Leaders of some of the city's top business development projects spoke to a sold-out crowd at Gleneagles Country Club Aug. 19 at an event presented by the Plano Chamber of Commerce and Frost Bank.
Craig Perry, senior property manager of AmREIT and a member on the Plano Chamber board, led the panel discussion, centering on downtown revitalization, Granite Park development, Legacy West and Haggard Place.
Panelists included Michael Dardick, President and CEO of Granite Properties, Phyllis Jarrell, director of special projects in Plano and John Richardson, CEO of Visions5.
Dardick discussed progress on the Granite Properties development, which is a multiple office park complex that includes four buildings comprised of office space, restaurants and service centers, and a fifth building is on the way.
"Our vision for Granite Park is to be the best Class-A, multi-tenant office park in North Texas," he said. "Everything we have in there, other than office, is to support our office customers. It's an amenity to make their life better when they're at work."
The newest addition to the complex is the 300-room Hilton Hotel to Granite Park IV, which opens next week.
Since the complex was designed to allow tenants to grow, Dardick said Granite Park is only halfway built out.
Construction around the city also includes One Haggard Place, which is the first development on the Haggard Farm area and will be a high-rise homestead for luxury residences, Richardson said.
"Our goal is to create value for our residents, for the landowners, for the constructor, for the design team, for everybody," Richardson said. "We are not in it for profit, we're in it for the value."
Richardson said plans for the first tower have changed to be able to hold 107 units rather than the original 72, and each unit will be approximately 2,000 square feet. He said eight units are being reserved each day and that he plans for the development to be fully sold before construction starts in November or December.
Jarrell discussed the push for revitalization throughout the city, but especially in downtown where reconstruction will start in 2015 on the Municipal Center's south office building.
Jarrell is also working with the Legacy West project and said the town center portion will begin first and it will include multifamily development, town houses, restaurants, retail space and office space. Jarrell said the public can expect to see dirt flying next spring.
