LA Fitness Will Anchor $20M Retail Project

MURPHY, TX-A local developer, with 24 acres to seed, has landed LA Fitness as the anchor tenant for a project that’s been on the drawing board nearly four years. The 150,000-sf first phase to Murphy Plaza, carrying an all-in development tab of $20 million, will break ground in August.

The Irvine, CA-based LA Fitness has inked a long-term lease for a 45,000-sf build-to-suit in the community center, which will go up on one of two vacant corners at the intersection of FM 544 and North Murphy Road. LA Fitness will open doors in early 2008 with the rest of the space coming on line in the spring. A 100,000-sf second phase, banked until the first one’s filled, is carrying a tentative 2009 delivery date. The developer is Murphy Plaza LLC, a division of Southfork Properties.

“Murphy has finally matured to the point that it can accommodate this kind of retail,” Brian Glaser, president of Commercial/Retail D/FW for Dallas-based Weitzman Group, tells GlobeSt.com. “We’re not being speculative on anything we’re building. It’s tenant-driven development.”