la Frontera In the News

Austin Business Journal

August 17, 1998

Retail-heavy corner grows

by Tom Fowler, Austin Business Journal Staff

The bustling I-35/FM 1325 intersection in Round Rock could see up to 700,000 square feet of new retail space construction by year's end, including a 24-screen movie theater and as many as seven large anchor stores.

La Frontera, a 328-acre tract at the northwest corner of the intersection, could also be home to as much as 1.3 million square feet of office space, a full-service hotel and conference center, and a limited service hotel.

Sources close to the project say buyers, including renowned Fort Worth developer Ed Bass, are days away from closing on 227 acres of the project. Closing on the other 101 acres is expected within the next week.

Bass is joined in the project by general partners Don Martin, an Austin developer and public affairs consultant, and Bill Smalling, who has developed a number of Williamson County projects, including San Gabriel Village in Georgetown, and redevelopment of Capital Plaza in Austin.

La Frontera is a project along the lines of Austin's Arboretum or a smaller-scale version of Dallas' Las Colinas, says Dan Listrom, president of First Regional Properties, listing agent for the project. Its position at the junction of three major roadways -- I-35, the proposed MoPac extension and the planned State Highway 45 -- make it particularly attractive.

"This project has the potential to be to Round Rock what Highland Mall, Westgate Mall and Brodie Oaks were to Austin in their time," Listrom says.

A 60- to 90-acre retail development is expected to be the first part of the project off the ground. That first phase could feature six or seven "anchor-type" stores -- large, national chain stores with steady incomes, such as a Barnes & Noble Booksellers or Circuit City.

Several restaurants and a movie theater with between 17 and 24 screens are also possible tenants for the site, says Dave Berndt, a Dallas-area investor with an interest in the first phase of retail development.

He could not specify which retailers had expressed interest in the site.

The property will be bisected by SH 45, a planned connector between U.S. 183 and the future SH 130 projected to run east of I-35. Texas Turnpike Authority officials are still determining where exits for SH 45 will be located, but developers hope easy access to La Frontera will be considered.

La Frontera may also be connected with Dell Computer Corp.'s campus on the east side of the highway by way of an improved and realigned overpass at Hesters Crossing, three-quarters of a mile north of FM 1325. The road could help move traffic between the Home Depot/Wal-Mart developments on the northeast corner of the intersection and La Frontera.

Round Rock City Manager Bob Bennett says the extension of Dell Center Boulevard to Hesters Crossing is just one of many projects the Round Rock City Council may consider funding with proceeds of a half-cent sales tax imposed last year.

"We want to address needs in the interchanges with the interstate, primarily with turn-around bridges, but it's premature to say which projects will happen when," Bennett says. "We still need to talk to residents near the projects before we do anything."

None of the projects have come before the City Council for review, he says. Unlike some developments on the east side of the I-35/FM 1325 intersection, La Frontera will be a master-planned development with significant architectural and planning guidelines. Signs will be consistent from business to business and landscaped setbacks will also be considered.

"There will be a high level of quality presentation from the highway," Listrom says. A development the size of La Frontera will take four to seven years to build out, he says.

"This project is still in something like the first five minutes of its life," Listrom says. "It has moved very quickly in just the first few months."