President and CEO of Granite Properties

Michael Dardick is a St. Louis native and a 19-year Plano resident. Dardick received the Business Executive of the Year award at the 2014 Best of Plano ceremony in October, which recognizes a business leader who has served an integral role in the city's community and is revered as a business professional. In addition to his duties as leader of Granite Properties, Dardick is actively involved with both local and national organizations, such as Children's Medical Center, the Real Estate Council and the Young Presidents organization. Within the business community, Dardick said Plano is a competitive place that offers great housing, great education and a great business base.

What are your responsibilities as the President and CEO of Granite Properties?

I'm lucky because we have a very deep and great leadership team, so I'm afforded the luxury of getting to work on really three main focuses. One is strategy and growth, second is external relations (industry and community) and third is international communications. I make sure that I'm keeping in touch with all of our team and learning from them.

What is happening now in Granite Park that residents should know about?

About 60 days ago we just completed Granite Park IV, which is a 300,000 square-foot-class AA tower. We are about 75 percent leased, and based on our leasing team's early success, we literally started Granite Park V about 30 days later. [The building] is another 300,000 square-foot tower that is about 20 percent leased. About 60 days ago, we completed Granite Park Hotel, which is a 300-room, full-service Hilton business hotel with 35,000 feet of convention and meeting space. We are also working on a restaurant cluster around one of our lakes, which we are excited about but haven't really announced anything yet.

What project or initiative are you most proud of?

The longest lasting impact will be having been involved in raising the capital [funds] to build Children's Medical Center Plano, which brought a world-class children's hospital to Plano. When you think about the future of our world, it's our kids. That's a pretty long lasting impact. So that one is one we're very proud of.

What's your vision for the future of Granite Park?

[Our vision] is to be the absolute best Class A, multi-tenant office park in North Texas. But more micro, I think we'll literally double the amount of office space we have here, and double the amount of restaurant and retail amenities. At the end of this, we'll have a 2.5 to 3 million-square-foot office park, which will have a big time daily population of over 10,000 people with hotel and restaurant amenities.

How will the business park accommodate with the incoming Toyota and FedEx companies?

Relative to Toyota and FedEx, I would tell you that one of the reasons we are building Granite Park V, in addition to Granite Park IV, is because we know that [Toyota and FedEx] will have lots of suppliers and partners that want to be around them, and we're right next door to [Toyota and FedEx]. It's a great alternative for businesses that want to do business for and with Toyota and FedEx because of our proximity.