The estimated $3-million Shops on Cooper already has inked a tenant deal for about 1,500 sf with Quizno's, a specialty eatery, and has jumpstarted itself with a 35,000-sf Rooms to Go, which is due to open within weeks. The Rooms to Go store is located on a three-acre tract that had been parceled off from JaGee's 16-acre holding and will abut the Shops on Cooper. The retail specialty center, which delivers in October, carries a project cost of $125 per sf, William Jackson, JaGee vice president, tells GlobeSt.com.

The project will be supported by several junior anchor stores on a contiguous site, says Jackson. The property is situated along S. Cooper St., just north of the Interstate 20 intersection. Dallas-based Hodges & Associates is the architect for the center, with JaGee acting as general contractor.

JaGee also has secured its first conduit loan, totaling $3.5 million, for its recently completed Arlington Plaza, a 65,000-sf redeveloped neighborhood center. Jackson had arranged the loan through Randy Fleisher, first vice president of LJ Melody & Co. in Dallas. GMAC Commercial Mortgage Co. of New York, with headquarters in Horsham, PA, is the funding agent.

The completely retrofitted Arlington Plaza is fully leased after a couple years of sitting largely vacant due to a pullout from grocery anchor Winn-Dixie and Miller's Outpost, a clothing retailer. Jackson has just signed Jefferson Dental Clinic to 4,560 sf, the last spot available in the undertaking, which has been under way for two years. Subway and Mom's Alterations are the plaza's only original tenants to have stayed put during the redevelopment, says Jackson.

The plaza, valued at $5 million, is located on the southeast corner of the intersection of W. Park Row Drive and S. Cooper Street. "It was in a really good part of town, but the retail was rag tag ... it didn't have the sex appeal," he says. The retail mix now is more reminiscent of what is historically found in the suburbs, a good draw for the area located just a few blocks south of the University of Texas at Arlington.

Jackson is especially proud of the tenant mix that's been assembled by the John T. Evans Co. of Dallas. The tenants are solid, coming in the form of Midwest Cards, Family Dollar Store, Original Seconds and The College Book Store. "It's really an unusual center to have all that behind it," he explains. JaGee, which owns about one million sf in the region, had bought Arlington Plaza in 1998 from a group of investors based in McAllen, TX. JaGee's first retail redevelopment had been a former Kmart center at the intersection of Campbell Road and Central Expressway in Richardson.

Instant Insights /

JaGee Properties Finishes One Retail Center, Starting Another in Arlington

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