The name “legacy” is not only making a comeback in Dallas area real estate: it’s becoming the new power-name.

Legacy West didn’t invent the word, but it does embody the definition.

The $3 billion 250-acre mixed-use development carved its legacy by landing Toyota’s North American headquarters, FedEx Office’s headquarters, Liberty Mutual Insurance, and JPMorgan Chase. By morphing a surging workforce of nearly 20,000 employees with walkable shops, restaurants, hotels, luxury condos, apartments, and homes, Legacy West has evolved into one of the most successful “live, work, play, and stay” neighborhoods in the U.S. 

Courtesy of Karahan Companies

According to the Dallas Morning News, the legacy name in real estate circles has been in short supply for nearly 40 years.

Back when Legacy West was still Collin County farmland, Ross Perot paid a group of name experts to come up with a captivating moniker for the massive Plano corporate campus that housed his Electronic Data Systems (EDS). When experts failed to dazzle Perot with their brilliance, he coined the name, Legacy Business Park, himself. 

"It was meant to honor the 'legacy' of what the people of EDS had created," Ross Perot Jr. told the News.

Today, as legacy fever spreads around Legacy West, other developers are latching onto one of the hottest power names in North Texas real estate.

Courtesy of Karahan Companies

New owners of the J.C. Penney headquarters are remodeling the 35 percent of the facility Penney isn’t leasing into a corporate enclave dubbed the Campus at Legacy West.

A 32-acre mixed-use development, which is under construction on some of the last available farmland at Spring Creek Parkway and the Dallas North Tollway, was originally named Spring Creek Village. But in the 11th hour, developers rechristened it The Legacy at Spring Creek.

In the southern quadrant of Dallas North Tollway, a future office complex will be called Legacy South.

As the News cited, it’s probably just a matter of time until Legacy North and Legacy East join the mix.