EXCLUSIVE: Dallas Developer Ties Up Prized 46 Acres in Las Colinas

IRVING, TX-A Dallas developer has locked down 46 acres to raise a mixed-use project of predominately retail space at the doorstep of several corporate campuses. The land is being bought in four closings with three property owners to get control of two corners at a prime intersection.

Cross Development Co. to date has acquired eight acres, is bearing down on a closing for another two and has locked in another 36 at the intersection of Interstate 635 and Belt Line Road--the newest development hotspot in the Las Colinas submarket. "We've all been waiting for it. When we saw an opening, we jumped in there," Casey Shires, president of Cross Development, tells GlobeSt.com.

Magellan Commercial Real Estate Inc. has been assembling the land deals for Shires and his partners. Magellan's Michael DeLier negotiated a four-acre sale from Second Century Development Co. of Dallas, which is about to turn over another two acres so a 10-acre retail project and extended-stay hotel can rise on the intersection's southwest corner. Shane Jordan with local firm, Jordan Realty Advisors, is Second Century's man at the bargaining table. The 4.16-acre balance was picked up from the New York City-based Travelers Insurance Co. in a deal pulled together by Magellan principals Phil Baker and Russell Cosby and DeLier.

Meanwhile, Shires and the Magellan team are negotiating a 36-acre takeover of the intersection's southeast corner from a Houston-based investment group. If all goes as planned, the deal will close by July. Shires says that the corner will be built out with specialty retail, condominiums and multifamily units. "We are seeking to team with a DFW brokerage house to prelease it," he says.

In assembling the land, Cross Development has gotten a front-row seat to the 632,000-sf Citigroup campus, Koll Development Co.'s Intellicenter project and Billingsley Co.'s Cypress Waters, a development with 82 acres for retail space and 355 acres for single- and multifamily development. "Along the LBJ Freeway in Las Colinas, this would be the last large available tract that will be suitable for retail," Baker says about Cross Development's closed and pending acquisitions.

Until now, Cross Development has been building small centers in Wal-Mart Supercenter shadows, with 10 projects now underway in the US. In its bid to step up in development size, Cross also is fine-tuning mixed-use plans for 200 acres in San Marcos and 188 acres in Pflugerville in Central Texas.

In Las Colinas, Shires says construction will begin within 90 days on the 10 acres. He estimates Regent Plaza carries an all-in development cost of nearly $20 million. Three acres will be flipped to a hotel developer and the balance has been carved up for 40,000 sf of retail space and five pad sites for restaurants. Cross Architects designed the Regent Plaza; Tegrity Contractors Inc. of McKinney, TX will build it. Delivery is planned for early 2007.