Grand Prairie Farmers Market, 120 W. Main St. To bring more foot traffic downtown, and provide organic food offerings, Hart worked with staff to build and create the Grand Prairie Farmers Market, open Saturdays April – December. From weekly offerings to Music on Main concerts, Crawfish Boil and Hatch Chile Fest, the Farmers Market is a popular destination for fresh food and fun times.
Uptown Theater, 120 E. Main St. Grand Prairie’s Uptown Theater is a historic downtown landmark that is rich with history and abounding with activity. The Uptown Theater originally opened in 1950 as a movie hall, and after closing their doors, the City of Grand Prairie purchased the theater and reopened as a multi-use arts center in 2008.
Ruthe Jackson Center and Wedding Gardens, 3113 S. Carrier Parkway. When the city opened its Ruthe Jackson Center and Wedding Gardens under Hart’s leadership, it provided the only place in town for large gatherings, a ballroom, break-out rooms and a beautiful wedding garden. With regular updates and enhancements, the RJC remains a popular, successful space for all manner of events and programs.
Grand Prairie Municipal Complex, 300 W. Main St. With a growing city comes a need to house an increasing number of employees. Embarking on an innovative solution built from Hart’s vision to create a city center in downtown, the city connected two existing city facilities by building a new City Hall Central in the street between the former City Hall (now City Hall West) and former Development Center (now City Hall East). The architectural plans further pulled the complex together through open space, parking, greenbelts and walkways, to tie in five other city offices on the site. Upon his retirement, the city honored Hart by renaming the complex in his honor: the Tom Hart City Hall Complex.
Public Safety Headquarters, 1525 Arkansas Lane. The Public Safety Building, which is located in EpicCentral, combines fire administration, police services, and detention in the 149,000-square-foot state-of-the-art building. Windows, lighting, stone, patina copper, and unique angles create an iconic building where the public’s safety is managed. An exterior-conditioned building houses the Sallyport bays. And a second exterior building contains tactical team lockers/storage and vehicle bays for the department’s specialty vehicles, motorcycle parking, bike patrol storage/workspace, and various storage rooms.
One of Hart’s first tasks as the new city manager in Grand Prairie was to bring EMS in-house, which was done successfully, professionally and in a manner to greatly enhance service to residents. During his tenure, the city renovated five fire stations and built/rebuilt seven fire stations, creating state-of-the-art environments for firefighters and emergency medical technicians enabling them the latest in technology and equipment to save lives.
During Hart’s tenure, the city built one new library, expanded three, renovated three, added a 24/7 library and added a book locker. In addition to the physical buildings, Hart made a unique choice in appointing the city’s Marketing Director to also be the Library Director, with the purpose of reinventing library services. The result was an award-winning new system that has become relentlessly relevant to the community in its effort to freely educate everyone regardless of age, means or background.
Grand Prairie Memorial Gardens, 3001 S. Belt Line Road. In the growing city of Grand Prairie, the burial options were extremely limited. Hart quickly found a solution by creating the Grand Prairie Memorial Gardens, providing a beautiful, peaceful place of eternal rest. Within its 25 acres, this public cemetery offers five gardens with continually cared-for burial lots, a mausoleum with casket crypts and columbarium niches
Grand Prairie Tourist Center, 2170 N. Belt Line Road/ With tourism such a vital part of the Grand Prairie economy, Hart helped staff move the tourist center out of a strip mall and into its own building, prominently positioned at the entrance to Lone Star Park Horse Racetrack. The center provides information to the 10 million visitors a year to Grand Prairie through its website, social media, walk-in foot traffic, a 1-800 number and connections to Grand Prairie hotels and attractions.
Fire House Gastro Park, 321 Main St. Hart took full opportunity to create a unique space and bring a much-wanted dining experience to downtown when he spearheaded the effort to secure a restauranteur in the city’s first fire station upon its retirement from service, creating a popular, destination environment with a Southern California feel and fare.
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