UPDATE: Wheels Churning for $500M Mixed-Use Plan

PROSPER, TX-Dallas Cowboys' owner Jerry Jones and leaders of a Collin County community have cleared the first hurdle to develop 500 acres with 2.8 million sf of residential, retail and municipal space. Barring any roadblocks, the Gates of Prosper, estimated to have a $500-million build-out value, will break ground in early 2008.

After two years of talks, local leaders and Blue Star Land LP have agreed to push ahead as expeditiously as possible so the infrastructure can be ready to lay or in progress by September 2007 when the Dallas North Tollway extension is completed. By early 2008, the frontage roads will be in place at the town's gateway junction of US Highway 380 and Preston Road.

"I'm hopeful in three or four months that we can ink all the appropriate agreements and put the tax increment reinvestment zone on the ground and get ready to recruit retailers to the site," Karen Gandy, executive director for the Prosper Economic Development Corp., tells GlobeSt.com. Though the site plan's still on the drawing board, she estimates that Blue Star, which is looking for a development partner, will earmark 200 acres for single- and multifamily use and the balance for commercial development. Town leaders are planning to buy eight acres for a new city hall and municipal complex.

Blue Star's team started to court the retail circuit last year to join in on the development. Gandy expects a more serious push will be lobbed at this year's International Council of Shopping Centers' annual May confab in Las Vegas.

Blue Star's challenge will be to take the best of the best from existing mixed-use developments in the surrounding area and across the US to set the charge for retailers to add locations. Gandy says the preliminary plan calls for larger lots and less density than developments in the North Texas cities of Frisco and McKinney. "It will be a little bit different," she vows.

Ray Smith, president of Prosper's EDC, says he'd like to see the TIRF zone agreement inked by summer, but realizes it could take until year's end to work through the legalese. The agreement is the reimbursement vehicle for road and utility line infrastructure. Under the tentative agreement, the town will return roughly $30 million of the infrastructure cost to Blue Star as the Gates of Prosper goes vertical, according to Smith. He estimates it will take a decade before the majority of the land is developed.

"It's been all concept plans until now," Smith says. "We're starting to get down to where the rubber meets the road." Smith, part of the talks since they started, says the metroplex's development pressure has pushed the line to the town's doorstep. "Prosper is the next stop," he says. "We just want a high-quality, first-class development. And, I think they'll do it right."