Recent real estate hype has been about building in urban cores where residents don't need a car and can walk to work, restaurants and shops.

A Florida-based lender taking a contrarian view issued $59.35 million for construction of a shopping center in suburban Mansfield, Texas.

Trez Forman Capital Group's financing covers 72 percent of the cost of the 193,825-square-foot Shops at Broad in the city about 30 miles from Dallas. The deal closed Nov. 20.

Dallas is adding jobs, and Mansfield has experienced a home construction boom, said Brett Forman, who arranged the loan.

Forman, president and CEO of Trez Forman in Boynton Beach, worked on the deal with managing director Russ Holland in Atlanta.

“We are familiar with the Dallas city as a whole. It's a huge city, and we are actually quite familiar with the Mansfield submarket, which is very fast growing, tons of rooftops, jobs,” Forman said.

In 2017, Mansfield had a population of nearly 69,000, up 22 percent from 56,368 in 2010, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Overall, the population of the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metropolitan area increased the most out of any metropolitan area.

It's not just the job and population growth feeding real estate growth that prompted Trez Forman to lend to Shops at Broad. The project promises a reinvention of traditional retail, making it more immune to e-commerce competition.

Atlanta-based Geyer Morris Co. is developing the multibuilding shopping center on 58 vacant acres as part of an 81-acre development that's betting on the destination retail concept.

Already open on the property are the 80,000-square-foot StarCenter, which includes two public hockey rinks affiliated with the Dallas Stars NHL team and an indoor sports center with basketball and volleyball courts.

The idea behind destination retail is the crowds attracted to the athletic facilities will patronize the neighboring restaurants and shops, Forman said.

“We think those retailers will literally thrive because of all the traffic that will be associated with the center. That's going to bring thousands of people,” he said. ”Oftentimes they will have … fathers and mothers that are left waiting for sporting event and they'll go shopping, they'll eat in the restaurant. It's a natural draw.”

The Shops at Broad has lined up anchors Belk, Aldi and TJ Maxx. Other future tenants are Starbucks, Five Guys and the Flix Brewhouse cinema-microbrewery.

Aside from the StarCenter and Academy Sports, the big-box home goods chain At Home has opened, and a 330-unit apartment building is being developed.

The development off U.S. Highway 287 is in a location that's expected to draw customers.

“We just think we are going to get the best of both worlds,” Forman said. “People who are coming for the sport but also people who are just driving by on the highway to and from work.”

In this deal, Geyer Morris was represented by Will James, vice president of the Atlanta regional office of commercial real estate financial intermediary NorthMarq Capital.

As for Trez Forman, this is another transaction showing the lender's bullishness on suburbs. Other loans this year included $22 million for a suburban Georgia townhouse project and $44.8 million for homes on Florida's West Coast.

The Shops at Broad is set for completion by early 2020.

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