NewQuest Properties has acquired a prime commercial site to develop a second Asian "foodie destination" in North Texas. Ground will break in October on Frisco Ranch.

The 110,000-sf specialty retail center will be situated on nine acres just northeast of the Preston Road-Warren Parkway intersection in the city of Frisco. The site has been acquired through direct negotiations between the seller, Lebanon Joint Venture, and Houston-based NewQuest Properties, which was represented by Heather Nguyen, development partner, and John Nguyen, associate.

Three anchor tenants are in hand: 99 Ranch Market, which has preleased 44,875 sf; Daiso Japan, 10,000 sf; and 85°C Bakery Cafe, 3,000 sf. The trio also anchors NewQuest's Carrollton Town Center, the prototype for the eclectic retail and dining experience. Designed by Callaway Architecture of Dallas, Frisco Ranch will deliver in summer 2017.

"Frisco Ranch is going to be as special, if not more so, than Carrollton. We are always trying to improve upon a new concept," says Heather Nguyen, who is zeroing in on markets with growing Asian populations in North and South Texas to develop centers with top-of-the-line brands from their homelands.

As of Jan. 1, Asian nationalities accounted for 11.4% of Frisco's 152,710 residents, predominately Millennials with growing families. The median age is 36 yet one-third of the city's total population is 17 years old or younger. In Frisco Independent School District, 20.9% of the student population is of Asian descent.

"We were so excited when this opportunity came to us to bring something to Frisco that we really don't have right now," says James L. Gandy, president of Frisco Economic Development Corp. "Attraction and development of retail has been a primary goal of the EDC and city for 25 years."

Frisco boasts nearly 10.3 million sf of retail and restaurants in its 68.2 square miles. "More than

five million visitors come here annually. The number one reason people visit Frisco is to go shopping and a majority of those are people coming from Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma and throughout Texas," Gandy says. "NewQuest's Frisco Ranch will be positioned within the heart of Frisco's greatest concentration of retail."

Located in North Texas' Golden Corridor, the development site is close to the 1.6-million-sf Stonebriar Centre Mall in the 720-acre Frisco Bridges as well as some of the largest residential developments in the city. The immediate area boasts 4.5 million sf of retail and restaurants.

"Frisco Ranch will create the trade area's first destination of authentic cuisines and shops from South and East Asia. We will be bringing many of the same tenants we have in Carrollton and others that will be brand-new to Texas," Nguyen says. "All are well-known globally and are becoming exceedingly popular with U.S. consumers in cities in which they are located."

Frisco Ranch has been at the talking stage at least one year. "NewQuest never relented and never gave up. You have to admire their persistence," Gandy says.

Frisco city officials were as keen as NewQuest on making the project a reality. Mayor Maher Maso and Frisco EDC executive Harry Whalen carved out time to personally court the anchor tenants as part of a business attraction trip to California in June.

The site's strong appeal is a three-mile trade area that's had a 19.47% spike in population since 2010. The five-mile trade area currently boasts 266,406 residents with an average annual household income of $123,961.

Frisco Ranch will be the third store in Dallas for 99 Ranch Market, a California-based Asian supermarket chain, and Daiso Japan, a home goods retailer with unparalleled appeal throughout Asia, and second for 85°C Bakery Cafe, a bakery and coffee concept from Taiwan.

The NewQuest site fronting Preston Road is located about one mile east of Frisco's "$5 Billion Mile" corridor, a one-mile stretch along the Dallas North Tollway between Warren Parkway north to Lebanon Road. The built or planned mixed-use projects are expected to spawn nearly 43,000 jobs and represent $5.4 billion of investment, including the Dallas Cowboys' Star, a $1.5 billion under-construction development anchored by the NFL team's corporate headquarters, training field, event center, hotels and 12,000-seat multi-use indoor stadium.