ECHO Real Estate Services Co. is ready take on another major retail project, conducting final negotiations to help complete a 600,000-square-foot power center near Altoona called Logan Town Square, sources indicate.

The project's established developer, a firm doing business as 17th Street Logan Township Limited Partnership, a subsidiary of an Altoona-based firm called Morris Management, wouldn't comment.

Nor would O'Hara-based ECHO, a growing force in regional development whose owners are also major principals of Giant Eagle Inc., the Pittsburgh area's largest grocery chain.

"While Echo continues to examine strategic opportunities in Pennsylvania, it is not prepared to comment on this project at this time," according to a statement from ECHO.

But ECHO has scheduled a press conference for Friday in Altoona.

Local real estate brokers with relationships with both firms, as well as the retailers interested in the project, note ECHO's interest in Logan Town Centre.

Michael Hendrickson, who represents retail clients interested in the project, confirmed ECHO is negotiating with Morris to buy into the development.

He said ECHO would come to a project for which substantial work has already been done.

" A lot of the leasing is done and a lot of the site work is done," he said. "It's a well-conceived shopping center that has been well-received by national tenants.

Morris Management principal Greg Morris went public with his plans to market the project to a national developer in April. Mr. Morris told the Altoona Mirror at that time that at least 15 national developers were interested in the project.

For a short time two weeks ago, DeBartolo Development LLC posted the project as one of its own on its Web site -- www.debartolopropertygroup.com -- before removing it from the site a day later and denying its involvement.

Sources familiar with the project note the retail development is expected to include a host of major national tenants such as Home Depot, Kohl's and Best Buy as well as Michael's, Petco and Barnes & Noble.

While ECHO is expected to join the project as a developer, Giant Eagle also expects to open a store at Logan Town Centre.

Mr. Hendrickson added that many of the major tenants already have signed leases for the development. He speculated it could open to the public in fall 2006.

For ECHO, the project might be the firm's largest retail development in western Pennsylvania and one of its largest projects anywhere in the country.

A few weeks ago, ECHO officially announced its plans to break ground on an 800,000 square foot retail center just north of Tampa, Fla., called the Grove at Wesley Chapel. Within the Pittsburgh metro area, ECHO is working to develop a 200,000-square-foot Target location on Route 8 in Richland Township.

For Giant Eagle, the project will expand the grocery chain's reach into the central part of the state, along with locations in Indiana and western Maryland, where competitors such as AHOLD and Wegman's operate.

It's a region in which Mr. Hendrickson saw a major need for new retail development.

"A qualified developer like ECHO should be able to put the pieces together," he said.

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