Editors’ Weekly News Roundup January 6 – January 9
If the past week’s most read stories on Connect CRE had a theme song, it might be “Deep in the Heart of Texas.” Four of the five most-viewed stories originated in the Lone Star State, with three of the four emanating from the Dallas/Fort Worth area.
The top story, though, reported a project that will rise about 30 minutes outside Austin. Fast-growing Liberty Hill, which has tripled in size since 2020, will soon be the home of a Costco as part of a 106-acre mixed-use development.
Liberty Hill Lands a Costco reported that the town recently approved permits for the big-box warehouse retailer, which typically staffs up new locations with 300 or more employees. The store would be the seventh Costco to open in the Austin metro.
Our second most-read story also had a retail focus, this time in the DFW Metroplex. In McKinney Shopping Center Taking Shape, readers learned that SLX Capital has launched construction on the Eldorado Neighborhood Shops, a 13.7-acre site in McKinney. With a handful of tenants already announced, the center will also be home to a grocer along with other retail options.
Retail is just one of the components of a mixed-use project that has been given the go-ahead by the Flower Mound, TX Town Council. Our third most-read story of the past week, 472K-SF Mixed-Use Project Okayed in Flower Mound, detailed what developer Eric Schmitz has in mind for his 200-acre project, to be called Monarch.
A mix of residential and commercial space, the project will be developed in interlocking phases. In order to put up the first 150 of a planned 278 townhomes, Schmitz will first need to develop 150,000 square feet of commercial space. Developing another 150,000 square feet of commercial will unlock the developer’s ability to build the remainder of the townhomes.
Moving from development to advisory services, Former Texas Football Star to Head Up Fort Worth HPI Office reported that the firm had hiredColt McCoy, a former University of Texas and NFL quarterback. Even as he spent 14 years in the NFL, McCoy is no stranger to HPI: his brother Case is a partner with the real estate services firm’s Tenant Advisory platform.
The past week’s fifth most-read story occurred in the Tarheel State, as Hendrick Motorsports proposed a $35-million investment to develop a 260,000-square-foot manufacturing facility adjacent to its Concord, NC campus. We reported in NASCAR Race Team Building Concord Manufacturing Plant that the new facility would join two other advanced manufacturing investments Hendrick has made in Concord, a suburb of Charlotte.