Development Plans For Last Coveted Piece Of Collin County Property
COLLIN COUNTY (CBSDFW.COM) - A particular piece of land is considered one of the last coveted undeveloped properties in Collin County -- now a Dallas lawyer is about to change that.
Attorney Don Godwin gave CBS 11 News an exclusive look at the big plans for Highway 380 and the Dallas North Tollway.
The acres of land are among the last remnants of the rural landscape along the border of Frisco and Prosper. It's an area Jerry Bryant has called home for 50 years.
"We moved here in 1954," the Prosper resident explained. "The population was only 300 when we moved here."
As it stands, there is nothing but weeds at the intersection of Highway 380 and the Dallas North Tollway, but Godwin sees a thriving city waiting to be built.
When asked what gave him the idea for the project Godwin said, "I've been buying land since 1979."
The real estate owner, who has been a Dallas trial lawyer for 40 years, plans to turn nearly 400 acres into retail stores, restaurants and residences.
"I believe it's going to be one of the major areas of development in the next couple of years," he said.
Godwin is possibly the largest individual landowner in the county -- with deeds on some 7,000 acres. But none of the properties are as valuable as those that he purchased decades ago.
As the Dallas North Tollway crept north locations like Galleria Dallas and Stonebriar Centre Mall soon followed along the LBJ Freeway and Highway 121 respectively.
You might expect early settlers in Prosper, like Bryant, to denounce the planned development but that's not the case. "I kind of like the excitement," he said.
While there may not be a lot of people living in Prosper now, Godwin and his real estate team, which also brokered the Dallas Cowboys move to Frisco, believe if you build it they will come.
A traffic study has determined that some 125,000 vehicles pass through the highway 380 and Tollway area each day – and that's expected to increase. Developers believe the interchange traffic will be comparable to the largest in North Texas when construction is complete and Highway 380 expands to six lanes.
(©2014 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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