Verizon is seeking approval from the City of Irving to build a 157-acre corporate mixed-use project near it's current campus.
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Verizon is seeking approval from the city of Irving to build a 157-acre corporate mixed-use project near its current campus.Telecommunications giant Verizon is working on plans for a huge corporate development in Las Colinas that would house thousands of workers and residents.
Verizon is in talks to build new office campus in Irving. Developer KDC starts next phase of Richardson's CityLine project
The complex – with 3.5 million square feet of offices, housing, 85,000 square feet of retail and a 150-room hotel – would be one of the largest such projects ever built in Irving. Plans for the 157-acre campus also include a new commuter rail station that would connect with Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and downtown Dallas.
“The vision is a corporate office campus, surrounding a vibrant, mixed-use village extending from a new DART rail station,” Verizon spokesman Eric Wilkens said in an email. “Verizon will be the master developer for the project and will partner with local developers on individual elements
The development near State Highway 114 includes a hotel, retail and apartments. “Verizon is partnering with KDC and in discussions with several corporate tenants.”
KDC and Verizon are pitching the project to other companies that need office space. About 1,000 additional Verizon employees could also be moved to the company’s campus just west of State Highway 114, according to documents filed with the city of Irving.
Verizon has been planning the project for months, working with city officials and developers. Some of the land for the development was part of the Carpenter family’s original ranch, which was used to kick off the Las Colinas development more than 40 years ago. The Carpenters sold the property in 1997 to Verizon’s predecessor, GTE Telephone.
Irving’s Planning & Zoning Commission will vote on designs for the development on Dec. 7 and send it on to the City Council for final approval. Council member John Danish said he wasn’t surprised by the project, given the recent completion of a light-rail line connecting Dallas, Las Colinas and the international airport.
“I envision a tidal wave of development sweeping down that corridor from D-FW Airport through the urban center,” Danish said. “Many of these corporations want to see access to mass transit for some reason.” Dallas developer KDC – the company building Toyota’s new Plano headquarters and the developer of State Farm Insurance’s huge Richardson campus – has been working with Verizon for months. KDC officials declined to talk about the development.
Designed by architect Gensler, the development will contain about a dozen office buildings. The development is also laid out with 1,750 urban residential units in high-rise buildings, apartment blocks and townhomes. The “lifestyle” center will include a large park and access to the planned DART rail station on Meadow Creek Drive, plans Verizon filed with the city of Irving show.
Construction on the first office buildings would start in the second half of 2016, according to the development application. The first office buildings would be ready by the end of 2018. Verizon has several thousand workers at its existing campus on Hidden Ridge west of State Highway 114. Built in the early 1990s, the buildings contain more than 1 million square feet.
The telecom firm is planning “a major reinvestment and renovation” of the existing buildings, Verizon told Irving city planners. The new Las Colinas development could allow Verizon to consolidate North Texas workers from several locations. Verizon recently sold its four-building office campus in Richardson to an Austin investor. The company has to move several hundred employees now in that complex near North Central Expressway by early next year.
Verizon’s Las Colinas project would be the largest new corporate campus built in Irving in almost 10 years. In 2006, Citigroup constructed its 625,000-square-foot office complex south of LBJ Freeway in Las Colinas. Unlike the Citigroup project, Verizon’s development includes a mix of commercial and residential construction – something businesses increasingly demand to retain and attract new workers.
Architect Gensler is also designing the Dallas Cowboys’ huge headquarters and mixed-use project in Frisco and designed Exxon Mobil’s new 10,000-employee campus in Houston.