The Golden Arches Rise

Shadow Creek Crossing is South Mesquite’s new shopping center located near the front of John Horn High School. Although it has been in planning for eight years, South Mesquite will finally get to see this start late December with the addition of a McDonald’s location.

“The McDonald’s is gonna be huge, it’s gonna be busy, and it’s gonna be convenient for people that live out here that are wanting something,” Mayor of Mesquite Daniel Alemán said. “Being a city councilman out here everyone says we need a sit down restaurant where people can come in to eat. Who is that person? Who is that business? Who is that who can come out here? So and again, it was those growing pains, just to let you know about the process. So for the school here, I think it’s gonna be great. It’s gonna be awesome because all of a sudden, other things will be available there on that corner, but it’s gonna be one more addition to business developing out here in this area as well but there are more to come.”
The community has had a lack of businesses in the area for a long time with most being in Town East. This shopping center plans to bring stores closer to residents in order to improve their quality of life.
“Mayor Alemán, myself, and a few other folks sat down to discuss what was needed for South Mesquite and its residents,” President of Cypress Capital Seth Grubstein said. “We will have a Starbucks and McDonald’s, And to have McDonald’s validate South Mesquite is huge, because it’ll attract more businesses towards South Mesquite”
Currently the Horn community has to travel almost two miles to get to the closest drive thru, this closer location opens a door for more businesses to be attracted to the area.
“I’m excited that it’s gonna be less of a drive for me to get more fast food and stuff, specifically McDonalds because I go a lot,” senior Abraham Coronado said. “I’m also excited because I don’t have to drive all the way to Town East just to do things I always do whenever I wanna hang out with friends and stuff. I feel like this is gonna give me new bonding memories with friends. I hope to be there every weekend doing something instead of being home.”
Shadow Creek Crossing plans to house more food options such as Starbucks and Dominos while also bringing in a dental office, nail salon, and a fitness center.
“I’m excited for the quality of life that it will bring to the residents around here, and the convenience and gathering,” Head of Economic Development of Mesquite Kim Buttram said. “I love economic development, but I also love community development as part of that. I envision friends sitting around the table and laughing while eating french fries and you know just being a place for people to gather and have a community.”
The close proximity of Shadow Creek Crossing to the school poses safety concerns that has the community buzzing about outsiders and students coming in and out of the school when they are not allowed to.
“I’m concerned about students leaving campus to go to McDonald’s and getting back on campus without going through the proper doorways,” Librarian Elizebeth Hall said. “It’s one of my biggest hesitations right now, and I am wondering how that’s going to look and play out.”
The Shopping complex will be separated from the school with a six-foot metal ornamental fence, as well as large ornamental trees with the canopies trimmed up.
“You will be able to see through the fencing, which I thought was important to keep teenagers safe,” Grubstein said. “It will not be a straight walk across from your parking lot unless it’s on the sidewalk, or unless somebody’s hopping a fence.”
Horn has been a closed-lunch campus since they opened in 2000, now that the center is opening up the administration has agreements with Shadow Creek tenants to keep communications open during school hours to ensure that students are kept safe during the school day.
Students are not supposed to be going to the shopping center during school hours at all, unless somebody tells us differently,” Principal Deedra Brown said. “If [staff] sees students over there, we’re going to be sending them back because we are responsible for them.”
As of now, there is only one traffic light that controls the traffic for the school. As the shopping center develops this will change the current traffic patterns.
“I’m nervous about the traffic,” Coronado said. “I hope they create a system where it wouldn’t interfere with school, especially in the mornings. I also think staff should keep a close eye out for who has an ID and who doesn’t, since there will be so many more people around our school.”
Before building began, the city asked Grubstein to obtain a traffic study. This would help understand how the traffic flowed in the area.
“The city does a traffic study every time it does an expansion here,” Grubstein said. “We did that traffic study before the addition of the freshman center. Traffic is not really going to be generated by the shopping center because it’s adjunct. As the number of homes continues to rise and will rise radically, you’ll have natural traffic patterns that develop. This shopping center really is called an infill shopping center, and it’s designed specifically to service the needs of the existing residential and what’s coming. But it’s not in and of itself a traffic generator. So yes, we will have more traffic, but how much of it is the shopping center versus how much it is just housing growth, none of us can tell you. Our crystal balls are just not that good.”
Although there are many concerns regarding the shopping center, South Mesquite is finally growing one step closer. This is only the beginning of the massive plans the city has for Mesquite, and students will finally be able to get more opportunities.
“I’m excited about the partnerships that the school can have with the businesses, and also opportunities for our young people to have jobs,” Brown said. “I don’t know how many jobs will actually be brought in with the businesses that the center will have, but I know that Mayor Alemán and myself have had conversations about my concern with the youth in this area not having access to jobs because really the closest place to work is either at the Kroger all the way up there or the McDonald’s starting at belt line. So I’m excited about job opportunities for our kids and partnerships.”