A retail center in Terrell anchored by Hobby Lobby and Academy Sports + Outdoors has landed $36 million in new financing, a sign of continued investor interest in one of the fastest-growing corners of North Texas. The deal covers Crossroads at Terrell, a shopping center roughly 32 miles east of Dallas that has drawn a mix of national retailers since opening.
Commercial mortgage firm BWE arranged the $36 million refinancing for the property, according to Shopping Center Business, which reported that the center totals 260,877 square feet and was completed between 2022 and 2024 on nearly 30 acres. That outlet identified the borrower behind the refinancing as a national retail developer, though REBusinessOnline reported that the borrower was not disclosed.
The retail development is at Interstate 30 and FM 148 in Terrell. A Zabalist project record lists FM 557 and FM 148 in Kaufman County for the site, utilities and clubhouse portion of an apartment complex, not the retail center. Hobby Lobby and Academy Sports + Outdoors anchor the center, with other tenants including Burke’s Outlet, Marshalls, Petco, Ulta Beauty and Rack Room Shoes, per the same shopping center trade report.
Conflicting Numbers on Size
Not every account of Crossroads at Terrell agrees on exactly how big it is. A separate report from Bisnow described the overall project as a 255-acre, 600,000-square-foot retail center, while coverage from Connect CRE characterized the broader Crossroads at Terrell development as a 255-acre, master-planned regional and mixed-use project with a 275,000-square-foot retail component. That retail component is where Academy Sports and Outdoors leased its space, according to Connect CRE. The figures from Shopping Center Business, Bisnow and Connect CRE do not line up cleanly, and the available reporting does not clarify whether they describe the same footprint, the retail-only portion, or the larger mixed-use tract.
What is consistent across the coverage is the broader growth story driving interest in projects like this one. Kaufman County’s population grew by more than 40 percent to 145,310 residents between 2010 and 2020, according to Bisnow. U.S. News & World Report went on to name Kaufman County the fastest-growing county in the nation between 2020 and 2021, Bisnow reported.
Terrell’s Residential Pipeline
That growth has translated into housing demand on the ground in Terrell. The city expects to add up to 3,000 single-family homes over the following five years, Bisnow reported, and one local estimate cited in that coverage put Terrell’s population at around 20,000, up from just over 17,000 at the time of the 2020 census. Elsewhere in Kaufman County, the Bisnow report also pointed to Terrell Market Center, an 89-acre development anchored by Buc-ee’s, as another example of the commercial activity following the area’s residential boom.
Younger Partners Investments, a firm whose stated strategy is acquiring community and neighborhood shopping centers or portfolios anchored by dominant grocers in growing Texas markets, outlines that approach on its own acquisitions page. A Terrell shopping center was reported to be 98% leased amid Kaufman County’s rapid residential and commercial growth.
