A Dallas-based investment firm wants to turn a massive office complex in Plano, Texas, into the next center for life sciences in the state, announcing a $3.6B proposal for the TxS District, short for “technology x science.”

NexPoint, an alternative investment firm with $14B of assets under management, wants to transform a 1.6M SF swath of office space into a life sciences complex, seeking to tap the city’s economic development incentive program to fund the ambitious plan.

A Dallas Morning News report on the proposal, which has been discussed with city leaders for a year, suggests a generally positive reception from them, with the contours of the project coming into focus. A 4M SF series of parcels would be developed into a 135-acre district with a focus on cell and gene therapy, labs and manufacturing to attract life sciences startups at all stages of development.

“Their vision for the project will provide Plano with an opportunity to compete with New England and Southern California for industry-leading jobs and programs,” Plano City Manager Mark Israelson told the Morning News.

NexPoint bought the parcel and property, a complex at 5400 Legacy Drive consisting of five buildings linked by atriums that was the former corporate headquarters for Electronic Data Systems, in 2018 and pivoted to the life sciences campus concept in 2020. NexPoint also has an ownership stake in IQHQ, the San Diego-based life sciences developer.

The biotech industry has shown increasing interest in Texas, owing to lab space demand in larger markets and burgeoning research and development centers taking shape across the state, especially in Houston, site of the under-construction TMC Helix Park project. Alexandria Real Estate Equities Chairman Joel Marcus, whose firm has properties in Houston and Austin, told Bisnow that many of the REIT’s current tenants in other markets have been asking, unprompted, about moving to life sciences space in Texas markets.