Seizing an off-market opportunity, Henry S. Miller Holdings "stepped in and picked up" the deal for the southwest corner of FM 423 and Eldorado Parkway after another contract fell out, says Chris Colombe of Dallas-based Henry S. Miller Commercial. He says the retail-zoned land traded about three months after talks began with Dan Tomlin III of Tomlin Investments in Dallas.

"We decided to buy the land on a quasi-spec basis because we had a lot of user interest, but we didn't have anybody signed," Vaughn Miller, retail division president for Henry S. Miller Commercial, tells GlobeSt.com. "It's a regional site with a neighborhood feel."

Miller says Little Elm Crossing's preliminary plan calls for five pad sites and 300,000 sf of shop and anchor space. One-acre pad sites are being quoted at $18 per sf to $20 per sf and anchor sites of two to five acres at $5 per sf to $10 per sf. He says national retailers of all types are starting to line up for a piece of the land, positioned in a one-mile trade area with 3,000 homes planned or under construction and highway and bridge projects that only add to the upside.

Little Elm Crossing will share an intersection with a Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse, Wal-Mart Supercenter, CVS/Pharmacy and a Yum! Brand combo location. The just-bought acreage wraps around the hard corner, which has been sold to another drug store chain, according to Miller. He anticipates pad site development will be first out of the ground for the estimated $35-million regional center.

After the land sale closed, Henry S. Miller's securities group syndicated the investment opportunity, selling out the deal in a week's time to 20 investors. "We had to turn people away," Miller says.