Hotels, Convention Center and Restaurants Coming to EpicCentral

Published on November 16, 2021

At 10 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 21, 2021, the city of Grand Prairie and its hotel, conference center and restaurant partners broke ground on EpicCentral, 2960 Epic Place, Grand Prairie.  The 172-acre park site is located in the heart of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex off George W. Bush Tollway (Highway 161) and Arkansas Lane.

The city is building two connecting hotels with a shared conference center, six restaurant spaces, parking garage and creating a water/light show on the lakes as well as interactive technology experiences on the land. The project will emphasize Grand Prairie’s family, friendly, fun culture and offer exciting new options for dining and entertainment.

Details about the projects:

Hotels, conference center.  Grand Prairie will build two connecting hotels with a conference center in EpicCentral, with the two hotels being Hilton Garden Inn and Homewood Suites.  Concord Hospitality is providing construction development and procurement services.  The Hilton Garden Inn will offer 129 luxury rooms, executive lounge, restaurant, pool, fitness room and business services.  The Homewood Suites will offer 147 studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom spacious suites with full kitchens designed to let you live, work and play.    

The conference center will offer a 10,000-square-foot ballroom with seating for up to 1,000.  The ballrooms can be divided into five individual conference rooms in addition to an executive conference room with seating for 10 across the hall.  Designed by Merriman Anderson Architects, and built by Arch-Con Corporation, the hotels and connecting conference center expect to open in 2023.  Interiors will reflect the flora and fauna of the prairies and north Texas in tones of blue, green and whites, with accents of orange and red. 

Restaurant Spaces. The city is also building six restaurant spaces designed by Merriman Anderson Architects and built by Hill & Wilkinson Construction Management in EpicCentral and has negotiated terms with Milkshake Concepts to bring Stirr, Vidorra and two more restaurants yet to be determined.  Larry Lavine, the founder of Chili’s, will open Loop 9 BBQ in a fifth space.  The city is entertaining options for the sixth restaurant space. This is all going in the area where Chicken N Pickle is already under construction, offering farm fresh foods and indoor/outdoor pickleball courts, and opening December 2021.

Stirr is an approachable neighborhood restaurant and bar, suitable for all of life’s gatherings; a business lunch, a happy hour cocktail, an intimate meal or a relaxed place to eat and unwind with friends.  Its artisanal menu offers a variety of unique delicacies for all palates. 

EPIC CENTRAL BUILDS HOTELS, CONFERENCE CENTER, RESTAURANTS

Vidorra Cocina de Mexico celebrates Mexican food, drink and culture.  The restaurant offers bold and exciting Mexican flavors, a unique cocktail program, lively social experience and rooftop patio.  Vidorra and Stirr are part of Milkshake Concepts, a Dallas hospitality group. The third and fourth EpicCentral restaurant spaces are also managed by Milkshake Concepts, concepts are yet to be announced.

In a fifth restaurant site, Dallas entrepreneur Larry Lavine, who founded Chili’s in Dallas in 1975, and his partners, will open Loop 9 BBQ.  It will be Lavine’s second barbecue joint; he helped found Ten50 BBQ in Richardson in 2014. 

The city is entertaining options for the sixth restaurant space.

Open Space.  Surrounding the hotels and restaurants is a large outdoor open space with covered stage for events, concerts and programs.   

Water/Light Show and Land Experiences.  The city of Grand Prairie is working with Outside the Lines (OTL) and 900lbs of Creative to design creative and innovative placemaking attractions at EpicCentral, with construction to start 2022.  OTL, a design-build specialty construction company, creates one-of-a-kind water features, rock work and themed environments.  900lbs is an interactive design agency that creates a diverse range of interactive initiatives and visual content to showcase the art of the possible using an arsenal of cutting-edge technologies. The experiences will repeat daily and be refreshed 3-4 times per year.  Design concepts may integrate technology, water, lighting, image projection and other inventive ideas. 

EpicCentral also home to.  Reflecting innovation and community investment, EpicCentral is also home to Epic Waters Indoor Waterpark; The Summit recreation center for adults ages 50+; The Epic Arts, Fitness and Entertainment Center; PlayGrand Adventures, an all-inclusive playground; Prairie Paws Adoption Center; Central Bark dog park; and the Grand Prairie Public Safety Building.   Amenities include five lakes, a grand lawn, boardwalk, and pad sites for future retail opportunities.

Chicken N Pickle.  Opening in December 2021 just south of the hotels is Chicken N Pickle.   Chicken N Pickle is the wildly popular, indoor/outdoor entertainment complex centered around pickleball, offering a variety of games, a casual, chef-driven restaurant and sports bar.  The 77,000-square-foot venue will feature a dining room, six indoor pickleball courts, five outdoor pickleball courts (two covered), and 7,500 square feet of outdoor yard games.  A large rooftop bar, stages for live performances and the signature lawn games for which Chicken N Pickle is known round out the property. In this joint venture between the company and the City of Grand Prairie, the city will own the land, develop parking needs and lease to Chicken N Pickle.   Chicken N Pickle will operate the facility. 

Bolder Adventure.  In addition, Bolder Adventure Indoor Adventure Park broke ground in EpicCentral in August 2021.  Bolder Adventure is an indoor family entertainment facility that will provide adventure-based attractions in a 66,000-square-foot pneumatic dome structure with ceiling heights of approximately 75 feet. Guests will be offered a unique opportunity to experience rock climbing, zip lines, via ferrata, ropes courses, tubing slides, synthetic ice skating, adventure nets and more.  The venue plans to open in 2022, and Grand Prairie would be its first nationwide location. 

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