BIG BUSINESS IN ADDISON

What's the opposite of a bedroom community? How about a boardroom community? That's what we're dubbing the town of Addison, which swells from a population of 14,000 at night to a bustling 100,000 during the day.

Looking to capitalize on the number of suits and briefcases, the town council hired its first economic development director: Orlando Campos. His job: keep existing companies already here and bring new tenants to the 5M SF of Class-A office space in the city. The Colonnade, alone, makes up 1M SF of that. (Addison office space is 80% occupied compared to the Dallas CBD of about 75%.) It's also home to a plethora of hotels and restaurants (think Ghengis Grill).

Orlando wants Addison to be a leader among new urbanist developments. The town was one of the first pioneers in North Texas with the development of Addison Circle (pictured). Next on the to-do list is promoting the Vitruvian, developed by UDR, which broke ground on a more than 100-acre project with an ultimate price tag of $1B. With the first phase complete and the second almost there, Addison will have 5,500 multifamily units in LEED buildings. That complements the quality of life Addison wants to promote, he says. We still question Orlando's claim of working in economic development for  15 years (he must've started as a precocious toddler) in Brownsville and Arlington.

Come see for yourself, when Addison sponsors Bisnow?s Dallas Power Networking event July 27 (from 5:30 to 7:30pm) at the uber-cool Blackfinn on Belt Line Rd in Addison. You don't want to miss the open beer and wine bar, networking, appetizers (did we mention networking), and in case we weren't clear, schmoozing with hundreds of the top dogs in CRE. There's still time to get on the list. When you see Orlando, make sure and ask him about his internship at the Smithsonian or maybe what it was like to grow up as the youngest of 12 siblings. Personally, we talked indie films— he's like the Norm of the Angelika and Magnolia.