Trademark Property Co.’s recent acquisition of Lincoln Square has paved the way for the redevelopment of a key asset in Arlington.
Lincoln Square, which Trademark Property Co. has been circling for years and has underwritten several times, totals more than 472,000 square feet of retail space, in addition to a power center that tops 107,000 square feet, spanning across more than 45 acres a few blocks to the northwest of Arlington’s Entertainment District. According to an Arlington staff report, Trademark’s vision for Lincoln Square is a vibrant, high-quality mixed-use environment that includes a mix of office, multi-family and upgraded retail.
ShopCore Properties, an affiliate of New York heavyweight Blackstone Inc., was the former owner of the property. Over the last few years, Trademark was in discussions with the firm about potentially doing a joint venture on a development or making an off-market purchase.
Trademark knew that ShopCore was going to sell and followed the property closely, said Terry Montesi, founder and CEO of Trademark.
“We ended up talking to the city, and they made it clear that they would really like it if we were the ultimate steward,” he said. “So we started talking with them about what a public-private partnership might look like.”
The Arlington City Council approved grants for the acquisition to the tune of $14.225 million. Up to $9 million in grants for acquisition must be repaid if Trademark hasn’t invested $150 million in the redevelopment within six years.
Arlington City Manager Trey Yelverton was heavily involved, Montesi said, and the group met with Mayor Jim Ross. The city was invested in seeing the property redeveloped due to its location at the southwest corner of I-30 and North Collins Street.
“They were literally the most responsive, savviest, most can-do government entity I’ve ever worked with,” he said. “You can see why so many world class entertainment assets have been concentrated in Arlington.”
The redevelopment is still early in the process for any definitive statements on what the project will look like by the time the dust clears. The forthcoming development potentially could include multifamily, a hotel and Class A office space. It is expected to continue to contain significant retail, though likely less than what’s on the ground today.
What eventually goes in the ground is subject to community and city feedback, as well as market conditions. As of now, design will likely take most of 2023, and groundbreaking could occur in 2024.
“One thing I know is it will evolve into something better than what it is today,” Montesi said. “That I can guarantee.”
The lending partner on the project was Veritex Community Bank, while all equity is internal.
Montesi spoke with the Dallas Business Journal about how the project came together and how the city of Arlington is becoming a force to be reckoned with.
Tell me about how the public-private partnership came together.
This is a really high-profile piece of real estate to (the city). They consider that corner to be the gateway to Arlington. It is one of the major front doors to their multi-billion dollar Entertainment District. So they have an interest in upgrading, densifying and developing that entire corner.
They own some land directly across the freeway from Lincoln Square, and they have high expectations for what happens on that land over the next few years. They’ve been talking to the seller and the brokers, one of whom lives in Arlington and is very close to folks at the city. … There was a lot of interest in trying to see if it couldn’t end up with a high-quality local steward. We were introduced to them and they thought we’d be the right people. It ended up working out.
What about north Arlington made this property so appealing?
We’ve had our eyes on north Arlington for quite a long time. It feels like the time is right. There are several reasons. The area within three miles has really been changing, from the growth around UTA and the new downtown to the south. To the north, Viridian has been very, very successful and has added a dimension of really nice houses and affluent households.
Recently, there has been very high-quality, high-rent new multifamily and for-rent product. There are several new projects across I-30 from us on Lamar Boulevard – new multifamily projects that have been very successful and could set a new high bar for multifamily rents in the area. The demographics of the renters have been very impressive, well above average for Dallas-Fort Worth.
The Provident (Realty Advisors) project on the old Rolling Hills golf course is a block away across Interstate 30.
Then, all of the activity that today drives (millions of) visitors to the Entertainment District. The new quarter-billion dollar Medal of Honor Museum is going up, as well as a new nearly 900-room convention hotel and convention center. There are new luxury apartments going on there too.
The whole neighborhood, if you will, has been elevated to a place where it seems like a better retail and mixed-use place is needed. There’s been some successful retail built across the interstate. It’s full and the tenants are doing well. There are a lot of positive things that have been happening over the last few years in and around the area.
Aside from surrounding projects, did anything else stand out to you about north Arlington?
What we’ve found is that the demographics on paper aren’t great if you draw a three-mile ring. When you analyze the trade area, it’s a little better. But, when you analyze and add in the visitor, it gets a lot better. When you look at the new homes and multifamily and what Provident is going to do with Rolling Hills, you can speed forward two or three years from now and see (even more visitors to the Entertainment District) and the demographics improving.
The fact that this is halfway between downtown Dallas and downtown Fort Worth… it is, within 17 minutes, accessible to an enormous population, both daytime and nighttime population. It seems to be a very interesting opportunity for before and after events and for the meet in the middle (crowd).
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
A previous version of this story incorrectly stated the grant amount approved by Arlington City Council.
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