Some say you\u2019ll find a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Those involved in commercial real estate in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro claim to know differently.<\/p>\n
\u201cI say it\u2019s at the end of 121,\u201d\u00a0McKinney\u00a0Mayor\u00a0George Fuller\u00a0said.<\/p>\n
Investment, development and economic opportunity are flourishing along the state highway running through\u00a0Collin County, the nation\u2019s fourth-fastest-growing county and home to North Dallas\u2019 most affluent suburbs, including Allen,\u00a0Plano,\u00a0Frisco\u00a0and McKinney.<\/p>\n
Home to regional and national hubs for\u00a0Toyota,\u00a0UPS,\u00a0FedEx,\u00a0Southwest Airlines,\u00a0Motorola\u00a0and the\u00a0Dallas Cowboys, among others, Collin County has become a magnet for\u00a0big-name companies and investment\u00a0and\u00a0people.<\/p>\n
And panelists at\u00a0Bisnow<\/em>\u2019s Oct. 28 Innovation (121) Corridor event say the boom times along and near the artery referred to as “rainbow highway” are far from over, with McKinney alone counting 115 square miles of available and developable property, Fuller said.\u00a0McKinney already\u00a0has\u00a068 acres under development and a roster of recent wins such as banking firm Independent Financial\u2019s\u00a0plans to triple the size of its campus\u00a0in the\u00a0Craig Ranch\u00a0development and the $750M\u00a0Craig International\u00a0project at District 121\u00a0anchored by Kaizen Development’s 200K SF eight-story office tower.<\/p>\n \u201cWe’ve done work all over Texas, we’ve done Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, things like that. But at the moment, almost the entirety of our work is focused in the DFW area, and primarily in the Collin County area, because that\u2019s where most of the expansion and growth is happening,\u201d McRight-Smith Construction President\u00a0Andrew Smith said. \u201cThere’s a lot of infill work to be done. There’s a lot of population-driven growth. And we see the businesses following them \u2026 There are still lots of opportunities to build for lots of different types of groups.\u201d<\/p>\n Smith said there is no end in sight for new development along the\u00a0121 Corridor, with a number of companies already planning projects for three to four years from now and a\u00a0pipeline that shows no signs of tailing off. Some of the long-term planning is in response to rising materials costs, which are extending timelines further into the future. But the bulk of the momentum is being driven by population shifts in a market that is growing by 100 residents daily, making way for\u00a0a stream of employment centers, housing, medical offices and retail.<\/p>\n \u201cYou guys will probably read three articles today in a newspaper that tells you retail is dead. Retail is not dead, it’s just evolved,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can’t Amazon a haircut or an ice cream cone. There’s going to have to be somewhere to get stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n Most panelists predicted\u00a0Collin County\u2019s run would last until at least 2030.\u00a0Kaizen Development Partners\u00a0CEO\u00a0Derrick Evers\u00a0said his company\u2019s analysis uncovered numerous gaps and opportunities along the corridor, including a relative dearth of Class-A office space.<\/p>\n \u201cThere’s a tremendous opportunity because there’s a lot of gaps to be filled,\u201d Evers said. \u201cAnd then you want to make 24-hour communities, to have an office where you have daytime traffic because if you’re a retailer, you can’t survive on nights and weekends alone, you do need that full cycle. To the extent that we can bring housing, bring daytime traffic with office, where you have the retailers here, it becomes this community.\u201d<\/p>\n Allen-based\u00a0JaRyCo Development\u00a0President\u00a0Bruce Heller said the attraction of developing in Collin County comes down to local governments working as partners instead of adversaries. That means not just understanding economic development, he said, but elevating the importance of good public schools, strong transportation links, and other public amenities to the young, well-educated families flocking to the county.<\/p>\n \u201cYou got these great cities \u2014 Allen and Plano and Frisco and McKinney \u2014 that all understand business … and they know the challenges that come with development,\u201d Heller said. \u201cI just think it’s sort of a perfect storm of everything coming together.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s the mix, in part, that brought the AT&T Byron Nelson Golf Tournament, which Salesmanship Club of Dallas President Mike McKinley called the\u00a0PGA Tour\u2019s premier charitable fundraiser, to Collin County this year after seven decades in Dallas County. The tournament, supporting the Momentous Institute, held its first event at TPC Craig Ranch in McKinney in\u00a0May.<\/p>\n \u201cWe walked into a room with about 25 leaders of the McKinney community, the business community, the\u00a0city of McKinney, and within about 15 minutes, our tournament director and I kind of looked at each other and we knew we were home,\u201d McKinley said, adding the charity, which fosters social-emotional health for children and families, netted $5.5M in its first year despite PGA\u00a0limits on the number of people that could be hosted due to the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n Independent Financial Chairman and CEO David Brooks said the ability to land\u00a0prestigious events and the bustle of activity up and down the corridor testified to the intensity of interest in the area, which he called\u00a0a national phenomenon unmatched by anywhere else in the country. Brooks noted he is speaking to people around the country interested in investing in the area.<\/p>\n In an environment as rich with capital as he has seen in his career, he said, opportunities still abound: \u201cTake a drive [and] next time don’t pay attention only to what you see, all the buildings, and pay attention to all the land that is still undeveloped. The momentum here is going to continue on, I think, for 10 years into the future.\u201d<\/p>\n BizNow. (2021, November 4). There’s Still Plenty Of Gold To Be Found At The End Of DFW’s ‘Rainbow Highway’ [News post]. Retrieved from https:\/\/www.bisnow.com\/dallas-ft-worth\/news\/economic-development\/dfw-121-event-110786<\/span><\/p>\n If you enjoyed this post, follow AngMar Realty on\u00a0Facebook<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Some say you\u2019ll find a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Those involved in commercial real estate in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro claim to know differently. \u201cI say it\u2019s at the end of 121,\u201d\u00a0McKinney\u00a0Mayor\u00a0George Fuller\u00a0said. Investment, development and economic opportunity are flourishing along the state highway running through\u00a0Collin County, the nation\u2019s fourth-fastest-growing … <\/p>\n