Dallas Cowboys’ owner Jerry Jones is growing his real estate empire with a major project south of Dallas.
The Jones family’s Blue Star Land has quietly purchased more than 120 acres on Interstate 35E in Waxahachie. Blue Star and Dallas developer Lincoln Property — the same team that built the Dallas Cowboys’ $1.5 billion Star in Frisco project — are planning to build on the high-traffic Ellis County corner.
Real estate broker Rex Glendenning, who handled the Blue Star property buys, said the land was purchased for “a mixed-use project consisting of urban residential, industrial and e-commerce, as well as some retail and commercial.
“Plans are for Blue Star to develop the industrial portion of the property with Lincoln handling the marketing and leasing for the industrial,” Glendenning said.
The development site is at the last vacant corner of I-35E and U.S. Highway 287 and is across the street from the Waxahachie Civic Center and Baylor Scott & White Medical Center.
Glendenning’s Rex Real Estate plans to market building sites in the project for apartments, retail and commercial construction.
Blue Star Land general manager Joe Hickman “will spearhead the overall development and infrastructure and feels strongly that this will be a perfect match to compliment the other industrial and mixed-use projects that Blue Star has underway in both the Frisco and Prosper area,” Glendenning said.
Lincoln Property and Blue Star already are working on plans for industrial buildings that will be developed at the 71-acre core of the sprawling project, he said.
More than 14 acres at the south end of the project are reserved for apartment construction.
The retail buildings will face the highway frontage roads.
The developers have already received zoning approvals for the project, which is about 30 miles south of downtown Dallas.
“I have been doing business with the Jones family for over 25 years, and I believe this is my first deal with them south of downtown,” Glendenning said. His Rex Real Estate negotiated the land purchases with Jim Whitten of Whitten Commercial.
Jim Knight of KFM Engineering oversaw the project engineering and planning approvals.
While the Jones family is most often recognized for its professional football team, the Dallas Cowboys owners’ company is also one of the most active real estate developers in North Texas.
Along with the 91-acre Star mixed-use project in Frisco, Blue Star Land is building an even bigger multi-use development on U.S. Highway 380 in Prosper. The huge Gates of Prosper development has more than 800,000 square feet of retail space on two corners with Preston Road and room for additional construction.
Blue Star Land is also building the 200-acre Star Business Park on Preston Road in Frisco. The real estate firm just filed plans for two more industrial buildings there.
And in Irving’s Las Colinas community, Blue Star and Lincoln Property are building a 36-acre mixed-use project that includes apartments and retail in its first phases. A luxury hotel and office buildings are also planned in the Star Park development on State Highway 114.
