F FEATURE his 162-acre park—now on his 17th building. Frisco’s HALL Park led the way for development along 121 and up the Dallas North Tollway, including The Star and Frisco Station—all part of the city’s Frisco North Platinum Corridor. Robert Shaw, CEO of Columbus Realty, is famous for incorporating walkability into his multifamily developments in the region, with projects along the corridor currently underway in Legacy West in Plano and Craig Ranch in McKinney. And finally, any conversation about 121 certainly must include visionary Fehmi Karahan’s name. Karahan’s 250-acre Legacy West is one of the most successful mixed-use developments in the country, attracting corporate headquarters and regional hubs such as Toyota, Liberty Mutual, JP Morgan, Boeing, J.C. Penney, and Pizza Hut, to namedrop a few. L3 Technologies, a major defense contractor, is the latest corporate relocation to the southeast corner of the Dallas North Tollway and State Highway 121 development, announced in August. “Some of us have been developing along this corridor for a very, very long time. They’d call us overnight successes—18 years later,” Craig jokes. Among the most recent projects completed at Craig Ranch is a 160,000-square-foot Independent Bank headquarters in the 1-million-square-foot Hub 121 office project. Overall, the development includes some 20,000 residents and 5,000 daytime employees. Craig says those numbers are projected to increase to 30,000 residents and 10,000 employees within the next five years. His Craig International has bought and sold more than 5,000 acres along the 121 corridor in the past 30 years, and he says that as the project reaches full buildout and his original vision is achieved, he will continue to look toward 121 for future development. “With Craig Ranch, I always asked myself, ‘What makes a community?’” Craig says. “What I was singularly focused on is creating a sense of home here, a sense of belonging and place. … I’ve been fortunate to ride the wave through economic prosperity and depression and finish what I started. It’s been a fantastic 18 years— and you can bet that I’ll continue to develop on the corridor. That’s how much I believe in it.”
CONNECTIVITY AND NAVIGABILITY
The first expansion of State Highway 121 and the tollway first opened in May 2006. Three
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WHAT’S NEW, WHAT’S NEXT HIGHLIGHTS OF PROJECTS & DEVELOPMENT IN THE 121 CORRIDOR
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Coppell Grapevine DFW INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
FLOWER MOUND Realty Capital’s Class A Speculative Office In April, the town entered into an incentive agreement with Realty Capital to bring Flower Mound’s first large-scale Class A spec office building to the Lakeside Business District. The roughly $35 million project is for a 4-story, 120,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art office building.
Duke Realty’s PPG Industries Distribution Facility Duke Realty broke ground on a $25 million, 635,000-square-foot industrial building, which will be the new home to PPG Industries distribution operations. PPG will occupy almost 450,000 square feet, leaving just under 200,000 square feet available to lease.
Restaurant Row — the River Walk at Central Park mixed-use development Centurion American, master developer of the mixed-use River Walk and Central Park project, broke ground on its “restaurant row,” which is three buildings that all have patios overlooking the water. The developer recently announced six restaurants that will occupy them.
Lakeside Village Realty Capital received zoning approval for a 30-acre, $1 billion mixed-use project on the north shore of Grapevine Lake, just south of the Lakeside DFW mixed-use project. Lakeside Village will bring new residences, office, hotel, retail, and restaurant uses, as well as an amphitheater, community greens, and trails.
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