Whole Foods Leases 50K sf in De La Vega’s West Grove

The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex can’t get enough of grocery-anchored retail.

Whole Foods is building out a 50,000-square-foot store at 8701 West University Drive in McKinney, expected to cost $8.5 million and be completed next January, according to a state filing.

The Amazon-owned grocery store’s McKinney location will be in Dallas-based De La Vega Development’s 52-acre West Grove mixed-use development, which is expected to have 600,000 square feet of retail.

It’s located at the southeast corner of U.S. Highway 380 and Custer Road, nearly 40 miles north of downtown Dallas. More than 180,000 people live within a 10-minute radius of West Grove. The average household income of this population is $163,132 a year. The nearest Whole Foods location is 10 miles away in Fairview.

De La Vega Development is also behind the Central, a 4 million-square-foot mixed-use project that will be located at the edge of Uptown Dallas. That 27-acre development will include 110,000 square feet of retail, 2,000 apartments and 2.5 million square feet of office space.

McKinney is one of the fastest-growing communities in Texas. Between 2020 and 2023, the city added more than 22,000 residents, according to the Texas Demographic Center. That’s a jump of nearly 12 percent. In 2022, the city recorded $1.34 billion in new construction valuation.

For one upcoming project, Texas-based developer Presidium plans to redevelop McKinney’s historic Cotton Mill into a mixed-use development to include more than 1,000 multifamily units, 195,000 square feet of office space and 27 townhomes.

Office market turbulence has repelled investors, who are finding safe investments in the form of retail centers. Because the Great Recession froze new retail construction, availability is at an all-time low, and rents are stronger than ever, as construction catches up to demand.