Lincoln Square Getting $30M-Plus Expansion

ARLINGTON, TX-Lincoln Square Shopping Center, with its 450,000 sf at 96% occupancy, is ticketed for a $30-million-plus expansion. If the plan stays on track, Transwestern Investment Co. will deliver an estimated 130,000 sf of additional class A retail space at the same time the city brings a reconfigured Interstate 30 interchange on line.

Meanwhile, the Chicago-based Transwestern and its local brokerage team are locked in talks with city leaders and the Texas Department of Transportation for a land swap that will "square off" the corners of the existing and proposed development, says Steve Williamson, senior vice president in Dallas for Transwestern Commercial Services. He tells GlobeSt.com that the shopping center will have about 700,000 sf at full build-out on both sides of Center Street when all is said and done.

The existing center and the expansion, dubbed Lincoln Square West, will be bisected by Center Street, where the development team has just started pushing dirt on a 10-acre tract for a 45,000-sf LA Fitness Center and roughly 100,000 sf in several buildings. Williamson says the extra land was picked up in 16 to 18 deals, predominately with owners of single-family houses.

"We decided to take advantage of the new interchange and start soliciting tenants to have another entrance," Williamson explains. He's also courting retailers for three pad sites in the original development and a long-dark kitchen accessories store.

In the past two years, Transwestern has razed roughly 70,000 sf in the flagship development, including a Loew's Theater. As part of the shuffle, Pier I Imports was moved to another inline spot and Calloway's Nursery got a build-to-suit at a hard corner. By Williamson's calculations, the next construction wave will result in a net gain of 50,000 sf to 60,000 sf.

In the original center, work is under way on a 20,083-sf PetsMart, which will be vacating a Target-anchored shopping center about four miles to the west. Williamson says the Phoenix-based retailer's decision to move was made with "five or six years" left on its Eastchase Parkway lease. He says PetsMart, signing a 10-year lease, will open in October while LA Fitness, with a 20-year commitment, is eyeing a Jan. 1, 2007 ribbon-cutting.

The Lincoln Square West deals aren't done so the incoming retailers' names aren't being aired. "We hope to break ground as soon as we get the leases signed," Williamson says. "We're all entitled and ready to build." The quotes are running from $15 per sf for small inline shops to $35 per sf for omni buildings on out-parcels.

O'Brien & Associates Architecture of Dallas designed Lincoln Square West. ICI Construction Inc., also Dallas, is the general contractor for the under-construction stores and site work.