Granite Properties recently announced it is expanding its foothold at Granite Park by building three Class AA 20-story office towers in Granite Park, a 90-acre mixed-use office park located at the Dallas North Tollway and SH 121.In addition to the added office space, the development will have restaurants and other amenities.
Upon completion, the Boardwalk will be a 28,000-square-foot entertainment district housing four to six restaurants. The $15 million project has not been awarded to contractors yet, Granite Properties COO Greg Fuller said.
At this point, Boardwalk restaurateurs have not been selected, but the company is working with existing tenants to select the right mix of dining options, said Fuller, who hopes decisions will be reached by late this spring. Current tenants in Granite Park include Paesano's Cafe and Murphy's Deli. Other dining options in the park include Campisi's, Jersey Mike's Subs, the Original Pancake House and Blue Mesa.
"[Chef] Kent Rathbun is opening Hickory next month by Blue Mesa and we will be announcing a sushi restaurant soon," Fuller said. "And we can't just put anyone in the park. We want to make them complementary to our existing people. So we're trying to define exactly what we want in that new Boardwalk project."
'Location, location, location'
West Plano has become an even hotter destination now that Toyota Motor Corp. is building its $350 million North American headquarters there. Toyota broke ground Jan. 20 on its 100-acre site, which is expected to employ 4,000 people.
"I think any time a million-square-foot user decides to make a location decision and chose west Plano, that's a significant event," Fuller said.
Granite Properties wants the market to realize that Plano still has room to expand, Fuller said, which is why it decided to build the three 500,000-square-foot office towers. The towers, which will be located on the east side of Granite Park, have not yet been priced, but Fuller said they will lease for $300 per square foot and include up-to-date technology and amenities.
"It's kind of like 'Hold on Frisco! We realize you've got a lot of land still left to go but Plano's not finished by any stretch of the imagination,'" Fuller said.
Fuller said his company would develop the office towers "on a speculative basis or on a build-to-suit basis or a partial lease basis." While the company does not have a current timeline for development, it is working with BOKA Powell, a Dallas-based architecture firm.
"At this stage of the game, they are proposing these buildings to various tenants. There are a number of large tenants in the market who are looking for anywhere from 300,000 square feet to a million square feet," BOKA Powell Principal Don Powell said. "And Granite [Properties] simply wants to be prepared to show prospective tenants what can be built on their property and generally what it would look like."
When the new restaurants and new office towers are complete, Fuller expects the daytime population in the area to increase significantly.
"For every million square feet, you're going to have 4,000 employees. Right now we have about 6,000 employees, give or take We believe that at full build-out we'll be doubling that," Fuller said. "So this will be 10,000 to 12,000 employees once we build 3 million square feet of office space. But currently it's half that. Now that's just here at Granite Park. Obviously restaurants and hotels draw from the broader community."
And as far as Fuller is concerned, the old saying "location, location, location" holds strong for the company, which is "93 percent leased in our entire portfolio in Granite Park, and that kind of speaks for itself."
"Rental rates have been increasing over the past several years due to a robust economy here," he said. "So we feel pretty bullish about this area, certainly our park."
