The Marco.
A little bit of Italy at the Prosper Tollway.

Prosper is about to change in a very big way, and not everyone will love it. I am Chad Montgomery, a Collin County native with more than 20 years in North Texas real estate, and I have spent the fall watching a proposal called The Marco work its way through Prosper's approval process. If it moves forward, the northeast corner of the Dallas North Tollway and US 380 becomes a Venetian-style village with a 15-acre lagoon, water taxis, a mile-long promenade, office space, hotels, and as many as 4,400 homes. Here is what The Marco actually is, where it stands heading into the Town Council vote on October 27, and what it could mean for your home, your commute, and the long-term value of Prosper real estate.

The vision: a little bit of Italy at the Tollway.

Right now the site is an open field, the kind of ground you pass a hundred times without thinking about it. If the developer's plans are approved, that field becomes a destination built around a 15-acre lagoon with navigable canals and water taxis, modeled on the feel of an Italian village. Developer Jeff Blackard's BlackStone Communities is pitching it as, in their words, a bit of Italy planted in North Texas ^[1].

The centerpiece is the lagoon, roughly 15 acres of water ringed by a mile-long pedestrian promenade designed around a public square. That water is not just scenery: it doubles as the project's stormwater detention, meaning the same amenity residents will paddle across on a water taxi is doing the engineering work of keeping floodwater managed ^[2]. That is the kind of detail that tells you how thoroughly this thing has been designed.

Around the water, the plan stacks up like this: restaurants, retail, a grocery store and market hall, and everyday services at ground level; more than one million square feet of office space; a performing arts venue called The Phoenix; and as many as two hotels, one of them with condominiums overlooking the lagoon. It is the most ambitious mixed-use project ever proposed for Prosper, and it would make the city feel unmistakably different from the day it opens ^[3].

The numbers, broken down.

The scale is the story. The Marco covers 143 acres, and the housing component is capped at 4,400 units. Here is how the developer has proposed to split them up:

• Up to 2,500 mid-rise apartments, the largest single slice, and the piece that generates the most community discussion
• 400 high-rise condos and apartments, the skyline pieces with the lagoon views
• 500 retirement-community units, a deliberate play for empty nesters
• About 1,000 single-family and duplex homes: villas, townhomes, bungalows, and live-work units woven through the village

The pricing tells you exactly who this is aimed at. Local reporting on the proposal puts the least expensive rental around $2,500 a month, while the most expensive condos could sell well into the millions ^[2]. That is not workforce housing and it is not entry level. It is a resort-style, lifestyle-driven product for professionals, relocating families, and retirees who want to live, work, and dine without getting in a car, the luxury-urban formula that has worked in places from Austin to Miami and is now being proposed a few minutes from downtown Prosper's town square.

Where it stands today.

City approval is not finished yet, and that is the part worth watching. Prosper's Planning and Zoning Commission voted 4-2 to recommend approval of the rezoning, which sent the project to the Town Council with a staff-backed recommendation in hand. The council was originally scheduled to take it up on September 22, but members postponed the vote and sent the project back for more answers ^[1].

Council members submitted additional questions and feedback, and the item is now scheduled to come back before the council on October 27. The postponement is not unusual for a project this size, and it is not a rejection. It is a governing body doing its homework on what would be the single biggest development in the town's history. Whether the council votes yes, no, or asks for more revisions, the decision date is now on the calendar, and everyone I talk to in Prosper is circling it.

What it means for Prosper real estate.

Let me talk like an agent for a minute, because this is the part that affects your equity, not just your commute. The Marco is not happening in a vacuum. It is one of at least two mega-projects pushing through Prosper right now, alongside Bella Prosper, and together they bring thousands of new homes and a combined price tag north of $500 million to one of the fastest-growing affluent towns in Collin County ^[3]. Prosper added roughly 30,000 residents in a decade that started with fewer than 30,000 people total. Demand here is not hypothetical; it is already showing up in the schools, the roads, and the line at every new restaurant.

If The Marco is approved, the first effect will be on supply, eventually. Four thousand four hundred units is a lot of product coming online in phases over years, not all at once, and the mix matters. The apartments and rentals will serve the workforce and the lifestyle crowd, while the condos, villas, and live-work units will compete at the luxury end of the market where Prosper already draws buyers. In the near term, the announcement effect matters more than the construction: a project like this confirms Prosper's trajectory, and confident buyers and builders tend to push values in the surrounding neighborhoods, particularly closer in toward the Tollway corridor.

The amenity factor is real, too. The lagoon, the promenade, the water taxis, The Phoenix, the hotels: those are the kind of amenities that put a town on the list for relocating professionals and investors who might otherwise have stopped in Frisco. Neighborhoods near a true destination district almost always carry a premium over neighborhoods that are merely near a shopping center. The buyers I work with who value walkability and lifestyle will be looking at the Tollway and 380 corner entirely differently if this is approved.

For investors, the math is straightforward: a 15-acre lagoon with water taxis attached to a growing North Texas city is a magnet. The rental product, from the mid-rise apartments at roughly $2,500 a month up through the high-rise condos, would reset the expectations for rental and condo economics in the northern part of the county. The office component, more than a million square feet, is the wildcard that could bring daytime population and commercial activity that Prosper has never had at scale.

And then there is the question every resident asks before they ask about prices: what about the traffic? The Dallas North Tollway at US 380 is already a busy corner, and it sits on a corridor that keeps growing northward toward Celina and Anna. Whether the city and county have the infrastructure plan to match this project, from the interchange to the schools to emergency services, is a legitimate question, and it is one of the reasons the council asked for more time before voting.

The debate: a true destination or too much, too fast.

I want to be fair here, because this is a genuine community conversation, not a campaign. The case for The Marco is compelling: a true destination built around water and public space, walkable retail and dining, hotels, arts, offices, and homes in every format, all in a town that could easily become the most interesting address in Collin County. The "wow" factor is not marketing spin. A mile-long promenade, a performing arts venue, and water taxis in Prosper was hard to imagine ten years ago, and it says a lot about how far this corner of North Texas has come.

The case for caution is equally understandable, and it is not anti-growth. Four thousand four hundred residences is a lot for a town that, a generation ago, was a farming crossroads. Up to 2,500 apartments is the detail that gives residents the most pause, because apartments change the character of a place in ways that houses do not, and because the school and road impacts are concentrated in the same corner of town. Some residents worry the project is simply too dense, too fast, and too dependent on a vision that has not been proven at this scale in this market.

That is the yes or no question the community is actually asking: do you want Prosper to become a mini-Venice on the Tollway, or do you want it to stay the wealthy, growing, but unmistakably suburban town it is today? There is no wrong answer, but there is a definitive one, and the council gets to make it on October 27.

My take as a local.

I have sold real estate in Collin County for over 20 years, and I have watched Prosper go from a quiet town on the edge of the map to one of the most in-demand addresses in North Texas. Big projects scare people and excite people in equal measure, and I have seen both reactions play out in city after city. What I can tell you with confidence is that change is not stopping here, and the only real question is what kind of change Prosper gets.

I will be watching the October 27 vote closely, and whatever happens, it will reshape the market conversation in Prosper for years. If the project is approved, the neighborhoods near the Tollway and 380 will be repriced in the minds of buyers within weeks. If it is delayed or denied, the land stays farmland a little longer and the growth pressure just shifts elsewhere. Either way, your best move is to understand what it means for your specific home and your specific plans, not what the loudest post on the neighborhood app says.

So I will ask you the same question I ask every client: yes or no on The Marco? I would genuinely like to hear where you land, and I read every message that comes through. And if you own a home in Prosper, are thinking about buying one, or are simply trying to decide whether the Tollway and 380 corner is the right place for your family or your investments, reach out. I will give you a straight answer about what this project means for your numbers, either way the vote goes, and I will be right here through all of it.