Celina's city council has approved a deal clearing the way for a $7.5 million redevelopment of two aging downtown properties, backing the private investment with up to $2.3 million in performance-based public incentives. The agreement covers new construction at 102 N. Ohio St. and a historic renovation of the Mayer Building at 313 W. Pecan St., both led by Celina Real Estate LLC.
The Chapter 380 economic development agreement, approved September 8, 2026, taps Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone No. 11 to fund incentives capped at $1.5 million for the Ohio Street project and $800,000 for the Mayer Building, according to Local Profile. Those public dollars are performance-based, meaning the city only pays out once construction milestones and private spending thresholds are verified. As reported by CultureMap Dallas, the Mayer Building renovation itself carries a $1.5 million price tag, while the new Ohio Street building is projected to cost $6 million.
“Downtown is the heart and soul of Celina, and maintaining its vitality as our community grows remains one of our highest priorities,” Mayor Ryan Tubbs said, per CultureMap Dallas's reporting. He added, “Downtown is where our story began, and it's where we continue to invest in our future.”
What's Replacing the Old Gas Station and Grocery Store
The Ohio Street site previously housed a roughly 1,100-square-foot gas station built around 1950 that could not be structurally saved, according to Community Impact. Community Impact reports Tubbs expressed disappointment that the original structure couldn't be rehabilitated, which led to plans for a two-story replacement with a historic-style façade inspired by the old station. The new 12,400-square-foot building will include about 7,200 square feet of retail and restaurant space alongside 5,200 square feet of office space, per CultureMap Dallas.
Across the square, the Mayer Building — once home to the local grocery store Mayer Foods, per Community Impact's historical account — will be renovated to include 5,000 square feet of restaurant space, CultureMap Dallas reports. The city has set firm deadlines for both projects: construction on the Mayer Building must begin by January 1, 2028, and finish by June 1, 2029, while work at 102 N. Ohio St. must start by October 1, 2028, and wrap by March 1, 2030, according to the same Local Profile report.
A Downtown That's Been Punching Below Its Weight
The Ohio Street and Mayer Building projects join a wave of other downtown activity, including Trackside Junction, a $15 million mixed-use project from Nack Development at 111 W. Pecan St. that Celina City Council approved in July 2026. Per the City of Celina, Trackside Junction adds 15,000 square feet of commercial space — and economic development officials have noted that single project alone increases total downtown commercial inventory by 20 percent, underscoring just how small the square's existing footprint has been. According to the release cited by CultureMap Dallas, the combined projects are intended to bring underutilized buildings around the downtown square back into active commercial use.
“Adding new dining, retail, and office opportunities creates additional reasons for people to spend time downtown while generating economic activity that supports the broader business community,” said Anthony Satarino, quoted in CultureMap Dallas's reporting. Satarino currently serves as executive director of the Celina Economic Development Corporation, though municipal records show he agreed to a mutual transition on September 8, 2026, shifting his role directly into city government as President of Economic and Community Development effective October 5, 2026.
The Growth Numbers Behind the Push
The redevelopment push comes as Celina keeps setting national growth records. U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2025 estimates released in May 2026 put the city's population at 64,427 as of July 2025 — a 276.8 percent jump from the 16,739 residents counted in the 2020 Census, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. CultureMap Dallas reported the city's population rose 24.6 percent to nearly 64,500 between 2024 and 2025 alone, ranking Celina the fastest-growing city in the country over that span, per the Census Bureau.
Those single-year gains are striking in national context: Celina added 12,710 residents between July 2024 and July 2025, a numeric increase larger than the total population growth of major cities like Seattle or Houston over the same period, according to CBS News. The city was a rural ranching town of roughly 6,000 residents as recently as 2010, per the same Census Bureau data.
Residential Booms Feeding Commercial Demand
Much of that growth is tied to sprawling master-planned communities springing up around Celina. CultureMap Dallas reports that Ramble by Hillwood Communities spans 1,380 acres with a projected 4,000-plus homes and commercial, retail, and multifamily components, while Serenade Texas includes more than 875 homes across over 400 acres, plus a 16-acre lake and more than 150 acres of open space. Wildhorse, another Celina community, includes 766 homes along with parks and sports fields, according to CultureMap Dallas.
That residential surge has already reshaped the city's housing mix — Hoodline reported in August that site preparation had wrapped on Topaz at Light Farms Way, a 272-unit luxury complex marking one of Celina's first major multi-family developments in a suburb once dominated almost entirely by single-family homes. Retail has followed a similar pattern along the city's outer corridors: Celina City Council approved a 10-year, $3.4 million sales tax reimbursement deal in July 2026 for a second Walmart Supercenter along the Dallas North Tollway, following the April 2026 opening of the retailer's first 197,965-square-foot store on Preston Road.
Racing to Keep Sales-Tax Dollars In Town
The downtown incentives fit into a broader municipal strategy Celina leaders outlined at a Collin County regional development conference in March 2026, where officials described a playbook aimed at capturing local retail and dining dollars before they leak to neighboring cities like McKinney and Frisco. Hoodline's earlier coverage of that regional growth scramble detailed how Collin County suburbs have adopted distinct positioning strategies as the area's population expansion accelerates. With construction deadlines on the downtown projects stretching out to 2030, city officials appear to be betting that the square's transformation can help Celina hold onto commercial activity even as growth radiates outward along its highway corridors.
