Developer Derails Office Plan for Retail at La Frontera

ROUND ROCK, TX-Work should begin in a couple of weeks on La Frontera’s latest retail project, the 41,000-sf Vintage at La Frontera.

The high-end shopping center is a project of Robert Wunsch’s RDW Development. Bank One and Tweeter, a high-end home electronics store, have signed leases. Wunsch tells GlobeSt.com that talks are underway with seven potential tenants for the other retail spots and he hopes to have the center 90% leased by summer. “We’ve had great activity,” he says.

The project sits in a prime location along Texas 45 between La Frontera Boulevard and Kouri Avenue. “It’s the gateway to La Frontera,” Wunsch says.

He closed last week on a two-acre parcel that with two acres he already owned gave him the frontage property. He bought the property from 35/45 La Frontera LP, whose managers are Bill Smalling and Don Martin. Jim Boles of Summit Commercial represented Wunsch and Rodger Anderson of UCR acted on behalf of La Frontera. Anderson will head leasing for the shopping center.

Vintage will have three buildings with interior courtyards and “awesome landscaping,” Wunsch says. He says buildings should be turned over to tenants this summer for finish-out with some stores opening in the fall. Bank One’s lease is for 4,000 sf and Canton, MA-based Tweeter is taking 8,500 sf.

Wunsch, who has developed residential subdivisions Berry Creek and Avery Ranch, had a four-story, 32,350-sf office building planned for the La Frontera property. While there may be room for offices at Vintage, “obviously the office market isn’t what it was 2 1/2 years ago,” he says. “Now we’ve turned a problem into something really great.”

The 328-acre La Frontera project at Interstate 35 and Texas 45 has more than 860,000 sf of retail space, 400,000 sf of office and about 900 apartment units completed. It’s also home to a 300-room full-service Marriott hotel.