GlobeSt.com EXCLUSIVE: Suburb Primes for 60,000 SF of Boutique Shops

Theo G. Thompson and Earl Harris with the Dallas-based Weitzman Group are courting high-end national retailers for Smithfield Crossings, a six-acre proposal to add the first upscale mix to a suburb brimming with traditional retail and fast-food restaurants and more on the way. Robert McCarroll, president of RLM Commercial Realty in Fort Worth, tells GlobeSt.com that Smithfield Crossings, with a ballpark build-out of $6 million, should break ground in the fourth quarter and deliver by yearend 2005.

McCarroll and co-developer Centro Partners of Austin bought the southwest corner of FM 1709 and Keller-Smithfield Road about four years ago, selling pad sites to Bank of America and Walgreens. A road widening project and the suburb's maturity were key to the decision to polish off their land holdings with an ell-shaped, three-building development on the easternmost edge of Keller Town Center, a public-private partnership that's delivered $67 million of traditional retail and commercial space since 1998. "It was a matter of the area's maturity and getting to a point that it made sense (to build)," McCarroll says of a three-mile trade area with a $128,318 average annual income. "It's just time."

Thompson says construction will begin when pre-leasing hits 40% or 50%. He and Harris are putting the sign in the ground this week for space tagged at $20 per sf to $22 per sf triple net. The build-out goal for the courtyard design is to create an ambiance with a mix of upscale apparel shops, salons, specialty wares and restaurant venues. Besides wrapping around Walgreens and the bank, Smithfield Crossings will neighbor a 188-unit upscale retirement facility, now under construction.

Woody Mitchell, Keller's economic development director, says the Smithfield Crossings site is one of a handful left to develop in the town center's TIF district. Reata Real Estate Services of San Antonio has a 150,000-sf concept filed with the city for the eight-acre corner on the northeast side of the intersection and is talking to banks and restaurants for its 10 acres on the northwest corner--both plans call for more traditional retail just like the southeast corner, now built out with a 90,000-sf, grocery-anchored shopping center.

There is 3.5 million sf of retail rising in Dallas/Fort Worth, according to the Weitzman Group's second-quarter report. The bulk of the space is big box and mostly in fast-growing suburban pockets like Keller, building in added leverage for the boutique play that has the brokers looking to nearby Southlake's tony retail roster to help seed the lineup.