Twenty Peaceful Minutes

Life in Forney, TX - ‘Twenty Peaceful Minutes East of Downtown Dallas’

Adeona: Free, Privacy-Sensitive Laptop Tracking and Recovery Software

Filed under: Technology — Josh at 11:14 pm on Monday, August 11, 2008

Welcome to Twenty Peaceful Minutes (20PM) - a community website for Forney, Texas. In addition to this blog, 20PM is home to the Forney discussion forums, which you may reach by clicking the Forney discussion forum link or going to http://20pm.net/forums; also, considering signing up for email or newsreader (RSS feed) notifications of new posts to the 20PM blog!

This post is a little out of the norm - it’s not related to Forney or any Forney businesses, per se, but I thought it was information worth sharing with the community, since many of us are becoming increasinly dependent on our laptops not only for business, but also to keep in touch with friends and to store family photos.

A new program, Adeona, was announced last month that is similar to the Laptop LoJack system (software that tracks your laptop in the event it is stolen, much like the LoJack system for automobiles) that stores are pushing so aggressively on customers who purchase new laptops these days, but with a few critical differences.

First of all, LoJack costs $40-$60/year; Adeona is free. LoJack sends the data about your laptop’s location to a commercial enterprise that maintains a three page long “privacy” policy that outlines what they can choose to do with your personal information. Adeona obscures the data about your laptop’s location in such a way that only you (or a person you share your key with) can access it.

(Read on …)

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Target, Best Buy and Barnes & Noble Among Prospective Tenants for Forney Marketplace

Filed under: Business & Finance, Commercial Real Estate — Josh at 10:03 pm on Tuesday, July 15, 2008

One of Endeavor's Exisiting Shopping Centers Includes a Macy's and California Pizza KitchenI have some exciting updates concerning Forney Marketplace, the 2 million square foot regional shopping center coming to Forney in September of 2010! This project, which is being developed by the Endeavor Real Estate Group, will help shape the future of Forney for the years to come as it brings countless high-end national retailers to Forney while also attracting restaurants, another movie theater and additional entertainment to our town, making Forney “the shopping, dining and entertainment center between Dallas and Tyler”, the goal Endeavor has set for this new shopping center.

Before diving into the updates, I do want to acknowledge the Forney Economic Development Corporation, the Forney City Council and our mayor. They are working tirelessly to attract top-tier development to Forney and ensure that we experience positive, constructive growth. The Forney EDC has done an amazing job getting the word out about Forney to the retail community; at the same time, the city council and the mayor have been very proactive in addressing the updates required to Forney’s infrastructure to support projects of this scale by implementing cutting-edge concepts such as the Transportation Reinvestment Zone (TRZ) that will help provide the roadwork around this development.

When asked to comment about these prospective tenants and the Forney Marketplace project as a whole, Darrell Grooms, mayor of Forney, stated that “[Forney Marketplace] is great for our community, offering excellent shopping and entertainment opportunities for our town”. He also indicated that the city and the developer of the project are hopeful that the announcement of a movie theater in the 3rd phase of the project will help attract numerous well-known, upscale restaurants to the Forney Marketplace, greatly expanding our local options not just for shopping but for entertainment and dining as well.

I’ve obtained more details about each phase of this project and I am very excited to announce the following prospective tenants for phase 1 of the center: Target (130,000 sq. feet), JC Penny (103,500 sq. feet), Belk (96,000 sq. feet), Kohl’s (88,000 sq. feet), Dick’s Sporting Goods (50,000 sq. feet), Best Buy (30,000 sq. feet), Barnes & Noble (28,000 sq. feet) and Ulta (12,000 sq. feet).  These tenants are merely prospective tenants at this time, so this is not an official announcement that these stores will be opening in Forney, however, from what I can tell, Endeavor has worked with each of these tenants in their previous projects, so I believe we will see most, if not all, of these retailers in Forney as part of this project.

Read on for more information about prospective tenants in Phase 2 & 3 of this project, including a movie theater, a grocery store and other anchor stores.

(Read on …)

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Forney Regional Shopping Center Updates

Filed under: Business & Finance, Forney News — Josh at 2:00 pm on Tuesday, June 10, 2008

We originally broke the news of the 2.2 million square foot regional shopping center planned for Forney back on May 5th, with an update, including a video of the bridge that will be built over Highway 80 between CR-212 and Windmill Farms Blvd to connect to this shopping center, on May 6th.

There’s a number of exciting updates about this project to share, but first, our research has uncovered a new map of the planned shopping center, which is shown below. Click the map to a view a (much) larger version. This map gives us, via the diagram at the bottom left, a better idea of which portions of the shopping center will be in each of the three phases.

Proposed land use plan for regional shopping center in Forney

This map makes it clear that Endeavor wants to make a bold statement with the first phase of the center, with two of the four department stores being built in phase 1, which is scheduled to open in 2010. In addition to the two department stores and numerous other buildings, phase 1 also includes a 130,000 square foot building for a major anchor. 130,000 square feet is big - roughly the size of a Lowe’s, Home Depot or Target, to name a few major retailers that could occupy a building that large. Of course, with groundbreaking set to occur in 2009 and grand openings in 2010, it’s too soon to know for sure what retailers might occupy any of these spaces, but stay tuned to 20PM, where we’ll keep you up to date with the latest news about this and all the other new developments in Forney. For more information and news about this shopping center and the offices and hotels that are proposed for the area surrounding it, click ‘Read On’, below.

(Read on …)

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President of Forney Company to Participate in Summer Olympics in Beijing

Filed under: Business & Finance — Josh at 10:00 am on Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Steve Silver, president of Forney-based Steve Silver Co., will participate in the Summer Olympics in Beijing, China this August as the team leader of the U.S. Olympic Freestyle Wrestling Team. Silver, who participated in wrestling in high school and then in college at the University of Alabama, won’t be wrestling - team leader is a position akin to a manager or coordinator. In addition to walking into the Olympic Stadium with the U.S. freestyle team, Silver will be responsible for ensuring the wrestlers are weighed in, managing the movement of the team throughout the Olympic Village and coordinating other team activities and events.

(Read on …)

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Shafer Plaza Expansion - Arby’s, Office Depot?

Filed under: Business & Finance, Commercial Real Estate — Josh at 8:45 pm on Tuesday, December 4, 2007

As a follow up to an earlier post about Shafer Plaza (the development where Double Dave’s, Cold Stone Creamery and Walgreens, among others, are located), the latest rumors are that the next phase of Shafer Plaza will be underway shortly, and one of the pad sites will go to Arby’s, and one of the junior anchor stores may be Office Depot.
Discuss this topic in the Forney discussion forums.

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Walgreens Opening Confirmed, This Friday!

Filed under: Business & Finance, Forney News — Josh at 12:55 pm on Saturday, November 10, 2007

I’m pleased to let everyone know that Walgreens has announced and confirmed that they will be opening their Forney, TX store this coming Friday, November, 16th at 8AM. Grand opening events will be announced at a later date. It appears they will follow the 8AM-10PM hours many Walgreens stores keep, with the pharmacy having slightly different hours from the rest of the store on the weekends. Walgreens is located near 548 & Highway 80, north of Highway 80, across 548 from WalMart.

CVS has placed a “coming soon” sign at the corner of Highway 80 & 548, on the south-west side of that intersection, near the City Bank building that’s nearing completion on the south side of Highway 80. Construction is in the earliest phases, so it will be some time still before CVS opens.

Click to discuss Walgreens & CVS in the Forney discussion forum.

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“In my day there was no soft opening…”

Filed under: Business & Finance, Food — Josh at 1:32 pm on Tuesday, October 30, 2007

“In my day there was no soft opening. One day you’re closed, the next day you’re open”. I have to admit, that quote from Ocean’s 13 was the first thing I thought of when I noticed the sign posted at Lucky’s Sports Grill, saying they were having a soft opening for one or more nights, and would be opening to their normal business hours on Thursday, November 1st.

Read on for news about Lucky’s, NTB, Fat Dawgs and Walgreens…
(Read on …)

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SuperTarget in Forney?; Shafer Plaza Expansion

Filed under: Business & Finance, Commercial Real Estate, Shopping — Josh at 1:47 pm on Saturday, July 28, 2007

While discussing the latest SuperTarget rumors in the Forney Discussion Forums, I decided to do a bit of digging and get in touch with a few people who might be able to confirm or deny what I had been hearing. In the process, I found out that Metropolitan Capital Advisors, Ltd. has been soliciting for an investment into Shafer Plaza at Mustang Crossing. Specifically, of $23.55 million needed to develop and pay-off the development costs for the remaining phase(s) of Shafer Plaza, $4.2 million is being raised from equity investors. One item that has caught several people’s attention is that the information that was distributed about the investment states “If the Sponsorship is able to consummate a deal with SuperTarget…” - read on for more info…
(Read on …)

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Drive-Thru Grocery Store Scouting for Location in Forney!

Filed under: Business & Finance, Food, Shopping — Josh at 8:19 pm on Sunday, July 22, 2007

According to a Star Telegram article, Fresh Lane Drive-Thru Grocery, which recently opened in Saginaw and has locations opening in Keller and Lewisville this fall, is scouting for a location to open at in Forney. Fresh Lane is a grocery store that operates on a completely drive-thru basis; customers are not allowed inside the store, and instead purchase everything via a drive-thru window. The stores, which are usually under 1,000 square feet, stock about 400 different items.
(Read on …)

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Double Dave’s Grand Opening Celebration; Care United & CVS Update

Filed under: Business & Finance, Commercial Real Estate — Josh at 5:05 pm on Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Several people have been asking for an update to my post from back in April when I announced a CVS will be coming to Forney. From what I’ve heard, CVS has been working with planning & zoning as well as the city council to get the various approvals needed to begin construction. Care United, located near Double Dave’s in Shafer Plaza, is hoping to have a grand opening within a week or two. Be sure to check their website for more details, where you can also check-in online (online check-in isn’t active yet, I’m assuming they won’t activate it until they’re open for business!) - their website is www.careunited.com.

Double Dave’s is having a formal grand opening celebration tomorrow, Thursday, July 19th, with 99.5 The Wolf. Michelle from the Wolf will be at the Forney Double Dave’s from noon to 2PM; they will have 99-cent pizza and you can register to win an autographed Cowboys football.

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