Colleyville staff outlines rising rents, high occupancy and new prospects in economic development update

Chelsea Rose, the City of Colleyville's community engagement and economic development lead, presented an economic development update at the January 24 Planning and Zoning meeting that summarized local market data, city programs and active commercial prospects.

Rose said Colleyville has "just over 26,000 people" in about 9,000 households and described the community as highly educated; she noted a median age of 48.6 and that about 69% of residents hold a bachelor's degree or higher. On retail metrics, Rose said the city's commercial inventory is about 2.8 million square feet, with roughly 225,000 square feet available and an overall occupancy rate of 92.5 percent. She added that the city's market asking rent is trending upward at about $26 per square foot and that months vacant is trending down.

On sales tax, Rose said a recent audit adjustment increased February collections (the collection that represents December activity) by about 20 percent versus the prior comparable period; she characterized sales-tax receipts overall as on a steady upward trend.

Rose reviewed national and local headwinds facing brick-and-mortar retail and restaurants'including competition from big-box and online retailers, inflation and rising labor and food costs'and said those trends are reflected locally. "We are the number 1 place to live in Tarrant County," she said, pointing to programs the city uses to encourage residents to shop locally, including promotional campaigns and a restaurant gift-card program.

The presentation highlighted city supports and incentives: a community business center operated with the Chamber of Commerce that provides shared office space; a business outreach program that makes personal contact with local businesses; a monthly economic development forum; and a restaurant gift-card program used to drive local spending.

Rose also listed several active or prospective projects. She said Crunch Fitness is renovating the former Fit Factory on Colleyville Downs in a project Rose described as a $5,000,000 renovation. The former 99 Cent Store site has attracted multiple concepts in early prospecting, including indoor family-amusement concepts, pickleball, restaurants and a boutique grocery store; Rose said at least three letters of intent had been received for concepts at that site and one lease package had been issued. She said the former Black Walnut restaurant site on Market Street has drawn interest from independent and chain operators and might be split for multiple tenants.

City-owned property updates included a Northern Gateway site (about 37 acres) undergoing a flood study with a consultant to balance open space and development, a 3.81-acre Northern Gateway parcel with an LOI for a Pickleball Kingdom concept and a Southern Gateway parcel of about 5.8856 acres under contract with a developer for retail, restaurants and a boutique grocery proposal. When asked by a commissioner whether the Southern Gateway parcel had already been sold, Rose clarified that the parcel remains city-owned and is "under contract" with a developer, not sold.

Rose provided several program and financial figures cited by staff: $126,700 in economic impact from restaurant-only gift cards in 2024; $4,349,105 in gift-card program sales since 2018; approximately $665,400 in the city's best grant and matching funds to date; $140,000 in signed grants to date; $50,000 in a safer grant to date; and staff said the city has invested just under $6,000,000 in economic development initiatives. Rose presented a conservative estimate that those investments produce a return anywhere from about 1.5 times to multiple times the investment, a range Rose gave as roughly $10 million to $30 million of economic impact.

Commissioners thanked staff for the update, offered suggestions of specific restaurants and concepts they'd like the city to pursue and agreed to follow up outside the meeting. The presentation was informational; no formal actions or votes on economic incentives or property sales are recorded in the meeting excerpt.