Opus West Ready to Break Ground on $60M Mixed-Use Project

Steve Chilton, Opus' director of real estate development, tells GlobeSt.com that ground will break simultaneously in April on 194,970 sf of retail space, a 203,000-sf Wal-Mart Supercenter and the 52,000 sf of class A office condos. To date, 70% of the retail space has been preleased by Realty Ventures LP of Fort Worth and nine of 11 pad sites either sold or under contract, according to Chilton. "We've had a great reception. The leasing velocity," he tells GlobeSt.com, "is well ahead of what we anticipated." The 86-acre development will start to deliver retail space in late August or early September at the intersection of FMs 407 and 2499 near Interstate 35 E.

Peter Meyer, principal in Dallas for the Scottsdale, AZ-based Shea, says the Marketplace's marketing team, Julie Echols and Michael Lambert, will be selling the office condo space for $170 per sf to $185 per sf in 1,500-sf to 25,000-sf layouts. "Everything about this market, this location says this is going to be a great opportunity for the develop [Opus West] and the buyer," Meyer says.

Meyer says the Marketplace at Highland Village could be one of the first developments to get its office condo product out of the ground in the submarket. The five-acre component will be ready for occupancy in December. DFD CornoyerHedrick of Phoenix designed the seven-building complex.

Shea, though pitted against another marketing company, had a slight advantage because it also has Opus contracts in Arizona and is working closely with the team on an upcoming project in Austin, according to Meyer. Besides taking the space to market, he says Shea has had input into the buildings' designs.