The momentum continues in Richardson: new tech companies, CityLine update

As we round the corner and head for home in 2014, the activity and excitement in Richardson has never been greater.

State Farm’s local employment has already hit the 4,000 mark, and early next year the company will begin to occupy its gleaming new campus at CityLine. Soon thereafter, a new Aloft hotel, Whole Foods grocery and a host of new restaurants will be popping up in what will soon be one of Collin County’s premier live-work-play environments.

Since many consider Legacy Town Center as the gold standard for mixed use in Dallas-Fort Worth, it’s interesting to see how the two developments might compare at build-out:

While Legacy has the edge on retail space, CityLine’s DART station and three parks give it  the benefits of accessibility and open venues for public performances and outdoor activities. While the magnitude of both developments is expansive, each will have its own distinctive character.

Over on the northeast side of CityLine, Raytheon’s 1,700-employee, 489,000 square-foot campus is well underway with anticipated occupancy sometime late next year.

There are still some choice sites on the George Bush Turnpike located west of the CityLine development, and expect to see some future announcements on projects planned for that area.

In addition to the two large campus projects, Richardson has seen quite a bit of recent expansion and relocation activity from technology-based companies:

Connectivity Wireless designs and builds in-building wireless systems. Its notable projects include the Texas Motor Speedway, the George W. Bush Presidential Library and all Baylor hospitals.

NetPower Technologies builds direct current to direct current power converters. The company is a great complement to all the electronic systems that are engineered and assembled in Richardson.

MedeAnalytics, a fast-growing IT company headquartered in Emeryville, CA, is moving its Dallas operations and about 100 employees to Richardson. The company provides Big Data and Business Intelligence services to many of the major healthcare-related organizations in the US, including Blue Cross, Methodist, Mayo Clinic and Shriners Hospitals. The company receives 10,000 daily data feeds from over 75 healthcare data systems and manages over 280 terabytes of data containing the treatment histories of over 30 million healthcare receivers. REDP’s expedited permitting helped facilitate the move to 18,235 SF at Custer Court, 501 N. President George Bush Turnpike by November 1.

With the cool breezes of fall on the way, there is still plenty to look forward to in 2014. State Farm’s gradual de-occupancy of the nearly 1.5 million SF it holds under short term leases will create opportunities for the next wave of companies seeking the advantages of a Richardson location. Retailers are scrambling to find strategic spots at CityLine and elsewhere as Richardson’s employment density ratchets up, and multi-family housing developers are hustling to find any tracts of land that have the right zoning.