Comments on: New Signs Announcing The Village at Meadow Ridge Farms

By: Josh

Josh — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 22:16:47 +0000

Well, the overarching Meadow Ridge Farm project is being developed by Cheng Investments, which is related to Revalen Development LLC, Infomark Corporation and affiliates. The contact person for Cheng Investments that I’ve seen at various meetings has been Paul Cheng, but my understanding is that these companies have connections with a very well known, well funded Texas family. That has, no doubt, helped keep the project on track during these concerning economic times. Cheng Investments has been using the name Meadow Ridge Farm(s) for at least a year or two now, long before there were any announcements from/by Endeavor.

I, too, have noticed the name ‘Forney Marketplace’ on Endeavor’s website and I wonder if their project will be ‘Forney Marketplace at the Village at Meadow Ridge Farms’ or if they’ve just decided to go with ‘The Village at Meadow Ridge Farms’ to better tie into the overall development.

Endeavor’s portion of the project is 200+/ acres; the entire Meadow Ridge Farm area is nearly 700 acres, so we’ll see other developments with other names in that same area, but hopefully they’ll all tie into the Meadow Ridge Farm name one way or another to cut down on confusion.

And to keep things really interesting, there’s another developer that is moving forward with plans for the south side of Highway 80 at the intersection of this new bridge and the highway. They aren’t nearly as far along as Endeavor, so I don’t know if they are still making progress on their project, but last I heard, they were still involved and working on the project – actually, the city recently (2-3 weeks ago) annexed a portion of land on the south side of Highway 80 to ensure the entire development would be within city limits and to allow the city to include all of that land in the tax increment financing they are putting into place to fund the roadwork, bridges, etc., that will be built to support these centers.

The bridge/development question is a sort of chicken & the egg – the bridge doesn’t make sense without the development, but the development doesn’t make sense without the bridge. I have heard some VERY encouraging information that I’m in the process of confirming and hope to be able to publish by January concerning retailers signing on at the Endeavor project, so it does sound like Endeavor is signing retailers to the project before work on the bridge has commenced. My guess is, once the city sees a signed letter of intent from a major retailer at the site, we’ll see work on the bridge really get going.

When the project was first announced, the city’s consultants did say that at the earliest, given the best possible conditions with TXDOT, it would take until at least January 2009 just to get the permits necessary to start work on the bridge.

Hope this info helps, and if you have any other questions, comments or info, feel free to post them!

By: Cheryl Ruff

Cheryl Ruff — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 21:28:29 +0000

Yes, I called the number on the sign prior to posting. That’s what made me ask the question. I’ll be more detailed next time in my posting. I was told at ICSC (International Council of Shopping Centers) by Endeavor that they are waiting on the bridge completion prior to moving forward with the development (I asked about the Forney Project but did not state a name). Their website only reflects the name as Forney Markeplace. I am surprised there would be any development activity due to the current real estate market conditions. Is the bridge still in the works or has that been postponed? cr

By: Josh

Josh — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 20:13:04 +0000

My understanding is that Forney Marketplace is a portion of this project, that’s the portion being developed by the Endeavor Real Estate Group. They have something like 200 acres of what will be a VERY large development. The entire project/development that will include Endeavor’s portion and potentially much more is what is being called The Village at Meadow Ridge Farms.

However, the phone number given on the Meadow Ridge Farms sign is the Endeavor phone number, so I’ll have to do some checking to confirm this…

By: Cheryl Ruff

Cheryl Ruff — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 19:22:52 +0000

Is this the property that was previously called Forney Marketplace?

By: yesitsme

yesitsme — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 05:10:11 +0000

This name is so bland. A title with Village or Villages in it is just not distinctive when it is used so frequently.
Hope the developers reconsider that at some point. It WAS trendy.

By: 20PMBot

20PMBot — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 04:08:01 +0000

Discuss this story in the Forney discussion forum here on 20PM: New Signs Announcing The Village at Meadow Ridge Farms