Bruce Arfsten, Mayor, Town of Addison

In an interview with Invest:, Bruce Arfsten, mayor of the town of Addison, talked about the town’s unique attributes, including its compact size, high restaurant density, and strategic location. Recent successes include revitalizing Village on the Parkway and expanding Addison Airport’s Galaxy FBO. 

What makes Addison stand out in Texas? 

One of the things that makes us unique is our size: we’re only 4.4 square miles and 1 square mile of that is the airport. We have over 10 million square feet of office space and right around 200 restaurants. Our nighttime population is about 17,000 people but that increases to over 100,000 during the day due to the visitors coming for dining, entertainment, shopping, and coming to Addison to work. Also, our location gives us an advantage when compared to communities to our north that are experiencing extremely strong growth right now. We like to say that we are about 25-30 minutes from everywhere you need to go, including both airports, Love Field and DFW.  

What have been some key initiatives from the past year and what impact have they had? 

The continuation of the growth of our retail sector, specifically Village on the Parkway and along Belt Line Road, which we consider Addison’s main street. Before the redevelopment, Village on the Parkway was a struggling retail center, but it has been redeveloped and is thriving. It has gone from a mix of retail and restaurants to also having a Whole Foods, a movie theater, upcoming office space, and is becoming a destination event venue. Examples of the “eatertainment” growth trend include Puttshack, which opened up there last year and another recent announcement is Batbox, an immersive simulated baseball experience. That has been a great growth area for us and has spilled over into surrounding areas. 

Another recent success is the opening of Addison Airport’s Galaxy FBO (Fixed Base Operator). The FBO is coming up on its second year in November and far exceeded its goal for fuel sales in its first year of operation. They have completely transformed the southeast corner of the airport, which is right across the road from our highly visible Addison Circle Park. The park is also being elevated and reimagined. It is a large 10-acre park where we host our Big 3 events (Taste Addison, KaboomTown, and Oktoberfest) and we want to ensure it is activated on a higher level on a daily basis. The consultant we partnered with for our vision plan is OJB. They have extensive experience in this type of work around the country, including Klyde Warren Park in Dallas.  

For the Addison Theatre Centre, we are doing a similar process and looking to see how we can create more entertainment opportunities that bring visitors to Town. Addison Circle Park and the Theatre Centre are adjacent to our transit oriented development being planned for the Silver Line, the regional rail line that will run from the DFW Airport to Plano with a stop at Addison Station. We are spending the time and doing the work now so we can take the most advantage of that. 

How are you furthering the growth of the hospitality sector? 

That is very important to us because it has been said that we have more restaurants per capita than any city in the country, with around 200 restaurants in Addison. We are regularly on social media through our public communications department promoting restaurants online and through our weekly newsletter. We are redoing our Town website that will launch in October and will include an even greater focus on our restaurants. It will be a place where restaurants can advertise specials and have an opportunity to promote themselves. We know restaurants want to be here so we want to support them as best we can. It’s the same with the 22 hotels in Town. We want to be a partner in their success.

What initiatives are in place to support large employers? 

Over eighty percent of our property tax revenue comes from commercial and multifamily properties so it is crucial that we take care of that segment. An important factor to us is making sure we have an environment that is friendly to those businesses. If they need to do redevelopment, we want to be easy to work with by providing an extremely high level of customer service. When they have their business here, we want to make their experience better than they can find elsewhere. One of our advantages is our small size, which makes it manageable and easier to connect to our business partners. I believe we have an opportunity to create a true feeling of community that larger cities may not be able to do.  

How is the city adapting to changing demographics? 

One of the challenges we have with the growth of the metroplex is where to put everyone. Most cities are struggling with the same thing because housing has become so expensive. With our small space, we don’t really have room to build new single-family neighborhoods. Much of our development and redevelopment in the past several years has resulted in really high-quality mixed-use developments.

The mixed use developments do increase our population density, which helps support our important retail sector. With public safety always a top priority, we want to make sure we have an environment that is safe for residents and visitors. We are evaluating, with our police department and consultants, what that staffing level looks like in the future so we can plan accordingly. We recently approved the construction of a new police station to replace our aging facility. 

Through what channels do residents and visitors communicate with the city? 

Beyond our social media and weekly newsletter, which are managed by a very dedicated team, we also have a town app called Addison Fix It that allows residents to report directly to town staff when issues need attention. The staff is very responsive when receiving these reports and are prompt in resolving the issues. Many of our residents are very comfortable reaching out directly to the mayor, city council members and the Town leadership team when they have something on their mind. I believe we do a good job of keeping those communication channels open. 

How do you collaborate with neighboring cities and regional entities? 

We are proud of the relationships we maintain with our neighboring cities. We have shared a consolidated dispatch for first responders with Carrollton, Farmers Branch and Coppell for several years now. These cities provide mutual aid to each other and this has been very successful in continuing to improve efficiencies in dispatching units. 

Addison actively participates in the North Central Texas Council of Governments and I’m a member of the Regional Transportation Council. The regional cooperation that these organizations encourage helps the Metroplex continue to experience growth that outpaces most metropolitan areas in the country. 

There is the Metroplex Mayors Association and we have a monthly breakfast meeting with mayors, city managers and other leadership from cities in the region. We receive updates from various regional entities, which helps us all stay informed on current and upcoming events and issues. Taking advantage of these opportunities to build relationships with our neighbors is extremely valuable in fostering collaboration and cooperation in the region. 

What is your outlook and what are your top priorities for Addison over the next two to three years? 

Our top priorities are always going to include public safety, as evidenced by the new police station coming soon. We have a good number of relatively new leadership staff and we have adopted what I like to call an Addison 2.0 mindset for reimagining the city, looking for new ideas and approaches as we enter our next chapter. We need to think creatively going forward and create an environment of innovation as we continue to seek out ways to stand out in the crowd. The future is bright for Addison, but we can’t take our past success for granted. 

One of the biggest challenges is the projected regional population growth over the next few decades. That presents challenges related to congestion, traffic, air quality and other issues. Discussions around public transit and high-speed rail that are happening today will be ongoing, as we look for creative and innovative ways to move people throughout the region.