Redevelopment would turn the lagging shopping mall into a $1 billion mixed-use project.
By Steve Brown – January 24, 2019
Developers who plan to redo Plano’s failing Collin Creek mall are giving residents a first look at those plans.
In December, Centurion American Development bought the 37-year-old shopping center on U.S. Highway 75 with plans to tear down part of the mall and build a $1 billion mixed-use development.
Representatives for the developer met Thursday with hundreds of nearby residents and other interested parties to show them preliminary plans for the project.
“We have some visions we are going to show them,” Centurion American CEO Mehrdad Moayedi said before the meeting. “It’s going to be a dense project.
“We think we are doing the right thing. This mall has been sitting there not doing anything.”
Centurion American Development plans to work with Plano residents and city planners to refine a redevelopment plan for the more than 1 million-square-foot retail project.
Part of the proposal includes adding thousands of residential units — from single-family homes to townhouses and apartments.
“To make the retail and restaurants we have planned work, we need the residents there,” Moayedi said.
Centurion American’s redevelopment plan includes more than 500 townhomes and houses and over 3,000 apartments.
“We are going to have about 450,000 square feet of restaurants and shops,” Moayedi said. “We are going to have a food hall, and we are going to have a movie theater.”
There will also be more than 1 million square feet of office space.
“There will be 9.5 acres of parks,” he said. “We are parking everything underground. The area will feel open with a lot of pedestrian movement.”
Moayedi said he plans to take a rezoning proposal to Plano’s planning and zoning commission in the next few months.
The company invited several hundred people to its briefing, held at the mall.
“I have gotten a lot of calls from people that used to come to the mall and are interested in what we are doing,” Moayedi said.
Built in 1981, Collin Creek mall lost business in recent decades, with newer shopping centers and rising digital retail volumes.
Several redevelopment proposals for the high-profile Plano property were floated before Centurion American purchased the mall. The developer has a track record of doing big North Texas real estate deals.
Centurion American spent more than $250 million to buy and convert downtown Dallas’ vacant Statler Hotel into apartments, retail space and hotel rooms, and it’s renovating the landmark Cabana Hotel near downtown. Centurion American is also a major builder of suburban residential communities.
