Plano's Massive Legacy West Under Development
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PLANO (CBSDFW.COM) - Plano is building a city within a city near the intersection of Dallas North Tollway and the Sam Rayburn Tollway. The massive Legacy West development will be home to Toyota, Liberty Mutual, and other large corporations, and it's all starting to take shape for anyone who drives by the area to see.
What you can see directly next to the tollway is Legacy West's Urban Village mixed-use retail center quickly growing. The developer tells us it's about forty percent complete, and it's a big reason why the 250 acres are drawing so much interest from corporate America.
As developer Fehmi Karahan looks up from the center of Legacy West's construction site, he flashes forward to next year.
"What I really see excites me. I can visualize what it's going to look like," Karahan said.
In his offices at the neighboring Shops At Legacy he showed CBS11 what it will eventually all look like. He recently added an additional nine acres he bought from J.C. Penney, so that incoming J.P. Morgan Chase could build a special retail bank to go along with its new regional headquarters. He said once companies are sold on the region, they're drawn to his site because of the quality of life he can offer.
"They want their employees to have the best amenities, best shopping experience, best dining experience," Karahan said.
The site will have a pedestrian walkway linking it to the Shops At Legacy across the Dallas North Tollway. Neighboring businesses are looking forward to the spike in activity.
"It will double our business, and it is good for us," said Ali Baba, who works as a server at Main Street Bread on Bishop Road.
"I think it's going to be great because it's a different business, so it can bring more customers for both sides," added Cristiane Davis, who owns the nearby boutique, Firefly Trend.
Karahan predicts more than 30,000 people will live and work within the Legacy West development.
"People are going to look at it, are going to say, wow, my God, is this real?" Karahan said.
While much of the space is spoken for, Karahan still has about 20 acres he's using for his construction staging area, and he says he expects we'll soon be hearing about another major corporation moving into that space.
Legacy West is on schedule to finish the build by August or September. The grand opening is set for March, 2017.
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