Denton’s Fry Street saga takes encouraging turn

The new property owners, Dinerstein Companies, gave reason for "cautious optimism."

The long, dark nightmare on Fry Street took a new turn Wednesday night at Denton’s City Hall. The area’s new developers, Dinerstein Companies, called for a meeting with the community to discuss their preliminary plans and the citizen’s desires.

Josh Vasbinder, a partner in Dinerstein Companies, began the evening by telling the almost-capacity crowd about his company, which has built student housing projects all over the country. He made sure to underscore the facts that Dinerstein Companies is a private, family-owned company who cares about the communities in which they build. He then spent the next two hours supporting those claims in his responses to questions from the public.

It was a somewhat encouraging meeting, especially given the disaster surrounding the previous property owner, United Equities, which showed no interest in the surrounding community. The attendees expressed appreciation for the meeting, and asked Vasbinder plenty of tough questions. He told the crowd how quickly he and other company representatives have been educated about Denton and the culture surrounding Fry Street, and attempted to convince citizens that they want this project to succeed not only for their company, but for the Fry Street area.

The main feeling to take from the meeting is “cautious optimism.” There’s reason to hope the developers not only need to hear from the citizens of Denton, but that they will listen to them.

Vasbinder has called for a second meeting on February 17 at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall to discuss updates to the plan based on community feedback.

For more information on last night’s meeting and for information to contact Josh Vasbinder, see Kevin Roden's reaction and this article from the Denton Record-Chronicle.