Dallas developer David Carter will plant the project on two corners at the junction of Buckner and Samuel boulevards near Interstate 30. Buckner Crossing I will sit at 5620 S. Buckner Blvd. on 12 acres, bought from Buckner International with the Baptist Foundation as its representative. A 19-acre tract is under contract, with a yearend closing in the works. Each phase's all-in development cost is expected to hover $15 million, excluding the build to suits, according to Giovanni Palavicini, founder of Fronteras Commercial Real Estate in Dallas.

Palavicini tells GlobeSt.com that NorthPoint will deliver phase one by late summer 2009 and phase two in first quarter 2010. Palavicini has been leading the preleasing charge, targeting mainstream retailers now aligning with Hispanic consumers after recognizing the depth of their purchasing power. Buckner Crossing is the first ground-up retail to rise in five years in a diverse ethnic pocket with 324,432 residents in a five-mile radius and an annual average household income of $54,842.

"The biggest hurdle has been, in all honesty, not Pleasant Grove or the demographics," Palavicini says, "but it's been the proximity to Mesquite." The 4.5-mile distance to a larger retail corridor has created some problems for junior anchors, he says.