Hillwood is planning a 44-acre mixed-use development at Circle T Ranch that could feature a four-story office building for Charles Schwab’s wealth management arm and restaurants including a high-end steakhouse.
The real estate firm said it is planning a development called Front 44 that would have 65,000 square feet of retail, a restaurant plaza with a “signature steakhouse” and green space. There could also be a 150-room hotel developed in the future.
The name of the development comes from the location — it’s located on the front 44 acres of Circle T, the 2,500-acre ranch owned by Hillwood Chairman Ross Perot Jr. in Westlake, east of the firm’s massive Alliance project. The ranch is currently home to a nine-hole private golf course and corporate campuses for Charles Schwab Corp. and Deloitte University.
Front 44 could be anchored by a 54,000-square-foot Schwab wealth management building, which would be next to its headquarters campus.
Guy Grivas, vice president of retail at Hillwood, said there are active discussions to fill 50-60% of the retail space of the development. While he didn’t name potential tenants, he said much of the focus will be on food and beverage and health and wellness. The goal is to create a “dynamic and diverse retail experience” that’s walkable.
Dallas-based GFF is the design firm on the project. While Hillwood did not provide an exact construction price tag, Grivas said cost per square foot is coming out to about $700 to $800 per square foot, which is higher than typical retail projects.
“That’s all because of the amenities and the finishes that we’re choosing,” he said. “We look at this as a legacy project.”
There’s plenty of demand for this kind of project, Grivas said. More than 12,000 people work at Circle T Ranch. That includes about 7,000 at Schwab’s 1.1 million-square-foot HQ and thousands more at a Fidelity campus. The intersection of State Highway 114 and State Highway 170, where the development is located, sees about 163,000 vehicles per day, according to Hillwood.
The average household income in the area is $205,055 and the average amount spent on food away from home is $7,138, according to a Hillwood analysis. That’s higher than Legacy West in Plano, which has an average household income of about $152,000, and The Domain in Austin, which clocks in at $132,000.
“Schwab has very limited food and beverage,” Grivcas said. “They have a cafeteria, they have a few pickup and go stations. They really have no food and beverage within their office. Likewise, they don’t have any fitness. And so that’s a big ask from them, with demand from their office users to activate that.”
Hillwood estimates construction will start in the third quarter and be completed in 2027.
Westlake Mayor Kim Greaves expressed excitement about the development.
“Hillwood has been a tremendous partner in bringing the kind of quality development that our residents have been asking for, while supporting Westlake’s vision for distinctive, amenity-rich growth,” he said in a statement.
Hillwood has several more spots within Circle T Ranch that could be used for corporate campuses, amounting to 317 acres. Grivas foresees an increased demand for “suburban corporate campuses,” pointing to AT&T’s recent decision to build a new headquarters campus in Plano, because of the balance they can offer in terms of amenities and affordability as large companies bring workers back to the office more often.
“I think there’s a good chance you’ll see some announcements in Alliance this year,” he said. “I don’t know that you’ll see anything new at Circle T this year.”
During a Jan. 12 meeting with the Westlake Development Corp., Hillwood Senior Vice President of Development Management Eric Elrod pointed to the far west side of Circle T Ranch, near Highway 377, as the most likely to see development but didn’t get into specifics.
“I think they will be great economic drivers for the town of Westlake, and I’m hoping in the very near future, we’ll be able to announce one, if not two of those and you start to see how it all ties into our master plan,” Elrod said at the time.
Perot purchased Circle T Ranch in 1993 from Nelson Bunker Hunt, who was trying to stabilize his finances after a failed attempt to corner the world silver market.