(For more retail coverage, click GlobeSt.com/RETAIL.)

DALLAS-With this year's pipeline pushing above two million sf, the power players behind the eight-year-old Direct Development have added their first senior vice president of development.

Settling into his new role is Don Bouvier, who spent five of his eight years at Hunt Properties Inc. as a vice president and development partner. "Don's the needed cornerstone," Syd Hurley, co-founder of the Dallas-based firm, tells GlobeSt.com. "He shores up the whole evolution of our growth."

Bouvier, a civil engineer by degree with 13 years' experience in commercial real estate, will be leading the developers' roll-out of the 300,000-sf Liberty Grove Plaza, a Super Target-anchored project set to break ground by June at the corner of Texas 66 and the expanded George Bush Tollway in Rowlett; a possible 450,000-sf retail project in Flower Mound; Tom Thumb-anchored center with 100,000 sf to 125,000 sf of shop space at the intersection of FM 1171 and Bruton-Orand Road, also in Flower Mound; and 350,000-sf Frisco Trails at the junction of Dallas North Tollway and Eldorado Parkway in Frisco, which also should start rising by June.