(Ian Ritter is national online editor for GlobeSt.com/RETAIL.)

MANSFIELD, TX-Forest City Enterprises and two local developers plan to break ground here next fall on the first phase of Grist Mill Crossing, a 1.2-million-sf lifestyle center. Grist Mill is one of two recent projects, as well as one in Dallas, that mark Cleveland-based Forest City's entrance into Texas.

Forest City is building Grist Mill with Texas-based developers Waterstreet Development Partners and Richard and Nathan Bontke, and executives expect to complete its first phase in the fall of 2007. The retail component will be part of a 100-acre, larger development that will include residential, office and hotel uses. Retailers will include a mix of big-box, department and specialty stores.

Baltimore-based RTKL Associates will design the center in a Main-Street style. Among the other projects in the state the firm has worked on are Mockingbird Station, in Dallas, and the expansion of General Growth Properties' Woodlands (TX) Mall.