Fire Station No. 17 had its official opening Monday night with a $542,000 fire truck sitting outside and an eager staff of firemen ready to go inside but the real center of attention was the large tract land the new station will primarily serve.

Representatives of Viridian, the highly-anticipated master planned community in the works for north Arlington, seized the opportunity of a ribbon cutting to give a progress report on a community that when completed will offer up some 3,500 dwellings, from spacious custom homes overlooking a lake to condominiums with miles of trails and green space just a stone's throw from every resident's front door.

Part of that progress report was given first hand as a number of guests including Mayor Robert Cluck, City Manager Trey Yelverton, City Council members and other civic leaders boarded a Babe's Chicken double decker bus for an excursion through some of the 2,300 acres. They were shown where parks, an elementary school and a town center will be located, and where a gated, private island doted with multi-million dollar homes will soon emerge.

Once completed, Viridian is projected to add 15,000 residents and more than $2 billion in property taxes.

"What a great, great project this is going to be," Mayor Cluck said of Viridian, which stretches from the Riverside Golf Club along Texas 360 on the east, to Collins Street on the west, and between Green Oaks Boulevard and the Trinity Railway Express line on the north. "From the time we first talked about it a few years ago to now, it just keeps getting better."

Viridian is a huge, ambitious undertaking, a project considered to be a true mixed-use, sustainable, green community that will have as one of its features a connection to River Legacy Parks. About 14 miles of walking trails will snake through River Legacy, including paddling trails starting on Lake Viridian.

The first phase, which is underway, will include about 500 homes, said Al Linley, Huffines Communities CEO.

"The best thing about Viridian is the diversity of living it will provide," Linley said. "It will have an urban feel because it will be walkable. It will been green because it will be like living in a nature preserve with wild life. You can live in a custom made million dollar home or a townhome."

The 3,691-square-foot fire station, located in the 4000 block of North Collins, is actually temporary, said Assistant Fire Chief Brian Riley, existing at the moment to serve the initial building phase. As more homes emerge a larger, $3.5 million station will be constructed.

During the ceremony, Huffines President Robert Kembel thanked the City for its help in smoothing over some infrastructure complications involving sewer and water lines.

"All the initial problems, the reasons why so many failed trying to do this, have been solved," Kembel said. "We're ready to go."