The architect's selection comes within months of hiring the leasing team, Dallas-based Baker Commercial Realty. Carter &Burgess of Ft. Worth has been selected as project engineer. Developer Terrabrook has been building its Aventerra team since the start of this year after owning the site since 1996 in a buyout from Mobil Land Corp.

The project has been on and off development drawing boards for the past two years. It's back and so is its landscape architect, TBG of Dallas in one of the most critical roles in the Aventerra undertaking. "The concept of the project is its integration with the existing characteristics of the land," Jim Baker, Terrabrook's vice president, tells GlobeSt.com. The 550-acre tract is situated on the north side of Texas 114, where rolling hills, prairie and grassland prevail in stark comparison to the highway's southern Southlake tier known for its upscale housing and high-end commercial developments. The Aventerra acreage fronts Texas 114 between Dove Road and Kimball Avenue and ideally situated between the Dallas-Ft. Worth International and Alliance airports.

Terrabrook is considered one of the nation's largest master-planned developers, owning 45 large-scale projects in 13 states and Puerto Rico. Aventerra is its second Southlake project, coming on the heels of the 1,131-acre Timarron. But this development is absent the usual multifamily component. It's strictly product types aimed at providing services to Southlake in an area that still contains vast tracts of raw land.

Aventerra is in its infancy, with the yield analysis still being an unknown, explains Baker. The known factor, he says, is that it will be a new generation development. Moderate infrastructure work has begun, but Terrabrook is not yet ready to announce the next development stage.

Terrabrook has selected a 19-year-old award-winning architectural firm that is one of the 10 largest in the Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex. Good Fulton & Farrell specializes in master-planned projects such as Aventerra. Larry Good says his firm's team will work to develop a "sense of place" in designing a business community removed from urban congestion and positioned in greenspace. "The physical environment is very special and we will work in concert with it to create a special business environment," he says in a prepared statement.