtyard Marriott hotel.
According to the presentation, McAdams will be the civil engineering firm. The firm has a long history of work in the Flower Mound area.
Hoefer Welker and Bora have worked together to bring many cultural arts projects to life across the nation, including in Texas.
The firms worked on TCU’s School of Music and Van Cliburn Hall in Fort Worth, the Wagner Knoll Art Center for Midland and Odessa and the Bass Performance Hall at UT Austin.
Deputy Mayor Pro-Tem Adam Schiestel said he believes the firms will be able to provide something special and unique to Flower Mound.
“The River Walk needs something and we need to get it right,” he said. “I want us to figure out what makes Flower Mound different, unique and special and do something that separates us from Coppell and Lewisville and from the other cities.”
The center could include a main stage theater, flexible performance spaces, multipurpose classrooms, exhibition space, as well as outdoor spaces that provide opportunities for gathering, performances and connectivity to the River Walk trail system and neighboring restaurants and retail locations.
“I would like to see us take all the great events we host all over town and have them here so we can finally get this place on the map,” said Schiestel. “It will get people to go down there and take advantage of all those businesses and give something to those homeowners that bought into that area.”
According to the town, a Cultural Arts Master Plan was completed in 2018 with a recommendation “to explore development of a cultural arts center or venue that will serve as a central hub for arts, cultural and creative programming.”
About seven years later, those plans are beginning to come to fruition.
“I’m very excited about it, this is something I’ve been looking forward to for many years and one of the many reason I’m involved in the town,” said Moore. “I wanted to be a part of this. It’s going to be great and it’s going to bring a lot of vibrancy to that area that we need.”
There is still a lot of planning that needs to go into the final product, but a representative from Hoefer Welker and Bora said they plan to work with the town to get input from town officials as well as the public.
Some points that came up in the discussion between council members was the idea of an outdoor amphitheater versus an indoor concert venue, as well as placement of buildings and ways to make it unique.
The town also said it is looking forward to working with local entities such as Lewisville ISD and North Central Texas College to offer opportunities for engagement.
According to Hoefer Welker and Bora’s timeline, construction could start around spring 2027. For more information on the River Walk area and the project, visit Flower Mound’s website.
