There’s almost 1.7M SF of development underway on the North Dallas Tollway from LBJ to Hwy 380 with projects like the Dallas Cowboys world HQ and Granite Park (which just announced plans to add three more office towers). And there’s even more to come.

We learned all about it at Bisnow’s Future of the Platinum Corridor event yesterday at One Hanover Park in Addison. There's 8.4M SF of office space along the north Platinum Corridor (north of 190), according to Transwestern stats and there's potential to see those numbers rise even further, says Transwestern principal Randy Garrett (right, with Granite Properties’ Robert Jimenez). Randy copyrighted the Platinum Corridor tag when he coined the phrase in 1997. He says the potential growth in office, retail and housing is exponential as history demonstrates when out-of-state corporations like JC Penney relocate. JCP attracted four times its own square footage in ancillary companies. Toyota is expected to bring a multiple of two or three times its own square footage with similar results for Liberty Mutual (once the deal is inked), Randy says. The north Platinum Corridor is absorbing about 275k SF to 300k SF annually with projections to exceed that number or remain the same.

Cushman & Wakefield senior director JJ Leonard says there are a lot of new investors looking to buy in Dallas and along the Platinum Corridor. The fundamentals have remained solid coming out of the last recession, making the market poised for strong demand, especially along the Tollway. Cushman reps several projects along the Lower Tollway for institutional owners like Fortis, which owns the 1.1M SF Colonnade. Fortis invested $1M in improvements for the 96% leased project with more updates planned. Brookwood Financial Partners is also in the process of putting more than $3M into Heritage One and Two to transform that asset at LBJ and the Tollway. The stretch of Tollway from 190 to LBJ has seen Class-A rental rates increase 20% to 25% in the past three years, too, he says, because of the phenomenal demand in the area.