Hurdle Cleared In Adding Multifamily Units To Old J.C. Penney Campus, City Council Vote Is Next

Plans to add a mid-rise multifamily development inside J.C. Penney's old corporate campus in West Plano passed the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission this week. 

Known as The Campus at Legacy West, the property is under the guiding hand of Dreien Opportunity Partners CEO Sam Ware.

Ware’s firm purchased Penney's former corporate campus three years ago with the intention of transforming it into a mixed-use development featuring a refurbished office campus, multifamily, hotel and restaurants.

While a previous plan for multifamily development on the site stalled at City Hall last year,  Silos Harvesting Partners — a limited partnership run by Ware and the entity listed as the project's applicant — came back with a plan for 795 apartments and a rezoning request to allow mid-rise residential and food truck park uses on small tracts inside the campus. 

P&Z voted to approve those changes Tuesday before sending the issue to City Hall for a final vote. 

Ware said he views the campus as the perfect spot for quality multifamily product and he foresees demand coming from the employees of nearby corporate headquarters and office tenants.

The Campus at Legacy West sits near JPMorgan, Liberty Mutual, Frito-Lay, Toyota, FedEx, Bank of America and Fannie Mae.

The site also benefits from having J.C. Penney Co. and NTT Data as existing corporate tenants.

Data shared by the developer at this week's P&Z meeting showed stabilized properties in the Legacy and Legacy West communities maintain a 98% occupancy rate. 

Trammell Crow Residential and Kairoi Residential have already been selected to build out the apartments if the city greenlights the project.