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A developer of luxury communities nationwide is set to buy 4.5 acres of land in The Gate, a partially built mixed-use project along the Dallas North Tollway in Frisco, in an acquisition expected to shift a stalled high-end hotel and condo tower back into gear.
The buyer, Washington, D.C.-based Petra Development LLC, is the only bidder for the prime undeveloped land at the northwest corner of the Dallas North Tollway and John Hickman Road that’s been tied up most recently in receivership.
U.S. District Judge Brantley Starr is expected to sign off on the sale of the land for $9 million in a hearing today.
It’s the first sale of a commercial property being held in a judge-ordered receivership holding the assets and entities of developer Tim Barton, owner and president of Dallas-based JMJ Development.
Barton, who is CEO of Dallas-based investment firm Carnegie Development in addition to leading JMJ, is currently facing criminal charges and civil charges levied by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in connection with a scheme to allegedly scam more than 100 Chinese investors out of $26 million involving land sites for proposed housing communities in North Texas. The SEC alleges that Barton and others he is affiliated with took the foreign investors’ money but, in most cases, never bought the land on which the proposed large residential developments were purportedly going to be built.
Those charges are apparently unrelated to the land at The Gate, but Starr ordered all assets owned or controlled by Barton and the more than 150 entities he controls to be placed into receivership until the civil and criminal cases involving Barton are resolved.
Barton and the court-appointed receiver monitoring the assets and entities Barton controls, attorney Cort Davis of Dallas law firm Brown Fox PLLC, have agreed that the property should be sold to pay operational, legal and other expenses the receivership is accruing as the cases against Barton progress through the court system.
Davis filed a statement with Starr’s court on Monday saying that he published a legally required notice of the sale of what is referred to in court documents as "The Gate property," and no competing offers for the land were received.
In a court filing dated Dec. 27, Barton says he had arranged for Petra Development LLC to acquire The Gate property prior to the receivership.
Barton and his attorneys are lobbying the court to sell The Gate property and put part of the proceeds from the sale toward the receivership in hopes of minimizing the necessity of selling off other properties in the receivership that Barton aims to eventually regain control of and develop.
The sale of The Gate property would bring in roughly $3 million in net proceeds after paying secured lenders with liens on the property, according to filings by Barton and Thomas.
The dealings between Thomas and Barton and his lawyers have grown increasingly contentious.
The developer’s attorneys argue in one filing that the receiver “seems fixated on selling items that are particularly dear to Mr. Barton,” including his personal residence on Rock Creek Drive in Dallas and commercial properties that are at too early a stage in the development process to profitably sell.
Thomas says in court filings that the sale of Barton’s home, The Gate property and others are necessary to provide “much-needed capital” to pay for expenses such as utility bills and insurance for the assets in receivership.
“There is no personal animus against Mr. Barton at all,” Thomas wrote in an initial receivership status report filed with the court. “The Receivership Estate is in dire need of capital.”
The Gate, overall, is a 41-acre development on southbound Dallas Parkway between Warren Parkway and Lebanon Road. It’s part of Frisco’s North Platinum Corridor in an area formerly known as the $5 Billion Mile — a highly planned and heavily marketed assemblage of multiple mixed-use developments on both sides of the Dallas North Tollway between State Highway 121 and U.S. 380.
The Gate is just north of The Star mixed-use development, which is anchored by the Dallas Cowboys headquarters and practice facilities. It is just south of The Shops at Starwood.
Barton and JMJ previously planned a 28- to 30-story luxury hotel and condo tower on the 4.5 acres of undeveloped land slated to be sold to Petra in the court hearing at 2 p.m today.
When the project was announced in 2020, JMJ officials promoted it as the tallest building in Frisco and said it would open in 2024. The project, as envisioned by JMJ, was supposed to have about 230 hotel rooms, 70 condos, and 15,000 square feet of office space, as well as signature restaurants and an amenity deck that had a pool with 360-degree views of the city.
JMJ purchased the land from Dubai-based Invest Group Overseas, know as “IGO,” in February 2020.
Barton was indicted in September by a federal grand jury on nine felony counts, including securities fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges, and a trial is scheduled for later this year. If convicted, Barton faces up to 60 years in prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas.
The SEC also filed its suit against Barton in September following a two-year investigation.
As receiver, Thomas is tasked with protecting the value of the properties, which could be sold and the proceeds used to compensate victims if Barton is found guilty of fraud or if Barton or his companies are found to have otherwise wronged the investors.
The Frisco Gate property is in the receivership along with other high-visibility development sites including 2999 Turtle Creek Boulevard in Dallas. Barton once planned to develop a Mandarin Oriental hotel and luxury condo tower at the Turtle Creek site.
Square feet of space developed locally in 2021 (in sq. ft)
| Rank | Prior Rank | Company |
|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | Harwood International |
2 | 2 | Trammell Crow Company |
3 | 3 | Crow Holdings |
