Gateway development brings big retail, makes room for more

Gateway development brings big retail, makes room for more

Written by Mark Collins Thursday, 07 February 2008

Gateway at Leander is a $45 million project including more than 360,000 sq. ft. of commercial real estate. The centerpiece is Lowe’s Home Improvement slated to open in March.

Other businesses in Gateway include Kohl’s department store, International Bank of Commerce, Taco Bell and McDonald’s. The remaining space is designed for a major electronic store, pet store, restaurant with outdoor seating and another bank.

The mastermind of the project is Development 2000’s Jerry Reed, who has 30 years of real estate experience.

The property

Reed became familiar with Williamson County while working on several projects in Cedar Park, including Threadgill’s.

“We saw an area with phenomenal growth and knew there had to be more opportunities out there,” Reed said.

Reed settled on the 20-acre tract on the northwest corner of US 183 and Crystal Falls Parkway. However, Reed’s vision for a Lowe’s shopping center called for more land, a move that would require Development 2000 to acquire the 40 individually owned mobile homes adjacent to the property.

Development 2000 offered between $70,000 and $90,000 for homes valued at approximately $15,000 each, Reed said.

“For a lot of people, it helped them move into a nicer house with a big down payment,” he said.

Next steps

Development 2000 next resolved an issue with a 100-year floodplain that regularly resulted in standing water on the property. Such an area is designated by FEMA as having a better than 1 percent chance of being flooded in any given year.

“Nobody was going to build anything on that property until that could be taken care of,” Reed said.

Austin engineering firm, PBS&J, designed a drainage system that re-routed water under US 183, past CR 272 and into a detention pond. The design cleared the way for Gateway and re-routed water away from the northeast corner of US 183 and Crystal Falls Parkway, creating more viable property for future development.

Because of that, the city agreed to grant Development 2000 a conditional sales tax rebate. The developer will receive one-half cent for each dollar spent at Gateway for ten years with a maximum of $3 million.

“It was too large of an improvement to do without the rebate; it was necessary to get the confidence of the bankers,” Reed said.

Zoning

Development 2000 was created as a Planned Unit Development. PUDs have become popular because they allow developers to put varied, compatible land uses on one site. The advantage for the city is the ability to raise site and architectural standards to ensure the development is compatible with surroundings.

For Gateway to be compatible with nearby residents, potential noise and traffic issues were addressed. Glass Drive, on the west side of the development, will not provide access to the stores. Sheila Drive to the north will be expanded to three lanes with a dedicated turn lane. Both roads will receive sidewalk upgrades said director of public works Wayne Watts.

To manage sound, stores were built with 30 to 150 feet of buffer zone, which is above average, said David Hutton, senior planner. A wooden fence will also be constructed along the eastern border to help muffle sound.

The product

“It has been an enormous undertaking. We’ve never done anything this large with as many moving parts as this project had,” Reed said.

When Lowe’s opens its doors in March, it will be the second time in a year Leander has welcomed a major retailer and employer, the first being H-E-B Plus! last spring. Gateway will generate approximately 220 new jobs.

“That’s going to put more people in restaurants at lunch time and provide a demand for other businesses,” said Mary Bradshaw, Leander Chamber of Commerce president. “That is money that’s going to be churning within the City of Leander, so that’s wonderful for our tax base.”

• International Bank of Commerce, 4,700 sq. ft., Broke ground in January, will open third quarter 2008
• Lowe's Home Improvement, 170,393 sq. ft., Opening March 25, Apply online at www.lowes.com/careers
• Taco Bell, Opening third quarter 2008
• McDonald’s, Opening third quarter 2008
• Kohl's 89,911 sq. ft.., Opening third quarter 2008

Rerouted water

A 100-year flood plain is designated by FEMA as an area that has a one in one hundred chance of flooding in any given year. Gateway 2000’s Jerry Reed cited the floodplain on Crystal Falls Parkway as the reason the land had not been developed.

Before: Water often collected on the site of Gateway at Leander.

After:

Austin engineering firm PBS&J designed a drainage system that re-routed water under US 183, past CR 272 and into a detention pond.

The $4.5 million solution involves drainage ditches along Glass Drive, culverts and piping running underneath US 183 and Crystal Falls Parkway and the expansion of the Horizon Park detention pond to handle the added capacity.

The project also makes the northeast corner of US 183 and Crystal Falls Parkway a more viable location for development.