Alliance Town Center.

Dallas-based Cheddar's Casual Cafe has grabbed a front row seat with a 2.5-acre pad site to be part of the 600,000-sf first wave for the two-million-sf development along Interstate 35W, Heritage Trace and North Tarrant parkways in North Tarrant County. The development's opening act will be a 7,800-sf Cheddar's and 103,000-sf J.C. Penney's store. The larger catch of the just-signed deals is Charlotte, NC-based Belk Inc., which has inked a long-term lease for a 96,000-sf anchor spot that's viewed as "the transition piece to the town center," according to Darrell Lake, senior vice president of Hillwood Properties. Belk's is part of a fall 2007 delivery that includes Sam Moon Trading Co., a Dallas-based importer of luggage, purses, fashion accessories and home decor who bought 20 acres for his first Tarrant County center.

Lake tells GlobeSt.com that the Cheddar's deal has been under negotiation nearly two years and Belk's lease has taken about six months to seal. The deal marks Belk's 10th location in Texas and Cheddar's' 23rd.

Lake says Belk's is planning a store with at least two main entrances to fill the key corner that's emerged as the gateway to the village. There will be only two, maybe three more, spots as large as Belk's open up in Alliance Town Center. He says letters of intent are in hand to fill another 200,000 sf to 300,000 sf. The fast-paced preleasing has prompted North Texas favorite son, J.C. Penney Co. Inc., to add nearly 5,000 sf to its design."The interest is overwhelming," Lake says. "It's a list of Who's Who tenants who want to be there."