A 40-year-old office park near LBJ Freeway is being planned for a makeover as a mixed-use development.
The Centre office park on Midway Road in Farmers Branch was built starting in the late 1970s. The 50-acre development includes 11 office buildings constructed around a small lake.
Since 2014, The Centre has been owned by Houston-based investor Boxer Property, which has been making upgrades to the more than 800,000-square-foot business park. But Boxer Property has even bigger plans, including tearing down three of the office buildings that surround the lake and replacing them with apartments and retail.
Boxer has been working with Farmers Branch officials to plan the redevelopment.
"We are working with a developer to put small buildings around the lake with luxury apartments and retail," said Boxer CEO Andrew Segal. "I want to see a walkable mixed-use neighborhood where there was only an office park before."
The plan is for 193 rental townhomes, 70 apartments and first-floor retail in the 3-story and 4-story buildings that would surround the small lake.
That lake was originally an old quarry, which developers used as the centerpiece of the office park. Back then, the area just north of LBJ Freeway was largely undeveloped.
Called Midway Urban Village, the new project on McEwen Road is planned by Leeds Real Estate, according to filings with the city of Farmers Branch.
The suburban office park is one of several existing developments where owners are looking to add new residential and retail space as businesses migrate to mixed-use locations.
