This Week's Dallas-Fort Worth Deal Sheet: Affordable Housing Community Breaks Ground in Mesquite

The NRP Group and the Mesquite Housing Finance Corp. broke ground last week on affordable housing community The Fielder. 

The 288-unit development is located at 1300 Wooded Lake Drive, near the intersection of interstates 30 and 635. The Fielder will offer amenities such as a pool, a dog park, playgrounds and a community garden. 

“In a city facing a severe workforce housing shortage, this development will provide much-needed affordable housing during a time when more than half of Mesquite renters are cost-burdened,” Nick Walsh, vice president of development at The NRP Group, said in a statement.

“We are incredibly honored to partner with the City of Mesquite and its Housing Finance Corporation to bring high-quality, affordable housing to the area at such a critical time.”

Housing tax credit equity and construction financing was provided by Bank of America, and permanent financing came from Bellwether Enterprise Real Estate Capital.

PEOPLE

Michael Kaplan has joined SRS Real Estate Partners’ DFW office as vice president. He has more than 20 years of experience and was most recently vice president at Venture Commercial. In his new position, Kaplan will be focused on net lease and multitenant investment sales as well as retail center project leasing.

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JLL added three people to its DFW operations last week. Jayme Schutt returns to JLL as senior vice president of workplace strategy in the Dallas office. She previously spent two years with JLL, but was most recently with Stream Realty Partners. Mike Allen will also be part of the Dallas office as vice president. He was previously with Weitzman for almost 10 years. Maggie Georgieva spent the last nine years with JLL property management in London, but will now serve as senior general manager in its Fort Worth office. 

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Quiddity Engineering named David Kochalka the general manager for its North Texas region. Kochalka, who has more than 27 years of experience, was most recently president of Medica Development. 

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The Anna Economic Development Corp. hired Natasha Roach as its assistant director of economic development. She has almost 12 years of experience in economic development and with chambers of commerce. Her most recent position was assistant director of economic development and EDC coordinator for the Little Elm Economic Development Corp. In her new role, Roach will help oversee the work of the Anna EDC.

SALES

First-time Texas investor Panamint Holdings LLC purchased the deed to 800-810 N. Great Southwest Parkway in Arlington from Bradford Commercial Real Estate Services. The 18K SF industrial project in the Great Southwest Industrial District was developed in 1968 and is located on just over an acre near Interstate 30. Bradford's Michael W. Spain, Jason Finch and Chris Wong represented the seller, CanTex800 LLC.

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Dallas-based GDA Architects was acquired by national design firm KTGY last week. The move will increase KTGY’s presence in Texas. GDA was founded in 1984 by Charles Gromatzky.

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Hartman Properties sold the Richardson Tech Center property in Richardson. The four-building, multitenant property was acquired by Hartman vREIT XXI, Inc. in March 2018 for just over $5M and sold for nearly twice that. Hartman saw the property grow from 73% occupied when the company purchased it to 95% in early 2024. The sale generated a 40% internal rate of return.

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RangeWater Real Estate and equity partner NTT Urban Development Corp. closed on just over 14 acres in Denton County. The property in Corinth, which is near Lewisville Lake, will be used for the second Storia community of built-to-rent, single-family neighborhoods. The 121-townhome community will be located at 1250 N. Corinth St. with amenities such as a pool, a dog park, an open-air pavilion and park space. The Atlanta-based operator plans to break ground in September, with completion slated for Q2 2026.

LEASES

Granite Properties has signed Wish You Were Here Group to bring its Los Angeles-based Élephante and New York City-based Little Ruby’s Cafe restaurants to the under-construction development 23Springs in Uptown Dallas. The Class-AA, 26-story, 626K SF office tower will be located at the corner of Cedar Springs Road and Maple Avenue when it is finished in March.

Both restaurants are expected to open in fall 2025. The 11K SF Élephante will be a standalone, two-story restaurant on Maple Avenue. Little Ruby’s will be in a 3,000 SF restaurant facing 23Springs’ park.

23Springs will also offer six stories of parking underground as well as a coffee and wine bar, an indoor lounge and a golf simulator. It was designed by GFF, while DPR Construction is the project’s general contractor. Jack Breard of Segovia Partners represented Wish You Were Here Group in the transaction, while CBRE’s Jack Gosnell, Elizabeth Herman Fulot and Marissa Stave represented Granite.

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Consulting firm Boston Consulting Group renewed its lease with Harwood International at the 26-story Harwood No. 6 tower in Dallas. The seven-year extension is for nearly 70K SF. BCG was represented by CBRE’s Harlan Davis and Phil Puckett, while Harwood International was represented by CBRE's Hannah Mesh. Harwood No. 6 was designed by Shimoda Design Group from Los Angeles. 

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The former Plano Market Square Mall’s new life as Assembly Park will be leased by CBRE on behalf of owner Triten Real Estate Partners. The development offers 180K SF of office space and 17K SF of retail as well as 304 multifamily units. The mixed-use development located at 1717 E. Spring Creek Parkway in East Plano is being marketed by CBRE’s Ben Davis, Shannon Brown and Julee Amparo.

CONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT 

Leon Industrial broke ground on Riverbend East Industrial Park in Fort Worth. The Class-A industrial project will feature two buildings totaling 236K SF near the intersection of Interstate 820 and State Highway 121. A third building of 56K SF offering 2 acres of outside storage is planned. CBRE’s Steve Trese, Wilson Brown and Brian Gilchrist are working to lease the project.

FINANCING

BWE will build affordable apartment complex Heights at Crowley in Fort Worth after it secured a $9.3M Freddie Mac 9% Forward Commitment on behalf of Generation Housing Development. The 96-unit complex will offer amenities such as a daycare, a dog park, a playground and a swimming pool.

An allocation of 9% low-income housing tax credits were secured through the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs. The project is part of $42.5M in loans secured by BWE for developments in Texas, Georgia and South Carolina. BWE's John Roberts and Jon Killough originated the loans and bonds for the borrowers.

THIS AND THAT

Sports bar and visual experiential venue Cosm Dallas opened its 65K SF space Aug. 31 at Grandscape, a more than 400-acre retail entertainment destination in The Colony. The facility offers a floor-to-ceiling 12K LED dome screen that airs sporting events and more in partnership with the NBA, the UFC, ESPN, NBC Sports, Fox Sports and TNT Sports.

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Marketing agency Moroch has moved into a new 24K SF office space at the corner of Irving Boulevard and Manufacturing Street in Dallas. The agency was previously located in the Oak Lawn area of Dallas. The new space has 12 conference rooms, a 60-desk open-seating workspace and a lounge to be used for collaboration.