Photo by Kyle G. HorstColleyville's December 2014 sales tax revenue rose 7.47 percent from December 2013 — Marty Wieder, the Colleyville economic development director, attributes much of the increase to all of the new businesses that recently opened in the Colleyville Downs shopping center.
What is now a bustling shopping center was an old Albertsons building that had been vacant since 2007. That all changed in 2013 when Whole Foods Market announced it had signed a lease on a building in Colleyville.
According to Wieder, the city had been talking to Whole Foods since 2010 when it was mentioned that the organic grocer would be a good fit for the city.
Centennial Real Estate of Dallas, the owner of the building, began work immediately and submitted renovated facade plans that started a ripple effect which turned into a full-blown $18 million redevelopment of the property.
The property was renamed Colleyville Downs for the July opening of Whole Foods as a tribute to the city's former horse racing track.
Less than six months after opening, the newly renovated shopping center only has a few vacant retail spaces left.
"We are about 85 percent full at the moment," said Perren Gasc, of Centennial Real Estate. "We had a very successful lease-up this year. There are only three or four retail spots left."
