First-Time Developer's Plea Triggers Wildfire Response

MANSFIELD, TX-In a David meets Goliath play, a first-time developer is courting retail tenants for a 2.5-acre hard corner abutting a “north of $40-million” mixed-use project by Pittsburgh-based Kossman Development Co.

Kerry Don Hutchison, president of KJRJ Inc., bought the tract a year ago in Mansfield’s US Highway 287-FM 157 retail corridor, which has been on a fast track for nearly four years. Hutchison, an appraiser turned broker and soon a developer, has been a one-man show, out of necessity, for a 19,000-sf lifestyle center plan, including his latest move–a widespread appeal to brokers with the right connections via a listing on the North Texas Commercial Association of Realtors’ data exchange. The appeal of “help me get this awesome project out of the ground” brought a flurry of calls to an unfamiliar name in brokerage circles. “It’s been crazy. I’ve been fielding calls all day,” he tells GlobeSt.com.

Hutchison hopes to break ground in November on the Gateway to Mansfield Center. “I’m just waiting on tenants,” he says. “I can’t start the project until I’ve got it 100% leased up.” His first stab at development will be 19,000 sf of class A space, a neighbor to Kossman’s 12-screen Cinemark Theater, now rising as the first component in the 70-acre Mansfield Town Center West, which originally called for 750,000 sf of retail, 167,000 sf of office and a hotel.

“I’m providing something that Kossman’s not,” Hutchison explains. “He’s got all the nationals, but I’m giving opportunity to small users for that corridor.” He’s quoting $21 per sf, triple net.

The $1.9-million development is being funded with an interim construction loan, which will roll to a 10-year perm, in a package set up by Omni American Federal Credit Union in Fort Worth, Hutchison says. Kent Jones Architecture of Dallas designed Gateway to Mansfield Center; Westwind Building Corp., also Dallas, is the general contractor.

Hutchison’s plan gets off the ground with 3,900 sf pledged to his growing operation of 11 appraisers and two brokers, now in considerably less space in a leased site at 4214 Little Rd. in Arlington. He just needs to fill 15,754 sf before ground can break on land that he says he bought for less than what Kossman offered the seller. “They just liked me,” says the native Texan, who had an inside track because the local seller’s broker is in the same Sunday school class. “I was driving that highway for several years looking for property. When I saw the sign go up, I called him.”