Did Toyota Diss Dallas?
Did “terrible” DISD schools play a role in Toyota’s selection of Plano over Dallas for its HQ relo? It was part of an animated discussion Thursday at Bisnow’s fifth annual Dallas State of the Market event at the Westin Galleria. Beck Ventures prez Scott Beck called it the elephant in the room. (We called it good theater.)
More than 500 listened as Scott laid it out there, noting that 5,000 workers will be going to Plano instead of Dallas. Downtown Dallas Inc prez John Crawford vehemently denied that saying that Toyota looked at One Arts Plaza (where 7-Eleven is vacating) and looked at building Two and Three Arts Plaza, but the deal didn’t work out. John says education is the “last bastion that we need to conquer” (and we can start by all learning what a bastion is, we never learned that word in school) and there’s talk about creating a magnate school downtown.
John (left, with Scott) says there’s about six active TIFs including about $120M the City has invested into 1401 Elm, the Statler, and 1600 Pacific. “We couldn’t do what’s been done without public/private partnerships,” John says. Scott’s Midtown project is also benefiting from a public/private partnership with the City of Dallas. To make the Midtown project a reality, Scott says there’s about $130M of infrastructure that needs to go in to upgrade water, sewer, and electric capabilities. That’s 40- to 50-year-old infrastructure that needs to be improved without an interruption of service for some 300,000 residents. (It's like an incredibly high stakes game of Jenga.)
Terra Verde Group partner Craig Martin (far right, with Employee Solutions’ David Bristol, Prosper EDC’s Robert Winningham, and Prosper mayor Ray Smith) says Terra Verde has a 2,000-acre development in Prosper named Windsong Ranch. The project will have 3,500 single-family homes, 300 townhomes, and 300 apartment units. It also has a 120k SF grocery store slated to close in June. So far, 400 lots have been sold to a variety of homebuilders and 600 acres of green space has been allotted. Opening this month: an amenities center and four model homes.
Ray says Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has a project at Hwy 380 and Preston (hopefully it involves getting a decent defensive tackle) as does Matthews Southwest at 380 and the Tollway. There are other projects, too, in the works. A really big deal for Prosper is the opening this week of Preston Road to six lanes.
Panel moderator, IPA Texas TITLE Drew Kile (second from the right with the panelists), says he’s seeing a big shift to focus more on the live/work/play environments among multifamily. In the Metroplex, the Millennial demographics are growing at three times the national average, which translates to a lot of apartments (and a lot of iPods).
We snapped the gang from Bury (along with a few of their friends). The exclusive design services firm of the Texas real estate series recently expanded into Arizona with the opening of its Phoenix office. The firm, which operates in five Texas cities, also acquired CHP & Associates in Florida.
Event sponsor City of Burleson Economic Development’s Justin Bond (right, with SWCA Environmental Consultants' Jimmy Barrera) tells us that Burleson’s business park has grown to 220 acres with the addition of the surrounding land at Phase 2 hitting the market. There’s a 120k SF Kroger Marketplace coming to town, too. Additionally, the City is always looking for new retail developments with Burleson having the lowest vacancy rates at 2.2%.
Alston Construction’s Paul Little and Brian Pierce tell us the construction firm has multiple projects across Dallas and Fort Worth including three office buildings for Billingsley Co and an industrial project for Crow Holdings. Brian tells us that Alston is about developing business relationships.
WLS' Ken Bronstad and Dean Pritchard show off some of their work at New Orleans' first outlet mall, developed by the Howard Hughes Co. The recently opened shopping center features 700 linear feet of color changing LEDs along the facade of the center. When you mix the red, green, and blue LEDs, you can create 16.7 million colors, Dean tells us.
