At a Nov. 3 meeting, Frisco City Council approved a $1.69 million professional‑services agreement with architecture firm PGAL to design a proposed 18,101‑square‑foot animal shelter. The facility will sit on a 34‑acre parcel at the southwest corner of PGA Parkway and Gateway Drive, a location identified earlier in an Oct. 6 work session as the most flexible and cost‑efficient option for the city.
The shelter design includes 61 dog kennels, 30 cat kennels, a medical isolation zone, a 1,200‑square‑foot dog pavilion, exterior exercise yards, adoption areas and a veterinary clinical space. PGAL will lead the overall design process while specialized firm Animal Arts serves as a sub‑consultant, handling program development and the design of animal‑interaction spaces.
According to the city documents cited by Community Impact, the design phase is expected to last eight months. City staff and PGAL will work from an approximately $20 million construction budget, with an 8 % design contingency to accommodate changes or additional services. The final site plan is slated for submission to City Council by March 2027, and the completed shelter is anticipated to open in October 2028.
Frisco currently relies on the Collin County Animal Shelter, which takes in about 5,800 dogs and cats each year. The city renewed a one‑year contract with the county shelter in September, but that agreement ends in November 2028. The Collin County Commissioners Court has recently indicated it does not intend to renew the service agreement, underscoring the urgency of the city’s own facility.
Funding for the new shelter has been earmarked in the FY27 Frisco Community Development Corporation budget. City officials also expect to award a construction‑manager contract in January 2027, moving the project from design into the building phase.
What’s next: The design team will work through the next eight months to finalize plans, with the site plan due to Council in March 2027. After the construction‑manager contract is awarded in January 2027, the city will begin the roughly $20 million build, targeting an October 2028 opening to replace the expiring county‑shelter agreement.
Sources: communityimpact.com
