East Texas Buyer Scoops up Shops at Legacy North in Plano

Retail investment in Dallas-Fort Worth is closing the year on a strong note, with an East Texas buyer snapping up one of Plano’s better-known mixed-use centers.

CTO Realty Growth said that it sold the Shops at Legacy North for $78 million, or roughly $321 per square foot. The buyer wasn’t named in the release, but Collin County land records show the property was acquired by ACH Legacy North Texas, an entity affiliated with Beaumont-based commercial real estate firm Albanese Cormier Holdings, the Dallas Business Journal reported. The deal closed on Friday.

The 243,000-square-foot property at 7300 Dallas Parkway was completed in 2007 as part of the broader Legacy Town Center area. It’s about 85 percent leased and home to 31 tenants, according to the center’s website. Tenants include Capital Grille, Benihana, Mexican Sugar and Mic Drop Comedy. The mix skews heavily toward dining and entertainment.

Shops at Legacy North traces its roots to the original Shops at Legacy, master-developed by The Karahan Companies under Fehmi Karahan. That project became an early model for building an urban-style, walkable district within an office park setting, helping Plano transform the Legacy corridor into one of North Texas’ most durable mixed-use nodes, according to the outlet.

For CTO, the timing of the sale was no accident. The Winter Park, Florida-based real estate investment trust bought the property in 2021 and has spent the past two years backfilling space left behind by WeWork. At the end of the third quarter, the company signed a 30,000-square-foot lease with a co-working operator slated to open by the end of 2026. That followed a 20,000-square-foot deal last year for a members-only social club, according to comments by CEO John Albright on a recent earnings call, according to the outlet.

Those leases helped stabilize the center and set it up for disposition. CTO said proceeds from the Plano sale will be redeployed into other investments, including its Dec. 15 acquisition of Pompano Citi Centre, a 571,000-square-foot retail property in Florida.

After unloading Shops at Legacy North, CTO’s only remaining Dallas-Fort Worth holding is the Plaza at Rockwall, which it bought in 2023. Including the Plano deal, the company has sold $85.1 million in real estate this year at a weighted average exit cash cap rate in the mid-5 percent range, the outlet reported.

— Eric Weilbacher