Developers of The Forum team up for Hutto project
San Antonio Business Journal - by Tricia Lynn Silva - Friday, October 26, 2007
Two firms that helped create a mammoth retail development on the far Northeast Side have come together on a new project.
Known as The Crossings of Carmel Creek, the project will span 466 acres of land on both sides of Toll Road 130, south of Highway 79 in the city of Hutto. The project is being developed by Jacksonville, Fla.-based Atlantic Coast Developers LLC.
Tom Sineni, Guyla Sineni and Vicki Adelstein of United Commercial Realty (UCR) of San Antonio will market The Crossings.
At build-out, The Crossings could include upwards of 6 million square feet of space, according to Tom Sineni, president and principal of UCR. It will bring several uses under one master-planned project -- including up to 900 hotel rooms, over 1.5 million square feet of retail space and up to 2,000 multifamily units. The project also has the potential to accommodate up to 1 million square feet of office space.
The Crossings marks the latest venture between Sineni and Atlanta Coast President Bill Sulzbacher -- who was previously an executive with Baita Development out of Atlanta. In 1999, Baita and New York-based Kimco Realty Corp. entered into a partnership with Sineni and fellow UCR Principal Mike Gribble to develop The Forum at Olympia Parkway -- a 1.2-million-square-foot retail center that is located in the cities of Live Oak and Selma, just northeast of San Antonio. Today, The Forum is home to retailers such as Target, Home Depot, Best Buy and Kohl’s. UCR oversees leasing for the center.
The Crossings should prove a financial windfall for Hutto -- which now ranks as the fastest-growing city in Texas, Sineni says.
“Small, rapidly growing cities have major financial problems keeping up with growth,” he continues. “The way for cities to keep up is through economic development -- especially through the growth of retail. (Retail development) employs people, pays property taxes -- usually higher than office or industrial, as the properties are more expensive -- and collects sales taxes as well.