Wachovia's Buy Kicks Off Mixed-Use Plan

McKINNEY, TX-Wachovia Corp. has acquired a 1.3-acre hard corner from a local developer, who’s looking to come out of the ground at the same time as the bank on the 70,000-sf Eldorado Square. Ground will break in the fall.

The Charlotte, NC-based Wachovia took down the corner to an 8.8-acre tract bought nine months ago by Conrow Co. of Addison. The bank will develop a 4,185-sf branch at the McKinney site, hoping to open in late first quarter 2005, Kimberly McDaniel with Conrow Co. tells GlobeSt.com. Negotiations got under way awhile back and went quiet until Wachovia and SouthTrust Corp. of Birmingham, AL signed their merger plan.

McDaniel says the asking price was $22 per sf. “We did well,” she says about the final price.

McDaniel is steering preleasing for Eldorado Square, a retail and office project ticketed for 1703 Eldorado Parkway. The plan is flexible, but the latest version calls for 45,000 sf of retail space and 25,000 sf of office. “We’ve gotten so much interest from the office users that we’re leaving our options open,” she says. The project is designed with two-story buildings, retail on the first and office above, but market dynamics could add some single-story office structures, she explains. Retail preleasing is resting at 35% as interest gathers momentum from the surrounding medical community on the office component, she says. Retail space is on the market at $22 per sf to $26 per sf, triple net, while office is quoted at $25 per sf to $28 per sf, full service.