mixed-use museum project breaks ground in TX

from GlobeSt (7/31)

UPDATE Last updated: July 31, 2007 09:58pm
Allegiance-Led JV Begins $850M Rayzor Ranch
By Connie Gore

"DENTON, TX-A Texas-bred development joint venture is breaking ground this morning on the $850-million Rayzor Ranch, a 410-acre mixed-use project with a new Museum of Texas Art and Culture as its centerpiece. Infrastructure costs alone total $135 million for the Interstate 35-fronting site in the two-university town.
"The project is really the leading development in Denton County and North Texas for the next 24 months. The magnitude is much larger than anything that anyone else has under way," says C. Joseph Gampper, president of Dallas-based Allegiance Development LP, which is teaming with Torreon Capital LP of Austin for the undertaking. Nearly 400 business leaders are expected to attend Rayzor Ranch's groundbreaking.

The massive development will rise over seven years. First out of the ground will be the $320-million retail component: a 1.2-million-sf town center, 885,000-sf marketplace and 430,000 sf of inline and street retail. It will be complemented by 300 to 500 multifamily units, 700 townhouses and brownstones, roughly 250,000 sf of office and a hotel and 90,000-sf convention center. The museum's first phase will be 35,000 sf, but is planned to eventually rival Austin's Texas heritage museum in size and scope.

The Greater Denton Arts Council this month will kick off a fund drive to raise $20 million to $25 million for the museum and subsequent phases, which include a sculpture garden, permanent library and corporate-sponsored galleries. The museum project is being seeded by $800,000 from the Rayzor family of Denton and a five-acre donation, valued at $2.2 million, from Allegiance." ...

"The museum is slated to open in late 2009.

Rayzor Ranch's first space will come on line in November 2008 and the balance in March 2009. Randy Holcombe, Allegiance's executive vice president of retail, tells GlobeSt.com that the town center is 40% preleased and the marketplace is 70% preleased."
......

"The declared anchors are Dillard's and corporate-owned sites for a 200,000-sf Wal-mart Supercenter and 130,000-sf Sam's Club." ...

"Holcombe estimates site work will take four months. The $135 million of infrastructure upgrades include adding two lanes to US Hwy. 380 or University Drive, which should be completed by fall 2008." ....

for the complete story see: http://www.globest.com/news/961_961/gsrsouthwest/162778-1.html