$52 million mixed-use project slated for Irving Heritage District

Project will be Arizona-based Lafferty Companies’ first in Texas

Lafferty Companies' Michael Lafferty and Irving Heritage District (Lafferty Companies, Defer Gain LLC)
Lafferty Companies' Michael Lafferty and Irving Heritage District (Lafferty Companies, Defer Gain LLC)

Phoenix-based developer Lafferty Companies is slated to finally complete a deal for a $52 million mixed-use project in Irving.

The company has been in talks with Irving city officials since 2016 for a project in the Irving Heritage District. Construction is expected to begin in January 2023, according to the Dallas Business Journal.

Michael Lafferty, president of Lafferty Companies, told the Dallas Business Journal that this will be the company’s first major project in Texas, which has seen a rapid influx of investment in recent months, particularly around major metros like Dallas and Houston.

The $52 million project will come in two parts. Phase one will be a $40 million, 194-unit mixed use development next to the DART Trinity Rail Express station. Phase two will be a $12 million, 12,000-square-foot retail center with 18 loft apartments in the upper floors.

Read more

The construction site was first acquired by the city in 2006 and used locally as a lumberyard for the former Irving Lumber Company before being sold to Lafftery Companies in April of this year. Both a development agreement and an economic incentive package were part of the negotiations, according to the publication, but details were not disclosed.

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

The Irving Heritage District is a downtown revitalization project that has attracted more than $109 million in public and private investments since 2015, according to the journal, which includes expanded parks, infrastructure upgrades, and improvements to make the downtown area more pedestrian friendly.

As an inner-ring suburb of Dallas, Irving is bound on all sides by other built-up areas, putting a premium on remaining development sites.

“The city of Irving is landlocked, so they only have so much land left, which is dwindling,” Lafferty said. “It’s been a real opportunity.”

Laffterty says he expects The Heritage Square apartment project to create roughly 150 jobs during the construction phase and roughly 50 permanent jobs upon completion, and more than 300 people will live there once all is said and done.

[Dallas Business Journal] — James Bell