Thursday, August 31, 2006

McKinney to get its own Times Square

Steve Brown / The Dallas Morning News

A new development promises to bring a bit of Manhattan – at least in name – to McKinney.

The Times Square at Craig Ranch complex will contain apartments and shopping on 4.62 acres north of State Highway 121.

Developers Evergreen Realty Advisors and DXE Commercial Development said Thursday that they will break ground in October on the mixed-use complex.

The urban-style development is the latest addition to the 2,500-acre Craig Ranch community.

"The building we designed will be the centerpiece for activity at Craig Ranch," said Steve Everbach, managing partner of Evergreen Realty Advisors. "This building could easily be transported to somewhere on McKinney Avenue in Dallas and do very well."

The five-story complex will total more than 800,000 square feet, with 320 apartments and about 80,000 square feet of retail space.

It will be across the street from the Cooper Aerobics Center and TPC Craig Ranch Golf Club and will open in early 2008.

"We are going to be one of the anchors of the town center," Mr. Everbach said. "We have already seen interest from retailers that could fill a majority of the retail space."

The project at Collin McKinney Parkway and Wiskoff Drive was designed by PB2 Architecture and Engineering, and the general contractor is Dallas-based Precept Builders.

Apartment developer and manager JPI Inc. will lease the rental units, and Weitzman Group has been hired to lease the retail.

Craig Ranch developer David Craig has been working on the McKinney development for almost six years.

"Times Square is our first vertical residential project with retail on the ground floor," he said.

"It's the first of what we hope will be many."

Evergreen Realty picked a landmark name for its project after "thinking about centerpieces of activity and Times Square in New York," Mr. Everbach said.

"We want to brand this name on projects around the nation," he said.

"We are looking at other sites around the country to build this type of building."

It's the company's first suburban mixed-use development.

Evergreen is a partner in the redevelopment of the historic Lake Cliff Tower condominium building in Oak Cliff.

Original article appears in the Dallas Morning News.