Mercado Azteca Will Light 85,000-SF Wal-Mart

The asking rate of $4.50 per sf gross dropped to about $3.75 per gross when the first player in some time sat down at the bargaining table, Kenon Perry of Insignia/ESG's Dallas office tells GlobeSt.com. The group will open the 200-vendor Mexican mall Sept. 15 at 555 Airport Freeway near the intersection of Texas 183 and O'Connor Boulevard in Irving. The lease, which carries Wal-Mart to its expiration, kicks in June 1.

Perry says the deal moved to a quick close because word on the street was that a competing mercado, attempting to play off Azteca's success in Dallas, was jockeying to talk for the vacant big box. "We wanted to have a pre-emptive strike," he says of the push to cap negotiations with Lou Miranda of United Commercial Realty in Dallas who represented Wal-Mart.

The first Mercado Azteca opened in December 2002 at the intersection of Interstate 30 and Buckner Boulevard in East Dallas. A third Dallas-Fort Worth mercado eventually will open, but right now Perry confides that he's reviewing two sites in Las Vegas and another in Chicago for the Dallas-based Azteca.

Carlos Quintanilla, the group's leader, said the response from the Mexican community in Dallas, where two out of every seven residents in the county are Mexican, triggered the decision to move ahead with other locations inside and outside the state line."We have pooled the consortium's resources and energy to provide safe transportation, affordable retail and a community meeting place, while generating a revenue and tax base for the city. We expect to have the same success in Irving," he said in a press release.

A Mercado Azteca has a drawing ticket of 200 vendors and five restaurants to support the concept, which is owned by the merchants through the Dallas Hispanic Business Consortium. The Irving site also will include a bus terminal.