Nebraska Furniture Mart on Grandscape's tenants: 'We'll take our time and do it right'

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The Nebraska Furniture Mart distribution center has 123 loading bays.

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Candace Carlisle

Staff Writer- Dallas Business Journal

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Nebraska Furniture Mart Inc. officially has made its foray into the development world, signing hotels and restaurants to its $1.5 billion, 433-acre Grandscape project -- even as it stocks shelves with furniture, appliances and electronics.

This is the first time the 77-year-old Omaha, Nebraska-based furniture retailer has developed its 1.9 million-square-foot furniture showroom and distribution center as well as the entire "entertainment destination" surrounding the furniture store at the southeast corner of the Sam Rayburn Tollway and Plano Parkway in The Colony.

"We had a chance to be thoughtful in how we recruited tenants for that area and how we will continue to recruit tenants," Jeff Lind, chief strategy and development officer with Nebraska Furniture Mart and president of Grandscape told the Dallas Business Journal.

Lind and other city officials held a press conference on Tuesday to announce the new retail tenants of Grandscape, which include Hampton Inn & Suites, Homewood Suites, Cheddar's Casual Cafe, Hard Eight BBQ, Mi Cocina and Rock & Brews.

"The biggest thing that differentiates us from other developers is that we are under no financial pressure to sign tenants," Lind added. "We can tweak anything that we need to tweak and as we open the store, we'll take our time and do it right."

Lind said the Nebraska Furniture Mart is expected to be one of the largest grossing retail stores on the planet, which is why the developer is being particular when selecting tenants for Grandscape.

"We want to make sure we aren't out there just doing deals to do deals," he told me. "We want to add a lot of critical mass and the draw factor to make the city a super regional draw."

Construction is underway on the infrastructure that will support Grandscape's new tenants. Cheddar's and Rock & Brews plans to open in summer of 2015, with Hampton Inn, Hard Eight and Mi Cocina following in the fall. Homewood Suites plans to open in late 2016.

When Warren Buffett came to North Texas to visit the retailer's latest Nebraska Furniture Mart store in late April, he was very excited about the location and the Dallas-Fort Worth market, Lind said. Nebraska Furniture Mart is owned by Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

"When we were searching for metros a few years ago, he said, 'Don't take Dallas off the radar screen,' and he knew this is an extremely vibrant metro area," Lind said. "He's been a fan of Dallas."

The Nebraska Furniture Mart showroom and distribution center is on pace to open in spring 2015.

Candace covers commercial and residential real estate and sports business.