Sorry it’s been a while since the last post, but it’s worth the wait! Someone just sent me some information about “Forney Commons”; this development consists of much of the remaining land just west of Sonic, along “Old FM 548″, which is just west of where 548 is now. If you’re going down Highway 80 from Dallas towards the Forney WalMart, this parcel of land is on your left just as you exit FM-548 to go to WalMart or Lowe’s.

This development is a project of the Woodmont Company. They state that “Our new Forney development will be over 500,000 sf and will consist of multiple big box retailers and freestanding high profile retailers and restaurants.  Forney is quickly becoming another one of the bright, fast growing DFW suburbs that is poised to demand a large retail community
shopping center.  Our 75 acre site is opposite the brand new Wal-Mart Supercenter and Lowe’s Home Improvement store located on Hwy 80 and FM 548.”

A look at the siteplan reveals MANY interesting things. First of all, there are three companies whose logos already adorn several of the buildings on the siteplan. The site plan has one row of “big box” stores, which run in a line parallel to 548; the space directly on the service road is designated for 5 different, smaller stores (retail, fast food, a restaurant and a “coffee shop”). Another 6 different, smaller spaces run in a row parallel, and closer to, 548.

The row of “big box” stores has three buildings that are labeled with a company’s logo already:

• A building labeled as a 20,087 square foot retail space that says “Petsmart”
• A building labeled as a 30,187 square foot retail space that says “Ross”
• A building labeled as a 30,000 square foot retail space that says “Best Buy”

I won’t believe it until I see it, especially since the minutes of the city council and the planning & zoning meetings don’t mention anything about Forney Commons or any of these stores…however, this is a preliminary site plan which is dated May 22nd & May 24th, 2006, so it’s entirely possible that things are still in a very preliminary stage and these items haven’t been considered in a public meeting yet, but will be soon.

In addition to these three buildings, the following free-standing buildings are on the site plan:

• 2,890 sq. ft. fast food restaurant
• 6,500 sq. ft. retail space
• 6,078 sq. ft. restaurant
• 1,881 sq. ft. coffee shop (odd…Shafer Plaza already mentions a Starbucks…are there any other coffee shops left in business these days?)
• 14,300 sq. ft. retail space
• 6,078 sq. ft. restaurant
• 6,500 sq. ft. retail space
• 6,500 sq. ft. retail space
• 34,425 sq. ft. retail sapce
• 6,912 sq. ft. retail space
• 34,425 sq. ft. retail space

In addition, in the row of “big box” stores that include Ross, Best Buy & Petsmart, there are several other spaces:

• Retail shops, 18,400 sq. ft. retail space
• Retail shops, 20,087 sq. ft. retail space
• Retail shops, 7,800 sq. ft. retail space
• “Major”, 126,874 sq. ft. of space
• Retail shops, 10,000 sq. ft. of retail space
• “Major”, 102,000 sq. ft. of retail space

Some of these retail shops look like they’re made to be split up by several smaller stores. The 126,874 sq. ft. of space and the 102,000 sq. ft. of space look to be set aside for major anchor stores. If you read my earlier post about Place LeGrand, you’ll remember that Place LeGrand is anchored by a single 120,000 sq. ft. space and that Target stores are generally around 120,000 sq. ft., with SuperTarget stores running as big as 180,000 sq. ft. So these two stores are something big - perhaps a Target, Home Depot or other store is coming into Forney Commons. I doubt that three buildings this big would be built by two separate developers unless they felt pretty sure that the demand was there for such stores in Forney.

The 102,000 sq. ft. space puzzles me. It’s too small, really, for a Target, but too big for another grocery store. However, H-E-B, who also operate Central Market grocery stores, does have a few stores that are 100,000 sq. feet or bigger - they’ve opened 6 “H-E-B Plus” stores that range from 109,000 sq. feet to 161,000 sq. feet. H-E-B doesn’t operate any stores in the Dallas area, but does have a few stores south of the Metroplex, and they’ve already announced their intention to open 12 more “H-E-B Plus” stores in the next two years, throughout Texas. So it’s entirely possible that the 100,000 square foot space at the end of the row of “big box” stores could be planned for a larger, high-end grocery store.
For more information concerning leasing one of these spaces, etc., the contact listed is Greg Rabin at grabin@woodmont.com or 214-217-4602.
The information I promised about Shafer Plaza will be up soon, I just wanted to rush to get this information up ASAP since it confirms a few rumors I’ve heard, and also had one surprise, the Best Buy store that is shown on the site plan.

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