The Legacy West mega-development will break ground tomorrow, according to Steven Brown of the Dallas News. This greatly anticipated project, a collaboration between Karahan Companies and Columbus Realty Partners, will occupy 34 acres at the intersection of the Dallas North Tollway and Legacy Drive. The development is just east of the site where Toyota Motor Corporation’s new $350 million North American headquarters will be built. The proximity of this high-density, mixed-use urban village was a key factor in Toyota’s decision to expand into the Legacy business park. The project is expected to create 1,500 commercial construction jobs over the next 18 months.
Developer Fehmi Karahan says that the Gensler–designed project is “going to build the project all at once,” with “about 280,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space and 621 apartment units initially.” Karahan adds that, “there will be about 240,000 square feet of offices over the retail space.” Karahan hopes “to have everything open in October of 2016.”
“There is a tremendous amount of interest,” said Karahan, whose representatives with Open Realty Advisors have already begun the leasing process with several large retailers and restaurants. Toyota will begin moving its 4,000 workers from Southern California into the nearby campus in 2017. It will be one of the largest domestic corporate relocations in American history.
Legacy West’s residential apartment section is headed by builders Robert Shaw and Roger Staubach of Columbus Realty Partners. The $82 million, 300-unit Renaissance Hotel will soon be underway at the northeast corner of Legacy and Headquarters drives. The 7 acres on the north side are slated to become either a condo tower or an office building. Alongside the commercial development, a 12-acre high-density private residential neighborhood will be built on the west side of Communications Drive next to J. C. Penney’s corporate campus. Plano’s BR Homebuilding Group has been tapped to construct this urban, single-family dwelling community. The Legacy West urban village has an estimated value of $400 million, according to Karahan.
The plans for Legacy West began soon after the outrageously successful launch of Legacy Town Center. In 2014, Karahan Companies and Columbus Realty reached an agreement with partners KDC and J.C. Penney to develop the vacant 240 acres surrounding the department store company’s West Plano headquarters. Soon thereafter, KDC had also signed on to build a new 265,000-square-foot headquarters for FedEx Office as part of the Legacy West project. An estimated 1,200 FedEx employees will move into the Legacy West apartments later this year. KDC is also building the Toyota project.