Retailers Revved Up Around Nebraska Furniture Mart

Bright Realty is seeing the trickle-down benefits of Nebraska Furniture Mart with about 19 acres of commercial pads bordering the western part of NFM on Plano Parkway. Bright Realty VP Britton Lankford (right, with Tim McNutt) tells us of the nine pad sites on those 19 acres, all but one are under contract or have been sold. The biggest—Unser Racing—is on 5.5 acres and will be the company’s first go-kart entertainment and restaurant project in Texas.

There are also plans for a build-to-suit for a national credit coffee shop and some additional pre-leasing for small tenants in that site, Britton says. Britton and Tim just closed with a developer that will be leasing to Potbelly Sandwich Shop and Salsarita’s Fresh Cantina Mexican restaurant. (Venture Commercial’s Bryan Cornelius repped the buyer, NorthPoint Development.) Tim and Britton also sold about 1.5 acres in the same area to iShine Carwash. (Duggan Realty’s L.J. Erickson repped the buyer.) There's also plans for a mattress retailer and manufacturer, with more restaurants to be announced soon.

Next year will be big with the NFM opening, but 2016 is when you’ll see the 121 Corridor in full play, Britton says. The green spots will be gone; Toyota’s HQ opens in 2017 and those employees have to live and shop somewhere. Britton believes Plano is built out for single-family homes, so many will be driving down 121 to live in The Colony and Lewisville. Bright has 3,100 homes planned in its Castle Hills master-planned community (379 lots will be delivered to homebuilders next month). It's also breaking ground soon on Phase 1 (423 units) of its 4,500-unit multifamily development called The Discovery at The Realm, he tells us.