GlobeSt.com EXCLUSIVE: Lakeside Market, 20 Acres Bounce to New Owner

PLANO, TX-A newly formed investment group, backed by a $25.5-million loan for an off-market sale, has acquired the 183,879-sf Lakeside Market and 20.1 acres ready for development. The first phase to a 200,000-sf expansion could get under way by the end of the year.

Michael Geisler, partner in Venture Commercial LLC of Dallas, assembled the investment group to get the deed to 44 acres or the entire retail component of Lakeside, a subdivision rising in phases since 1990 under the guiding hand of Margaret Turner DiNapoli, whose family had owned the Preston Road acreage since the 1890s. Geisler, whose team has been leasing and managing the class A, lifestyle center at 4001 Preston Rd. for three years, tells GlobeSt.com that DiNapoli "was torn with letting go of the property, but she knew it was the responsible thing to do because she wanted to do other things."

Geisler says the property's retail value could push $70 million when all is said and done, including the expansion planned for the hard corner of Preston Road and Spring Creek Parkway. Included in the sale was a 22,455-sf, two-story office building that's 90% leased to professional services' tenants.

Scott Lynn, director and principal of Dallas-based Metropolitan Capital Advisors Ltd. and senior associate Kevan McCormack, arranged an interim, floating-rate acquisition loan from SouthTrust Bank in Dallas. The financing earmarks capital to spruce up the 75%-leased center and set up tenant finish-outs. "When we get occupancy higher, we will finance it to a permanent loan," Geisler says. The upgrades begin in 60 days.

The Venture team, using a $22 per sf to $30 per sf opening quote, has been making changes in tenancy since it took over. "The collection of tenants today is very strong and it's been the turning point," Geisler says. The six-year-old center's turnaround also convinced Lakeside Market's anchor, Weir's Furniture Village, to exercise an option late last year to buy its 50,000-sf, two-story building.

Meanwhile, the preleasing campaign is in full swing for a 60,000-sf to 80,000-sf first phase to a 200,000-sf build-out of the 20.1-acre vacant corner. Geisler says he's already holding a letter of intent with "a significant tenant" to kick off the project, which is being designed by Good Fulton & Farrell Architects Inc. of Dallas. "It potentially could put us under construction toward the end of this year," he says.

Geisler estimates it will take three to five years to build out the corner since construction will be based on market demand. "It's got a very exciting future," he says, "and the best is yet to come."