Four tenants have signed 10-year leases in Lakewood Center, a development at Wooded Acres and Valley Mills drives where construction on an 8,500-square-foot anchor soon will begin.
Developer Gordon Harriman III said he now is eyeing other sites along Valley Mills Drive.
Harriman’s Crawford Austin Properties bought the site where crews demolished the former Allen Samuels Dodge Chrysler Jeep Ram dealership. He confirmed Monday he now has leases to fill the anchor building. Gordon Harriman III walks the foundation of the Lakewood Center development at Wooded Acres and Valley Mills drives.
The tenants that have made commitments include:
- Smashburger, a restaurant chain founded in Denver five years ago that is quickly growing in popularity.
- Fantastic Sams, a Massachusetts-based hair-care chain that has more than 1,200 salons.
- Mama Fu’s Asian House, an Austin-based restaurant chain.
- Palm Beach Tan, a Coppell-based chain that has a presence in more than 24 states.
“We had a hodgepodge of companies interested in Waco, and a lot reached out to me when we closed on the purchase of the dirt,” Harriman said. “We were selective and wanted Waco to have names it had not had before.”
He said crews should have the space ready by February, and tenants will have 90 days to customize it.
Crawford Austin has enough land left for a 5,000-square-foot building, and real estate agent Mike Meadows said he is negotiating with “two or three prospects that would be new to Waco.”
It sold land next door to the planned Lakewood Center site to Aldi, a German-owned, no-frills grocery chain that is erecting a 16,000-square-foot store that should open by December or early January, Harriman said.
“I did a lot of research on Aldi before I made a deal with them, visited several stores in the Dallas area,” he said. “It’s a neat concept, and I’m really looking forward to the opening.”
Harriman said he is seeing growing interest in retailers wanting to enter the Waco market.
“At first, all the calls were from restaurants, but now I’m feeling very good about the commercial real estate market in Waco over the next two or three years,” Harriman said. “Within a year or so, I’m hoping to make other deals along Valley Mills Drive. I’m looking for older properties to rehabilitate or tear down to rebuild.”
One large property at Lake Air and Valley Mills drives sits idle and another will become vacant.
Richard Karr Motors is building a new dealership on West Loop 340 to sell Buick, Cadillac and GMC products. Karr will leave behind property he leases from Frank Weaver Jr. of Georgetown.
Weaver told the Tribune-Herald in October he has been approached by prospective buyers, but he has not yet decided if he will sell the site.
Meanwhile, the vacant Guaranty Bank building across Valley Mills Drive from Richard Karr Motors has been bought by Bank of America, which reportedly will relocate its Bosque Boulevard location there in early 2014.
From the Waco Tribune Herald : Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Written by Mike Copeland
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