In September, Balcones, an affiliate of El Segundo, CA-basedGolden Boy Partners, will start to close deals with 10 propertyowners for their infill land, bounded by Mockingbird Lane, MapleAvenue, Forest Park Road and Empire Central. Site work will ramp upin April 2008, with the first six months dedicated to scraping andreadying the dirt for construction of the 10-building West LoveMarket.

Jorge Ramirez, managing principal of the one-year-old BalconesRealty Partners in Dallas, tells GlobeSt.com that he has two moreredevelopment projects he's pursuing for the inner-cityredevelopment platform of the California-based operation. GoldenBoy Partners, formed in 2005, is a partnership between championshipboxer Oscar de la Hoya and real estate investor, John Long, CEO andfounder of Highridge Partners, also based in El Segundo.

As Ramirez laid the groundwork and locked up land, talk abouthis plans made it to the street, some fact, some fiction. "Thebiggest hurdle was assembling the property. It was done in a mannerthat people didn't know what we were doing or who we were," Ramirezsays. "It was all very quiet. By the time it got to the last coupleof parcels, everyone knew who we were." With the series of closingsabout to get under way, Ramirez is discussing the build-out plan,which calls for retail space to come on line in fall 2009.