A slew of restaurants and eateries are competing for a spot in North Arlington’s newest development. A variety of potential restaurants and eateries – Benihana, Mi Cocina, Torchy’s Tacos and Steel City Pops – were mentioned by developers as possible tenants vying for a location in Champions Park, an upcoming development slated for construction on the northeast corner of Collins Street and Interstate-30. No leases have been signed yet, as there have been more companies requesting for space than there is space available, said Thomas Glendenning of SHOP Companies, who spoke Wednesday at a luncheon for CREW Fort Worth.

“We’ve got more interest than we’ve got space to lease,” he said. “We’re being really picky about who we decide to move forward with to make sure that it is something special.”

Tenants will officially be announced later in the summer, Glendenning said. Champions Park is slated to break ground later this year with businesses expected to open in 2017. The multi-use development will be right across Guitar Center, in the vicinity of AT&T Stadium, Globe Life Park and Six Flags Over Texas. The development will stretch over 14 acres, with approximately 80,000 square feet of space available for restaurant and retail. Champions Park will be primarily comprised of restaurants, taking up about 60 to 70 percent of the space.

The restaurant and retail space will make up the first phase of development. Four of the buildings will be traditional multi-tenant buildings, while another four buildings will be standalone restaurants. Plans for the second stage have not yet been finalized but may include the construction of a hotel, movie theater or other venue. A “festival area” will also be constructed toward the center of the development, with streets that can be closed to make room for outdoor events. Champions Park received approval from the Arlington City Council back in January. Greenway Investments, a company based in Dallas, will be in charge of the project, which will cost about $30 million.

Arlington Mayor Jeff Williams, who also attended the luncheon, said he envisions Champions Park to be a central meeting location in the city. Williams said he also wants Arlington to work on having more partnerships with Fort Worth. “I think we have a lot of the same interests,” he said. “[I’m] really looking forward to that here in the future because I think Tarrant County is the place to be.”

Fort Worth Business Press by Samantha Calimbahin

ARLINGTON — Eastbound travelers on Interstate 20 in Arlington can expect delays this weekend: A round of lane closures for the Center Street flyover construction project are planned for Friday and Saturday nights. Workers will close the inside eastbound lane each day at 7 p.m., between Cooper Street and New York Avenue, and then shut all eastbound lanes at 9 p.m. to install 15 concrete support beams for the bridge. Traffic will be detoured to the eastbound service road until all lanes are reopened at 6 a.m. the following day, said Keith Brooks, the city’s engineering operations manager. Because of the increased traffic expected on the service roads, the bridges over Collins Street and Matlock Road will be closed, with Collins traffic detoured to New York Avenue, and Matlock traffic detoured to Cooper Street during the lane shutdowns.

Other lane closures are scheduled to occur in August as part of the $10.4 million construction project to extend Center Street southward to Bardin Road from its current end, just south of Highlander Boulevard. Construction on the 3/4-mile project, including the 600-foot-long bridge, began in October and is expected to conclude in the spring or summer of 2016. It will relieve traffic congestion in the area as it provides east and southeast Arlington another north-south thoroughfare, said Val Lopez, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Transportation’s regional office in Fort Worth. The agency is overseeing the project for the city. “I think this is going to increase mobility and safety for motorists” Lopez said.

The city is financing the construction by selling certificates of obligation, which are similar to bonds but don’t require a public election. The debt will be repaid with revenues from a tax increment reinvestment zone, a special taxing district that collects a portion of property taxes from a geographic area and uses it for infrastructure and other improvements within that district. This TIRZ was set up 10 years ago mainly to assist the start up of the Arlington Highlands. About half of the total 60 concrete beams for the bridge were installed during lane closures last month. The remaining 15 beams would be planted on a Monday night in August. The exact date hasn’t been determined, Brooks said.

Until this week, the upcoming work was going to be Friday night only, but with a later reopening —noon Saturday. Officials decided that the two-day schedule with an earlier reopening on both days would be more convenient for motorists, Brooks said. The bridge and the new roadway would be four lanes, although the bridge is being built to accommodate six lanes in the future. A two-directional hike-and-bike lane will extend the length of the northbound lanes of the new road and bridge, connecting with an existing path along Center north of Highlander Boulevard.The Center Street bridge will be a flyover: It won’t allow direct access from Center Street to the I-20 service roads because the state considers it too close to Matlock Road, officials said. But travelers will be able double back on side streets to reach the highway frontage roads.

Most of the construction path south of I-20 slices through open, undeveloped property, where it is sure to spark growth. Arlington Municipal Airport, which has dealt with a drastic decrease in flights during the Great Recession, is poised and waiting. The airport, south of I-20 and west of South Collins Street, received two state grants totaling $450,000 last year for facility improvements and a 10-year master plan, which officials have said will focus on the west side, near Center Street’s path to Bardin Road.

Robert Cadwallader, 817-390-7641 Twitter: @Kaddmann_ST

From the Wall Street Journal by Ana Campoy

THE COLONY, Texas—The plunge in oil prices over the past year has taken some of the energy out of the Texas economy, but the Lone Star State has been able to muddle through thanks to the still-booming Dallas-Fort Worth metro region. Even in Texas, the recently opened Nebraska Furniture Mart in this suburb 30 miles north of Dallas stands out for its outsize ambitions. A retail pièce de résistance roughly the size of three Wal-Mart WMT -0.19 % supercenters, it carries a vast array of recliners, refrigerators, rugs and just about everything else. Ron Blumkin, president of the Omaha-based chain, majority-owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., BRK.A -0.25 % is confident the DFW region’s growth can support the mammoth store.

“I look out there and I see hundreds of new rooftops,” he said. “That is pretty exciting to me.”

The continued economic success of the DFW metro area, the nation’s fourth largest, with nearly seven million people, is one of the reasons Texas has so far managed to stave off a sharp downturn despite losing thousands of jobs in the oil patch and related industries. The region lost more than 100,000 jobs during the recession, but it has added nearly four times that number since then. Once the nation’s top job creator, Texas has tumbled to a middling 36th place in that category, the latest data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics show. In Houston, the country’s energy capital and one of the state’s main economic engines, some 35,300 people abandoned the workforce from December to April, the largest five-month decline since 2000, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. The bank expects Texas employment to grow by less than 1% in 2015, after galloping at a pace of 3.6% last year.

But the story is markedly different in the DFW region, which, with its thriving business-services and tech sectors, highlights how much Texas has diversified since the 1980s oil-price collapse threw the state into a long-lasting slump. The area has added a net of more than 36,000 jobs since October, when oil prices started to nosedive. Dallas isn’t the only Texas region that has diversified. The San Antonio metro area, which has 2.3 million residents, now has a burgeoning biotech sector. Austin, with its population of 1.9 million, had the lowest unemployment rate among the nation’s largest metro areas in April as it undergoes a hotel boom. But because of its economic heft and size, Dallas will play a bigger role in determining the rate of Texas’ growth.

“If we’re going to create net jobs, it will be because of North Texas,” said Pia Orrenius, an economist at the Dallas Fed. The region’s central location, relatively low housing costs and its major international airport, not to mention many local tax incentives, have drawn many corporate relocations. The region received more domestic migrants that most other metro areas in the country in 2014, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. In Plano, another Dallas suburb, bulldozers are readying a 240-acre plot to build a complex that houses Toyota Motor Corp.’s new U.S. headquarters, which is being moved from Southern California. FedEx Corp. and Liberty Mutual Insurance are building towers in the same office park, dubbed Legacy West. Those three companies alone are expected to employ about 13,000 workers with an estimated payroll of about $1.7 billion a year, said Fehmi Karahan, one of Legacy West’s developers.

To cater to them, he is speeding up his own project, an adjacent high-end shopping center with condos and a luxury hotel, by more than a year. The center, he calculates, will generate at least 2,000 jobs. Meanwhile, retail giant Amazon is adding more than 1,500 jobs at its fulfillment centers in DFW. To be sure, DFW hasn’t been immune to the shrinking oil sector. In the first four months of the year, employment growth slowed to 2.2% from 4% last year, according to the Dallas Fed. Since the beginning of the year, the area has lost more than 5,000 jobs in the construction, energy and other related sectors.

There are other challenges. The overall growth is starting to threaten affordability, driving housing inventories to record lows and prices to highs. Dallas posted a 10% yearly increase in single-family home prices in April, the largest of any big metro area in the country, according to CoreLogic, a real-estate data company. Pratik Shah was outbid 12 times before finally landing a home last month in the suburb of Wylie for $205,000. “Making offers of $10,000 to $15,000 above listing price, you’d think you’d have a good shot,” Mr. Shah said.

The Fresh Market kicks up its Cowtown presence on Wednesday, June 17 when it opens its first Fort Worth stores in the WestBend shopping center just west of the Fort Worth Zoo at 1751 River Run. The specialty grocer will join a development already featuring Zoe’s Kitchen and East Hampton Sandwich Co. The Fresh Market Inc. (NASDAQ: TFM) new store will be the company’s eighth store in the state of Texas.

“We are excited to open our new store in Fort Worth and to expand our reach into Texas,” said Sean Crane, the company’s interim chief executive officer. “We look forward to introducing The Fresh Market’s concept of quality, great tasting food, excellent customer service and a distinctive atmosphere to an expanded customer base, and we look forward to offering neighboring communities an inspiring new food shopping experience.”

Doors will open at 8:00 a.m. on Wednesday and grand opening activities will include chef demonstrations, food sampling throughout the store, and drawings for store gift cards. The new store will house over 26,000 square feet of items, including a bakery that produces 30 freshly baked breads and 14 different pie varieties daily, a full service meat counter, ready-to-serve entrées, fresh seafood delivered to the store several times per week, and more than 200 imported and domestic cheeses, as well as a produce department with more than 400 items and a large organic selection. The new store will employ approximately 90 new jobs to the area.

In May, WestBend development officials announced the addition of a restaurant and bar, a fashion boutique and a spa, all new players to the city’s retail market. WestBend developer Trademark Property Co. said the new tenants include: neighborhood restaurant & bar HG Sply Co., fashion boutique Pax & Parker and Texas-based Woodhouse Day Spa. The Fresh Market is on the ground floor of a new 81,150 square foot building that will include speciality grocery store on the ground floor and 57,000 square feet of new Class A office space directly above. Upon completion, the project will include 278,000 sf of retail, dining and office space.

Fort Worth Business Press by Robert Francis

People in the Dallas–Fort Worth area are quick to note it takes less than five minutes for Texas’s biggest metropolis to add a new resident. But that’s not the scary part. What’s really troubling, at least for other U.S. cities competing for businesses and commerce against what locals here call “DFW,” is how area residents smile when they say it. That same frantic growth rate could be maintained for decades before the nation’s fourth most populous metropolitan area would begin to feel cramped.

“There’s more activity today than I’ve seen in 30 years in this business,” said a beaming Toby Grove, president of KDC, a local real-estate developer that is currently building several corporate offices in the region. Though the DFW metro area covers an area roughly the size of New Hampshire, there still are hundreds of pockets of empty space between Fort Worth on the west and Dallas on the east, offering plenty of room for growth. Once those are filled, the region could simply keep expanding outward, in all directions.

Drive the region’s elaborate web of new and relatively uncrowded highways — seemingly ready to accommodate an onslaught of humanity — and you’ll see the occasional 10- or 20-story office building or hotel dotting the landscape, quickly followed by acres and acres of vacant land. Locals are upbeat when they say the area’s 6.8 million residents could double over the next 20 years. “Growth seems to be more enhanced here,” Grove said. “I don’t see any slowdown.”

Indeed, the area has become a promised land of sorts to which businesses are flocking — and, once there, thriving. Think of just about any U.S. company, and there’s a good chance it’s got operations of some kind in the area. Some companies seek a geographic advantage by locating facilities in the middle of the country, whether a distribution hub or an entire headquarters. It may be that executives are hankering to save money on taxes or real estate or other business costs. Or perhaps they’re just weary of regulatory trappings elsewhere and long for a meaningful relationship with a business-friendly local government. It doesn’t matter. They’re getting all that and more. And it’s what led MarketWatch to declare that Dallas–Fort Worth is America’s most business-friendly metro area for 2014.

Economic development deals OK’d

With Mayor Betsy Price abstaining because of a conflict of interest, the Fort Worth City Council voted Tuesday to approve two connected economic development deals in the far north. Councilwoman Gyna Bivens was absent.

Tanger Outlets wants to build a 350,000-square-foot shopping center in north Fort Worth across from Texas Motor Speedway as part of the initial $100 million phase of development in the 279-acre Champions Circle. Tanger must invest $70 million to build the shopping center, and Fine Line Diversified Development in Fort Worth, developer of Champions Circle, must invest $60 million in 500,000 square feet of commercial space and 100,000 square feet of apartments. Fine Line would receive a rebate of 85 percent of the city’s 1-cent sales tax for 10 years, or an estimated $31.5 million, and Tanger Outlets would be rebated 85 percent of the city’s sales tax for 15 years, or an estimated $25 million. Both companies must meet the terms of the agreement for the deals to hold.

In the second deal, approved unanimously, a data center developer, Winner Llc., is looking to build up to three 250,000-square-foot centers and is choosing between Fort Worth and an undisclosed city outside Texas. The proposed $750 million project would bring 40 jobs, paying an average $70,000 annually. The company is considering buying 150 acres at the northeast corner of Park Vista and Texas 170 in the AllianceTexas development. Under the approved incentive, the company has the potential to earn $146.7 million in rebates from real and business personal property taxes and a franchise fee with Oncor, over 20 years. The city would gain $48.5 million.

Eastside Library location approved

The council also unanimously approved spending $185,000 to buy property at 851 E. Lancaster Ave. for the Eastside Library. The new library, budgeted for $3.2 million from the 2014 bond program, will be conveniently located for east-side residents and will be close to a bus stop, Councilwoman Kelly Allen Gray said.

As predicted by Mayor Robert Cluck, the Arlington City Council approved incentives for General Motors Co. to expand its SUV factory in the city. The Council unanimously approved on Tuesday an investment zone, paving the way for a $1.3 billion investment by GM toaccelerate production of some of the automaker’s most profitable vehicles, analysts say. The 61-year-old plant makes GMC Yukons, Cadillac Escalades and Chevrolet Suburbans. Boosted by lower gas prices, sales of GM’s full-size SUVs are up more than 50 percentin the first quarter of this year compared with the same period in 2014.

General Motors (NYSE: GM) has not publicly shared specifics of its plan for improvements at the Arlington plant, other than to say it would provide about 600 jobs and involve about $1 billion in equipment and $300 million in construction that would add 1.2 million square feet to the factory floor. “GM is developing a business case for a potential future investment at Arlington Assembly,” company officials said Wednesday in a prepared statement. “An investment would fund facility improvements aimed at strengthening the plant’s manufacturing capability.” Tax incentives from the city and the state are part of GM’s consideration process, a spokesperson for the company said.

Dallas Business Journal by Bill Hethcock

Another corporation is leaving Torrance, California, to plant its corporate flag in North Texas. The 103-year-old Farmer Bros. Co. is brewing up a corporate move from California to a new 500,000 square-foot office and distribution center in the Denton County city of Northlake, which has approved some incentives to lure Farmers Bros. Farmer Bros. joins Toyota Motor Corp., which is moving its North American headquarters from Torrance to Plano. The company said it would close its facilities in Torrance. The coffee company’s new headquarters will be in a new $40 million facility near Texas Motor Speedway on Interstate 35W. According to media reports, 300 people will work at the new Farmer Bros. facility. Farmer Bros. Co. is a manufacturer, wholesaler and distributor of a variety of coffee, tea and food items to food service businesses and retailers in the U.S. It generated more than $500 million in revenue in 2014 and has 1,800 employees nationwide. It is a direct distributor to restaurants, casinos, hotels, hospitals and other foodservice providers, the company said on its website. The company’s stock is traded on the Nasdaq exchange under the ticker symbol FARM.

Dallas Business Journal by Lance Murray

Downtown Dallas’ historic Statler-Hilton hotel will soon be flying the Hilton flag again. Centurion American Development Group and Hilton Worldwide said Tuesday that Hilton will represent a new luxury hotel in the building after it is converted into a mixed-use project. The 19-story Commerce Street landmark has been empty for more than a decade. It opened as a Hilton hotel but operated in later years as the Dallas Grand. Centurion American is redeveloping the building into hotel rooms, apartments, retail, entertainment and other uses. The renovated building will be called the Statler Hotel and Residences. Centurion American CEO Mehrdad Moayedi said getting the Hilton label on the new hotel is a boost for the project. “It’s very important to have Hilton there businesswise,” Moayedi said. “It will be a four-star quality hotel.”

Hilton will market the hotel portion of the project when it’s finished as one of its Curio hotels – a new chain of historic and luxury hotels. “Known as the first modern American hotel, the Statler not only made hospitality and Dallas history, it is a vital chapter of Hilton Worldwide’s story,” Hilton’s Dianna Vaughan said in a statement. “We are so excited to see the redevelopment of this magnificent property and welcome it back to our family.’” The thousand-room hotel was one of the largest in the world when it was started. Originally the property was to be the Hotel Statler. During the construction of the $15 million project, the Statler and Hilton hotel chains merged. “At the time Conrad Hilton bought Statler for $111 million it was the largest real estate transaction ever done in the U.S.,” said Centurion American partner Frank Zaccanelli, “We are going to put a small museum about the hotel in the lobby.”

Centurion American $175 million project will convert the 59-year-old Statler Hilton into 161 hotel rooms on the lower five floors and 219 residences on the top 11 floors. The project also includes meeting space, retail and office space, four restaurants and a hotel lounge. Dallas architect Merriman & Associates is planning the redo to keep the building’s mid-century modern style. “We are trying to take it back to the same design it had before,” Moayedi said. “We are focusing on restoring the exterior right now – a $10 million contract.” Plano-based Aimbridge Hospitality has been chosen to manage the hotel. The project is set to open in the fall of 2016.

“For the last 12 months we’ve been cleaning the building out,” Zaccanelli said. Centurion purchased the Statler Hilton last year and the City of Dallas is providing $46.5 million in financing incentives to redevelop the historic property. “The Statler was one of the most glamorous hotels in the world when it first opened in 1956, and we plan to restore its position as a destination for not only travelers coming to Dallas but also as a place to live and work,” Moayedi said.

Dallas Morning News by Steve Brown

The 17-story former Belo Building will undergo an extensive renovation as part of a rebranding that includes a Sharon Hage-created restaurant concept, sky garden atop the top floor of the building and a glass-walled lobby. The multimillion-dollar renovation at the building at 400 S. Record St. will also include significant upgrades to the entrances, a new fitness center and a new conference center. The building was sold to a new property owner last October. “We’re elevating a great downtown building by bringing modern aesthetics and amenities to an already great location,” said property owner Thomas Hartland-Mackie, CEO of City Electric Supply. As part of the redo, the building will be renamed 400 Record. Hartland-Mackie’s extensive art collection will be displayed in the two-story lobby, which will be avaliable for community events. Gensler is designing the renovation. Matt Schendle, JJ Leonard and Rena Chappell of Cushman & Wakefield of Texas Inc. are leasing the office building, which has a number of vacant floors. Construction is slated to start this summer on the renovations.

Dallas Business Journal by Candace Carlisle