Vendor cottages draw attention at Geyer Commons

By Amanda Rogers

Mansfield Record

New homes and businesses are going up all over Mansfield, but few have drawn as much attention as the small, white clapboard buildings at the old Geyer Field on East Broad Street.

The houses are vendor cottages for small businesses and individuals to operate, explained Matt Young, executive director for community services for the city.

The cottages will be part of the new Geyer Commons, a $5.6 million city-owned area with a fountain, gateway arch, splash pad, driveway and vendor cottages, due to open this on the northwest corner of East Broad Street and North Walnut Creek Drive.

Two of the cottages will be for city use, but the other 10 will be leased, Young said. And they are proving to be popular.

“We have more than 80 people interested in leasing them,” he said.

All of the 14-foot by 16-foot buildings will have electricity and an option to have a hand sink, Young said. Restrooms will also be located on the site.

Phase 1A of Geyer Commons, built on the site of the oldest baseball field in the city, should be completed by October, he said, with a soft opening in November.

“Vendors will be able to be open seven days a week,” Young said.

Phase 1B will include the reconstruction of historic structures on the site, including the Collier House, Citizens Bank of Britton, Julian Feild’s home and Cumberland Presbyterian Church. The historic Wallace-Hall house, 210 S. Main St., will be moved, possibly to Geyer Commons.

“It would have to be taken in three pieces,” Young said. “It’s a question if it could be moved. It’s too wide for Broad Street to move in one piece with the medians and light poles.”

Phase 2 will include demolition of some of the Mansfield ISD buildings, Young said, which will happen after the school district moves into the current City Hall building at 1200 E. Broad St. Phase 2 will also include a Wiffle ball field on the site of the current Student Services building.

In November 2023, the Mansfield ISD and the city swapped properties with the city getting Geyer Field and Mansfield ISD administration buildings at East Broad Street and North Walnut Creek Drive, along with the shopping center on the northeast side of the East Broad and North Walnut Creek Drive intersection. The school district will receive the current City Hall building after the city builds and moves into a new facility on Heritage Parkway.

The Mansfield ISD Administration Building, built in 1924, and the Rock Gym, a WPA Project built in 1940, both recognized as historic landmarks, along with a gazebo on the property will remain, Young said.