$15M-Plus Center's Pre-Leasing Prods Phase II Plan

Stephen Williamson of Plano, known for land transactions, is tackling a first-time retail project after a deal fell out with a developer lined up for the job. "It's to his advantage to build on that land," Mitch Traub, vice president with Dallas-based Retail Connection, tells GlobeSt.com. "It's a great going-home site."

The class A MacArthur Ranch is rising on 16.3 acres of one-time densely wooded and hilly land, a prime tract just one block north of Interstate 635 and MacArthur Boulevard. The two-building first phase has just gone vertical, with pre-leasing at 100%. Demand has been such that Traub and Wyatt Russo, also a vice president with the Retail Connection, expect to have their first deals in hand within six weeks for the 20,000-sf second phase. Traub says ground will break when pre-leasing hits 50%. The expectation is construction will start in the fourth quarter on a building that will overlook MacArthur Boulevard, the primary artery to a prestigious footprint of corporate headquarters and upscale residences in a master-planned neighborhood for the City of Irving.

MacArthur Ranch, with a price tag upward of $15 million, also contains five pad sites with "for sale" or ground lease availability. Traub says the team's already talking to prospects for the sites, which are tagged at $16 per sf to $18 per sf.

With the inline space priced at $23 per sf to $25 per sf, the line-up's largest tenant is a 6,000-sf day spa along with Seven Salsas restaurant, Mike's Pizza & Pasta, Hunan Dynasty, Crescent City Beignets, an Indian restaurant, MRI center, dentist and cleaners. Keys are slated to turn in a month for tenants to begin finish-outs, Traub says. Pacific Builders Inc. of Carrollton is the general contractor. HKI Architects of Irving designed the development on the northeast side of the MacArthur-Ranch View intersection.