Construction kicks off soon on Plano’s $1 billion Collin Creek redevelopment

The $1 billion redevelopment plan for Plano’s Collin Creek Mall is getting ready to shift into high gear.

Razing of most of the 37-year-old regional shopping center will be completed in the next few months as developers start rebuilding the massive mixed-use project that will take Collin Creek’s place. The huge shopping center on U.S. Highway 75 closed its doors two years ago.

“We are starting demolishing the J.C. Penney and Dillard’s stores in about two weeks,” said developer Mehrdad Moayedi.

His Centurion American Development Group bought most of the 1.1 million square-foot shopping mall in 2018. In November of last year, he bought the final big piece — J.C. Penney’s department store, which sold out of the retailer’s bankruptcy.

“Penney and Dillard’s are the last two buildings we have to demolish,” he said. “It will take us about 90 days.

“We are now recycling all the parking lots — grinding it up and putting it into piles.”

Starting this summer, construction will begin on the new infrastructure to support all the buildings planned at Collin Creek.

“Hopefully by June we should start our parking garage,” Moayedi said. “We have 4,800 parking spaces under ground.”

Moayedi said his development team is already in talks with retailers and restaurants that will occupy new buildings at Collin Creek. “I have got 30 different retailers that are interested in going back in,” he said. “We are actually encouraged about the activity we are getting with retail coming back.

“We are getting the stores that we want,” Moayedi said. “There are 10 restaurants going in.”

Residential developers are also lining up to build apartments and townhomes on the Collin Creek site, which is on the west side of U.S. 75 at 15th Street.

“I have one builder — one of the largest multifamily builders in the U.S. — that wants to partner with us,” Moayedi said. “They’ve drawn up plans on two 400-unit apartment buildings.

“That’s 800 units they are starting immediately.”

And builders are drawing up plans for townhouse communities planned on the west side of the mall site. “We’ve going under contract on all 500 units of our townhome building sites with four builders,” Moayedi said. “They are going to be nice-looking townhomes with $500,000 as an average price.”

A large public park area will be a centerpiece of the development.

But Centurion American has ditched plans for a lagoon water feature. “It just didn’t work for us,” Moayedi said.

The entire Collin Creek project is a public-private venture between Centurion American and the city of Plano, which is spending millions of dollars on infrastructure upgrades for the property, which is just west of downtown Plano.

“All the new utilities and streets start in July,” Moayedi said. “It’s going to take a while to build. It’s not going to happen overnight.”

But by the end of 2022, the first new dining and shopping venues should be ready to open, he said.

“We are 18 months away from serving food and having a bunch of construction nearing completion.”