Housing, hotel in the works for redevelopment of Plano’s former EDS campus

Owners of the huge former Electronic Data Systems headquarters in Plano want to add residential units and a hotel to the campus near the Dallas North Tollway.

It’s part of a plan to convert the empty offices into a life science center.

Dallas-based NexPoint Advisors purchased the 91-acre office campus in 2018. Since then, the new owner has been exploring redevelopment opportunities for the 1.6 million-square-foot office complex that opened in 1992.

The sprawling buildings, owned by Hewlett Packard and DXC Technology before being purchased by NexPoint, were sold for an estimated $125 million.

The former EDS headquarters has two eight-story buildings connected by an upper-level bridge of office space. The office complex was the brainchild of EDS founder H. Ross Perot Sr., who built the surrounding Legacy business park and relocated his company to Plano from North Dallas. H-P acquired EDS in 2008 in a $13.9 billion deal.

Early this year, NexPoint unveiled plans to convert the vacant office buildings into a $3 billion life sciences campus called the Texas Research Quarter.

As part of the redevelopment, the firm wants to add mid-rise residential buildings and a hotel along Parkwood Boulevard south of Legacy Drive.

“The applicant is proposing a maximum of 775 mid-rise residential units,” according to Plano planning documents. “The request is intended to revitalize this unique property through the construction and improvement of nonresidential buildings, preservation of the existing central office building, and the introduction of required open space and pedestrian-oriented site standards.

“The request largely maintains the existing campus development form while adding new buildings, landscaping, and amenities,” according to the zoning documents. “The applicant states that this portion of the development is necessary to attract a large employer to the site.”

Construction of residential units and a hotel would come after the redevelopment of the existing central office building.

In a letter to the planning department, NexPoint said it wants to develop a “life sciences focused innovation district dubbed the Texas Research Quarter.

“The main campus will feature a mix of lab, office and therapeutic production spaces, a community park and educational facilities,” NexPoint officials say in the letter. “Eventually, the project will also add at the main 91-acre site a small hotel with conference space and limited high-quality mid-rise residential designed primarily to house employees working and living at the Quarter.

“It may also house patients seeking treatment at a proposed cancer center and research hospital to be located on one of the adjacent parcels. The project will preserve the legacy and architectural character of the EDS campus while breathing new life into this landmark building through significant upgrades and modifications to the property.”

The vacant campus is one of the largest available office blocks in the Legacy business park. Started in the 1980s, the almost 3,000-acre development in West Plano is one of the largest employment centers in the state.