Plano’s $2 billion Legacy West project gets another player with office tower plans

Another major player is joining the $2 billion Legacy West development in Plano.

That’s the 240-acre project on the Dallas North Tollway where Toyota Motor Co. is building its new North American headquarters.

Now a major Dallas office investor – Gaedeke Group LLC – has purchased 11 acres just east of the Toyota campus where it plans to build a high-rise office project.

The development site Gaedeke bought is at the southeast corner of State Highway 121 and Legacy Drive – across the street from the Toyota campus and next door to FedEx Office’s new office complex.

“Currently we are finalizing plans for a Class AA multi-tenant office project which we are working to deliver at the end of 2016,” Sabine Gaedeke Stener, CEO of the Dallas-based investment group, said in a statement. “We are excited to be part of the dynamic Legacy West project and next door to such prestigious companies.”

Real estate brokers say that Gaedeke is planning a 15-story office tower with about 300,000 square feet to kick off its Legacy West project. Dallas architect Morrison Dilworth + Walls is designing the project.

Terms of the purchase of the Plano office building site were not disclosed. Glenn S. Lickstein of Gaedeke negotiated the purchase with Jim Judge of Wicker & Associates.

Gaedeke’s investment is just the latest big move at Legacy West, which is being jointly developed by Karahan Cos., Columbus Realty and KDC. J.C. Penney is selling the land, which surrounds the company’s corporate headquarters.

Just last week Karahan and Columbus broke ground on their $300 million Legacy West urban village which will contain hundreds of apartments, a shopping center and office space. There’s also an $80 million Renaissance Hotel planned in the mixed-use project.

Liberty Mutual Insurance, the Boston-based insurance company, is in talks with KDC about building a 2-tower office center at Legacy West that could house more than 4,000 workers.

Combined with Toyota and FedEx Office, the companies would employ almost 10,000 workers on the property.

Gaedeke group’s Legacy West project would be the first office development the company had done in North Texas. The investor owns seven office buildings here, including the Millennium Tower in Addison and One McKinney Plaza in Uptown.

Gaedeke also has properties in Arizona, Florida, Tennessee and the District of Columbia.