Developers won city planning approval to add almost 800 apartments to the 110-acre redevelopment of J.C. Penney's old corporate campus in Plano.
The city plan commission voted to give property owner Silos Harvesting Partners the OK to build mid-rise residential units on a small portion of the property at Legacy and Headquarters drives.
As part of the deal, which still must get the Plano City Council's approval, the property owners must set aside almost 14 acres of open space in the project.
Silos Harvesting Partners, headed by developer Sam Ware, bought the Penney property in 2016 and has been working to transform it into a mixed-use project called the Campus at Legacy West.
Along with converting the more than 1 million-square-foot Penney headquarters into offices for multiple tenants, the developers want to add other new uses, including a hotel, retail and restaurant space, more offices and residential.
The developers originally had planned to build over 1,500 apartments but have downsized their plans to one small area at the north end of the property on Headquarters Drive.
"We believe there is a strong demand for multifamily residential," said their representative, William Dahlstrom of law firm Jackson Walker. "We think this a request that would energize the area."
The developers also intend to build a boardwalk with restaurant and retail space surrounding the existing pond on the campus near Legacy Drive.
The retail center would adjoin a high-rise hotel planned by Japan-based Kintetsu Enterprises Co. of America. The retail would serve the new apartments, hotel and existing office space, which is 80% leased.
Trammell Crow Residential of Dallas and Austin's Kairoi Residential would build the apartments, which would be a minimum of five stories tall.
Several nearby property owners have opposed the plan to add residential to the former Penney campus, and not all of Plano's plan commissioners were on board with the idea.
"This is changing this keystone area of Legacy business park to something it was never intended to be," said commissioner Nathan Barbera.
But the majority of the commission members voted for the apartment community. "The demand for residential is off the charts in this area," David Downs said.
Apartments have been a hot-button topic for residents in Plano, Frisco and other Dallas-area suburbs. Major employers say that to attract workers, they need residential, entertainment and retail space — not just offices.
More than 55,000 people work in the Legacy business park, making it one of the largest employment centers in Texas.
