The Silos Downtown Finally Have a Plan. What It Means for The Ranch at Uptown Celina's Trips to Town, and When

The Martinek grain silos stand on about 32 acres south of Ash Street, between the BNSF tracks and Oklahoma Drive. On September 28, a design team showed what the site could become. The draft has a biergarten built around the silos, food halls, creekside restaurants with live music and a hotel, all along Doe Branch Creek.

The Ranch at Uptown Celina was marketed as a few minutes from downtown's shops and restaurants. For people who live there, the silo plan is the biggest change in years to the town they drive into. It is also the last piece on downtown's calendar. Over the next few years, the changes you can actually walk into will be a rebuilt lodge on Ohio Street, a restaurant in the Mayer Building and a finished Ousley Park. The brewery comes after those.

What the draft puts beside the silos

The land belongs to the Celina Economic Development Corporation, or CEDC. It bought the tract for $13.5 million in 2024 with money from a half-cent sales tax. That was its first land purchase. CEDC President Anthony Satarino presented the draft master plan alongside Norris Design, JHP Architecture and Catalyst Commercial, and Community Impact reported that it splits the property into five zones:

1. Zone 1 is closest to downtown and holds the silos. It includes a 1.5-acre brewery or biergarten on the north end, themed around the property's grain history, plus food halls with farm-to-table dining.
2. Zone 2 has three family-friendly restaurants along the railway, with outdoor dining, creek access and space for live music.
3. Zone 3 sits in the middle of the property and has a hotel, a conference center and a festival park.
4. Zone 4 has shops arranged around a central plaza.
5. Zone 5 has retail and office buildings with a rustic look facing Oklahoma Drive.

Celina.news reported more detail. The hotel would have about 100 rooms. The two food hall buildings would total about 18,000 square feet at Oklahoma Drive and Ash Street. The plan also shows trails on both banks of Doe Branch Creek, three pedestrian bridges and a 1.5-acre central park with an amphitheater. One side of the creek would stay close to natural to save the larger trees. A new street would enter from Oklahoma Drive and might one day reach Preston Road.

The layout follows a public survey. The project team gathered feedback in person at a May 11 meeting and online, and residents asked most often for walkable restaurants, shops and outdoor space. The team also drew three alternate plans focused on hospitality, urban living, and health and wellness.

Why the first two years produce paperwork, not buildings

According to the plan, Phase 1 covers years one and two. That phase adopts the plan, settles the zoning and finishes the engineering. The recommended next steps are to draft zoning rules, study a special district to pay for infrastructure, and test demand for the hotel before zoning. Community Impact described the order the same way. Once the plan is final, rezoning, infrastructure and tenant recruitment follow.

The money explains why it moves slowly. At full buildout, the consultants estimate 234,800 square feet of buildings, $98.56 million in taxable value and about $1.88 million a year in tax revenue. That would repay the land purchase in about 7.2 years. The plan calls that a rough figure because it leaves out infrastructure, incentives and financing. It also warns against more borrowing by an EDC it describes as already stretched from buying the site. The pedestrian underpass at the BNSF tracks and a possible parking garage are left for later phases. The garage would be built only if demand calls for it.

The draft went to the Celina City Council on October 13 as a discussion item, not a vote. Project Willock, the CEDC's site for the effort, lists no upcoming events. As this post goes up, the silos have a proposed future. There are no zoning dates, tenants or groundbreaking yet.

What reaches downtown before the brewery does

Smaller projects nearby already have signed agreements with deadlines. Put together, they show the order in which downtown will change.

Community Impact reported on October 21 that the City Council approved a development agreement with CJS Family Properties for the lodge site. The building is mostly taken apart already, and the reimbursements depend on a certificate of occupancy by December 2027. The two Pecan and Ohio Street properties are part of a $7.5 million Celina Real Estate project that the council approved on September 8, according to Community Impact.

Those deadlines run from late 2027 to early 2030, and each one covers a single building on a single lot. The silo site is many times larger and has no deadline yet. For the next few years, downtown restaurant openings will happen one building at a time.

Ousley Park and Doe Branch Creek

Doe Branch Creek runs through Ousley Park, and the Willock plan places its restaurants and trails along the same creek. Ousley Park already has funding. In March, the City Council approved $11.9 million for stream reconstruction and $2.9 million for design work. Parks Director Steve Walsh called the design contract "the final piece" of the park.

The design list covers a community playground, trails, pickleball courts, covered basketball courts, a dog park, outdoor fitness stations, a stage, new turf, stadium lighting and parking. It also includes improvements to South Arkansas Street, which runs along the park's western edge. Assistant City Manager Kimberly Brawner told Community Impact that the stream bid "came in considerably less than expected," and that the savings would go back into Ousley Park. She estimated the reconstruction at about two years.

Ousley Park already has a budget and a schedule, and the silo site does not. If you want something new along Doe Branch Creek in the next two years, Ousley Park is where it will happen.

The Square is still the center

The Willock team says the project is meant to add to downtown Celina, not compete with it. Its branding and programming would match the Downtown Square. One example from the presentation is a hotel that markets itself around Cajun Fest, Beware! of the Square and Christmas on the Square, so visitors have a reason to stay overnight. A project representative called it potentially "one of downtown's first signature hotels."

That matters for The Ranch. When The Ranch was announced in 2023, its plans included a trail connecting to downtown, and the neighborhood was sold on being close to the Square. The new projects are all built around the Square. The Masonic Lodge and the gas station site are on Ohio Street, the Mayer Building is on Pecan, and the Willock team wants its hotel guests at the Square's events. For golf-cart routes and the closest things to ride to today, see our look at The Ranch's golf cart trail. For the rest of this year's events, see the Square's 2026 calendar.

The next big date downtown is Christmas on the Square, from 5 to 9 p.m. on Wednesday, December 2, 2026, at the Downtown Square. On that night, the plan for the silos will still be a draft that has not gone to a vote.

New buildings downtown change the comparisons buyers make for homes near the Square, and that includes The Ranch. If you want to know where your home stands as downtown changes, LivingWell Realty can run the numbers for you. Deb and Brent follow the Willock plan, the Ohio Street projects and every listing from the Square out to FM 455, so request your home value and we'll start with your street.