Gary Gibbons with Dallas-based Prime Income Asset Management says the investment group wanted to develop the land at the junction of Belt Line Road and Texas 114 and its partner, the Payne family, simply did not. Late last year, Prime Income picked up a 50% stake in 159 acres in five tracts from the New York City-based TIAA. Payne and the Carpenter family, the chief mastermind behind the Las Colinas development, originally bought the land in the late 1970s.

Gibbons tells GlobeSt.com that the no-cash exchange put two tracts at the northeast and southeast corners of the Belt Line Road-Texas 114 junction into Prime Income's portfolio. The Payne family held onto the southwest corner of the intersection and 30 acres on the south side of Texas 114, just south of Cabell Road, he says. Land in the immediate area sells for $3 per sf, on average.

Prime Income, under the watch of Dallas notable Gene E. Phillips, is reputed to be the largest landowner in Dallas/Fort Worth. The latest foothold currently is zoned for single-family development. Gibbons says the plan is to get the land rezoned for multifamily, light industrial, office, retail and hotel use. He says the rezoning process should get under way within three months.

Gibbons says Prime Income most likely will develop part of the acreage and sell tracts to other developers. "It will be a good year to year and a half before could sell any of the property," he says.