Ross Backfills 30,000-SF Anchor Spot

DALLAS-With a redevelopment project gearing up to start in the first quarter, New Plan Excel Realty Trust Inc. has landed a 10-year tenant to backfill a 30,443-sf anchor spot in its 464,854-sf Wynnewood Village in South Dallas.

Ross Dress for Less will open doors in the summer in anchor space vacated about a year ago by Big Lots in the 655 W. Illinois St. shopping center. "With the addition of Ross, the shopping center is very close to achieving a 98% occupancy level," says Mike Watson, vice president of leasing in the Southwest region for the New York City-based New Plan. "South Dallas has been a major expansion area for national tenants and we are in the process of negotiating leases with others."

Those negotiations undoubtedly are tied to New Plan's plan to raze a two-story, 27,000-sf office building early next year and replace it with retail space, which could be ready to occupy by September. Meanwhile, the center, one of the oldest in the US, is working deals for a former Montgomery Ward's pad that was scraped in 1999 to make way for a Magic Johnson/Sony theater that never materialized. Sources say there is a 21,000-sf deal working to jumpstart work on the interior pad, capable of supporting another 60,000 sf to 80,000 sf of retail.

New Plan inherited the 1950s-era Wynnewood Village when it bought the Houston—based CenterAmerica Property Trust three years ago. The majority of tenants in the mix of national and "mom and pop" retailers in the center have been in place at least a decade.Wynnewood's quoted rent is $12 per sf to $14 per sf, triple net for smaller inline spaces and $10 per sf triple net for larger storefronts. Its other top-draw tenants are Kroger, Citi Trends, Melrose and RadioShack.