It is undecided if the first phase to Mountain Creek Business Park, which accesses Interstate 20, will contain the 700,000 sf in one structure or two equal-size buildings, Jon Napper, a Panattoni partner in Dallas, tells GlobeSt.com. Alliance Architects of Dallas is designing the project, with Pacheko-Koch acting as civil engineer. A general contractor has not been picked.

This is Panattoni's largest solo project in the Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex. Napper had taken over the Dallas helm in early February and folded his Courtland Group into the operation, including his long-time effort to develop Mountain Creek.

P&L Cos. of Dallas is the seller, which had been represented by Jim Whitton and Bill Reese of CB Richard Ellis in the acquisition. The City of Dallas also has a vested interest, having kicked in $7 million raised in a 1997 bond election for infrastructure.

Ultimately, the project will contain retail, office and distribution space along the corridor that is largely green space. Napper says the retail component will get under way "any day" as he carefully avoided revealing too much at this stage. P&L owns another 500 acres that has been earmarked for residential development, he says.

The project's first leg, which carries an estimated $19-million price tag, will be positioned on 40 acres on the western half of Mountain Creek Parkway and just inside a Triple Freeport exempt area. Infrastructure construction for road, water and sewer will get under way this year so the acreage can be opened for full development, says Napper.

"It's been a very complicated and long process to get it to this point," he says. It had taken a year just to modify the commercial and residential zoning for distribution use. Five months had been required to negotiate the infrastructure deal with the city. That deal calls the extension of Merrifield Road to the P&L holding, but does not include laying waterlines to the site, says Napper.