Dallas Business Journal
By Plamedie Ifasso – Staff Writer, Dallas Business Journal
Grand Prairie assistant city manager and city attorney Megan Suarez Mahan didn’t have many blueprints to copy from when the city manager at the time told her they needed to find a legal way to make EpicCentral happen.
The City Council purchased the 172-acre site about 20 years ago and anticipated a highway would be built next to it. Grand Prairie didn’t have many restaurants at the time, so the council envisioned the space could attract more businesses to the area.
Now, the park located along President George Bush Turnpike and Arkansas Lane includes an indoor water park, recreation centers and multiple restaurants. Construction on the recreational development’s hospitality portion is underway and expected to be completed later this year.
The hospitality complex will feature two new hotels, both opening in November, and add three more restaurants to EpicCentral later this year. The Hilton Garden will have 129 rooms, and Homewood Suites will consist of 147 studio, one- and two-bedroom suites with full kitchens. The hotels will connect to the rest of the development via two pedestrian bridges and walkways.
Just as envisioned, the site attracted more venues to Grand Prairie including BigShots Golf and Bass Pro Shops and Andretti Indoor Karting and Games at its nearby Mayfield Groves development.
“It’s our goal to become a top five destination in the Metroplex for tourism,” Mahan said. “I feel like we're on our way to that. It’s excellent to have been a part of that. Most lawyers don’t see the product of their work. It’s really neat to walk around and be like, ‘I played a small part in this.’”
Grand Prairie is on the verge of explosive development. With Mahan serving as a lead strategist, the city is also negotiating with two developers building residential communities in the city's extraterritorial jurisdiction. Grand Prairie identified the 13,515-acre site for future annexation in an August 2021 study and began talking to developers Provident Realty Advisors and Huffines Communities about annexing their developments into the city.
The two communities combined span nearly 7,000 acres and are expected to add about 50,000 residents to the city in the next 20 to 30 years. Negotiations are expected to be completed by the end of the year.
“We're in the process of getting everything finalized in the negotiation,” Mahan said “What you do is you have a development agreement and say, ‘developer, here's how you're going to develop this property, and in return, we will agree to annex it in.’"
When Mahan graduated from Texas Tech School of Law in 2008, a time when hiring freezes were the norm, she wasn’t sure what she wanted to do, but she knew she really enjoyed local government. Municipal government is where she felt she could make the most visible change in people’s lives.
“It’s streets,” Mahan said. “It’s parks. It’s libraries. It’s police, fire (and) water. It touches every single area of somebody's life, so if you do a good job, you have the ability to help make a city a really good place to live. I thought that was really rewarding and valuable.”
A couple of her "cowboy cousins," as she describes them, reached out about an open position as the Knox County Attorney. The county had one lawyer, its retiring county attorney, so Mahan was appointed to fulfill his term.
Mahan, now the only lawyer in the county, was elected county attorney after fulfilling the term and served in the role for three years.
After reconnecting with a high school friend, she saw her future back in the Dallas-Fort Worth area where she grew up and applied to all the jobs in local government she could before eventually being hired as a prosecutor in the Grand Prairie Municipal Court.
“When I first got (to Grand Prairie), I thought that this was a place where I could see myself long term, so I set that as my goal,” Mahan said. “I wanted to work my way through the organization, take all the experience that everybody else has and try to learn from it. I had an amazing city attorney and two deputy city attorneys. I asked them to help teach me. They were so wonderful and gracious to do that.”
The city attorney recommended her for his position when he retired about five years ago, and a year and a half ago, Mahan was approached about adding a management position to her title. Her law training prepared her to think strategically and long-term, so she believed having dual roles would be a great learning opportunity and challenge.
“I love being in the room where the decisions are being made,” Mahan said. “It’s a really interesting moment for Grand Prairie. We're really growing right now, and we've gotten a lot of positive economic development. So, I thought that I could help with those big strategic future thinking type of work.”
Career-wise, Mahan has the city manager bug. She’s enjoying learning from the city manager and deputy city manager, and while she’s open to whatever life brings, she sees herself being in city management long term.
The council told her, for now, they want a strong parks department, strong police and fire and strong economic development.
“We are very good at our parks, police and fire,” Mahan said. “We are on our way on economic development. The last five years have been a real game changer for us... But we have to be thoughtful and careful about how we do that. It’s a lot of responsibility. We always call ourselves future builders. We're always building for future generations. We take that responsibility very seriously.”