Developer Closes On $20M-Plus Land Purchase

DALLAS-Westmount Realty Capital LLC has completed the acquisition of a 27-acre infill tract in North Dallas. Now, it’s time to hunker down to master-planning one of the largest pieces of developable land along North Central Expressway.

Cliff Booth, president of Dallas-based Westmount, has been in negotiations since October with a four-decade local owner, Tri-State Theaters, for the northeast corner of the US Highway 75 and Forest Lane junction. The developer has paid more than $20 million for the land.

Booth tells GlobeSt.com that the land will be divvied into residential, retail and medical office development sites, with site work slated to start soon after the master plan is done in three to six months. “We are putting a plan together to take advantage of all that the site has to offer and the three uses complement each other,” he stresses. “The pace will pick up now that we’ve closed. And, we’ll pick it up in short order.”

Tri-State operated the Gemini drive-in theater on the property from 1965 to 1984, later ground leasing it to vehicle dealers and restaurateurs. The completion of the High Five has pried open the development door, according to Booth. Not only is it freeway-fronting land, but it’s only 400 feet from the doorstep of the DART’s Forest Lane light-rail station. Dallas broker Newt Walker brokered the land deal.

Booth says he’s already talking with other developers about selling all or part of the site. Westmount is known in the Texas metros for its residential development. Booth says it’s a good possibility that re-sales will be inked for retail and medical office components. Meanwhile, he’s also weighing the option of a joint venture partner, even for the residential build-out. “Twenty-seven acres is a lot of land,” he says of the early planning.