500,000-SF TX Center Planned

Hunter Equities LLC, led by Scott Rohrman and Peter Moore, hopes to break ground by year's end on the southeast corner of US Highway 380 and Custer Road. Talks are rounding into the final stretch for an anchor to jumpstart construction on a project tentatively dubbed Hunter Plaza at Stonebridge Ranch, Rohrman tells GlobeSt.com.

Hunter Equities has been playing the project close to the vest as it fine-tuned plans for land acquired in June. Rohrman, who's preleasing the project, says the acreage is zoned for 2.4 million sf, but there's no plan to max out its foothold at the crossroads, where three of the four corners are situated in McKinney. The fourth corner, part of the City of Prosper, is being mapped out for a 300,000-sf development by Wally Properties Inc. of Fort Smith, AR.

In June, Hunter Equities outmaneuvered a handful of other developers with a 30-day look and 15-day close to get the gateway site to the master-planned Stonebridge Ranch. Rohrman says he and his partner scored the win because their competitors "wanted to line up tenants" before they took down the ready-to-go land. with all its infrastructure in place.

Meanwhile, the Deerfield, IL-based Walgreens Co. has bought the last corner, 1.7 acres for $20 per sf, according to local comps. Just a year ago, land near the intersection was getting $13 per sf.

Hunter Equities' principals hired Tally & Associates of Dallas as its landscape architect. They are negotiating with an architect to lay out a power center with lifestyle space "designed in such a way that it makes people want to stay," Rohrman says. The existing zoning allows for retail and office development.

Hunter Equities' land, with a half mile of frontage along US Highway 380, is bordered by green belts on the east and south. Rohrman says talks are under way with the city to develop hike and bike trails in the green belts, one of which borders a five-acre lake with a water fountain.