League City island idea calls for luxury living

Plan to include high-rise housing, boardwalk and room for boats

By NANCY SARNOFF
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

The owners of a 35-acre island in League City's South Shore Harbour have revealed plans for the property, a concept, they say, that is new for the Houston area.

They envision the Clear Lake island as an exclusive walkable community with single-family homes, high-rise condominiums and townhomes modeled after Charleston, S.C., architecture.

There will be no commercial development on the gated property, which they've renamed Beacon Island. (It used to be known as Lighthouse Island.) A 24-year-old lighthouse on the property will remain part of the project.

Parcels will be sold to developers who will build the homes and towers, said Houston-based Verandah Cos., which owns the land with Crow Holdings of Dallas.

Zeigler Cooper Architects designed a master plan that builders must adhere to.

In keeping with the Carolina coastal theme, the homes will be painted in muted pastels and have wide porches.

Gas lamps will line the streets.

The plan calls for 800 units, 85 boat slips and a boardwalk that's now under construction.

In addition to 12 large estate lots, which will sell for between $500,000 and $700,000, the concept includes townhomes, two midrise structures and two 25-story high-rises with 180 units apiece.

Housing prices are expected to range from $300,000 to $3 million.

Verandah's Robert Stratton expects most people to make the island their primary home.

"We're looking for doctors, NASA people, engineers. Downtown commuters looking for primary residences," he said.

Looking for locals
Whether it's sales of suburban homes or downtown lofts, a common question throughout the recent housing boom has been, "Who's buying all these properties?"

At the Herrin building, a historic condo conversion just east of downtown, the answer is somewhat unexpected: not one Houstonian.

"Everyone that buys is from the West Coast, East Coast or up north," developer Mir Azizi of Caspian Homes said.

Maybe it's because people from the coasts are more used to urban living, where transitioning areas are seen as fashionable.

East of downtown is clearly still in the midst of change.

New condos and townhomes are being built next to vacant buildings and old warehouses. There are few restaurants close by, much less grocery stores.

Homes in the area are still relatively affordable.

Prices in the Herrin start in the $130,000s.

But many of the lofts are small, so the price per square foot is high.

The units — mostly flats — have an urban feel with original brick walls, stained concrete floors and exposed ductwork.

The building is geared toward a very young market.

While each unit has a balcony, they're only accessible through the windows.

"For young people, it's a fun thing," Azizi said.

"There's no way I could sell a unit like this to someone 40 years old. That's not my client."

For those interested, there's still room for locals.

Just 14 lofts in the 52-unit building have been sold.

A welcome detour
While consumers were frustrated when har.com was down for several days last week after a hacking incident, Mark Woodroof of Prudential Gary Greene, Realtors was elated.

Traffic doubled on his company's Web site, as house hunters figured out some firms have much of the same information on their sites as HAR, the Houston Association of Realtors, does on its.

"We pulled our traffic over the weekend and it was like someone turned on a light switch," Woodroof said.

Companies like Prudential Gary Greene buy data feeds from the Realtor association and re-sort the information for their own Web sites.

Search tools on other realty sites are hosted by the association's servers, which makes them vulnerable when something goes wrong at har.com.

Woodroof says the public should have access to for-sale listings, but they should get it from the brokerage community, not the trade association.

"We think practitioners should be the first point of contact," he said.

High-rise condos to go on auction block

Centrum investors are using strategy that's new to Dallas

12:00 AM CDT on Tuesday, April 10, 2007
By STEVE BROWN / The Dallas Morning News

The owners of an Oak Lawn high-rise condominium have decided to auction off more than a dozen of the luxury residential units.

The condos are on the top floors of the Centrum tower at Oak Lawn Avenue and Cedar Springs Road.

Thirty-four living units in the building were purchased in late 2005 by Centennial Real Estate Corp. of Dallas and GEM Realty Capital of Chicago.

The rental units were converted into condominiums and have sold for more than $500,000 to almost $3 million.

Now the owners plan to auction off 15 of the unsold condos May 20.

Sheldon Good & Co. of Chicago has been hired to handle the auction.

Five of the units will be sold without a minimum bid.

The auctioneer is suggesting that opening bids for the high- rise properties start between $250,000 and $500,000 for the condominiums, which range from 1,362 square feet to 5,164 square feet.

"We want to sell the building out," said Steve Levin, president of Centennial Real Estate. "Our partnership group thought this was a great way to sell a lot of units very quickly.

"This is a strategy that hasn't been done here but has been done in other markets successfully," he said. "I think other people here will do it."

The Centrum investors also plan to sell a three-story penthouse unit in a sealed-bid auction.

"We decided to break with traditional marketing efforts," said Travis Mathews, a vice president at Briggs-Freeman Real Estate Brokerage who is marketing the units. "We've had a great response from fellow real estate agents."

Mr. Mathews said that about eight of the 34 units in the building have been sold and that most of what's available in the building is going up for auction.

Any remaining units after the auction will be listed for sale, he said.

The auction of high-rise condos doesn't happen often in the Dallas market – "certainly not at the higher end," Mr. Mathews said.

Dallas housing analyst Mike Puls said the planned auction is a sign that the high-rise condo market has softened.

"The air is coming out the bubble," Mr. Puls said.

The 19-story Centrum opened in 1987 with two floors for retail space and 250,000 square feet of offices. The residential units occupy the stair-stepped upper floors.

Developers share plans for Lake Highlands Town Center

Dallas Business Journal - March 22, 2007

Prescott Realty Group has unveiled plans for a 2-million-square-foot development in Lake Highlands.

Preliminary plans for the Lake Highlands Town Center include a mix of retail, residential and office uses that would replace several aging apartment complexes in the area, near Walnut Hill Lane and Skillman Street.

Prescott Realty buying the Whisper Creek, Sutter Woods and Bella Palms apartment complexes, which will be demolished, to make room for the new development, said Vance Detwiler, managing director and principal of Prescott.

Detwiler met with about 400 residents from surrounding neighborhoods Tuesday night to discuss plans for a proposed Lake Highlands DART light rail station, and a hike and bike trail that will run along creeks and park areas before it ultimately connects to White Rock Lake and an outdoor amphitheater.

In addition, the developers are planning about 250,000 to 300,000 square feet of retail space, 50,000 to 100,000 square feet of office space and more than 1,000 residential units, consisting of townhomes, lofts, flats and condominiums, Detwiler said.

Work could begin as soon as the current apartment residents are relocated, which could occur as early as this summer.

"If various approvals proceed as anticipated, the project's first phase -- demolition, dirt work and infrastructure improvements -- is expected to require 18-to-24 months to complete," Detwiler said. "Phase two, including the construction of the residential, for-sale housing, office and retail, should follow completion of Phase One by an additional 12-to-18 months."

The project is within the Skillman Corridor Tax Increment Financing District, and Detwiler said funding from public entities, including the TIF district was essential because of the center's significant planned public space, demolition requirements and dirt work and infrastructure.

He said some funding has been approved and more is under consideration from the City of Dallas, Dallas Area Rapid Transit, Dallas County, Richardson Independent School District and the North Texas Council of Governments.

Details of the public financing component of the project are still being worked out, Detwiler said, so he could not comment at this time.

Dirt to turn on condos

Two projects will start going up near downtown in the next week
09:11 AM CST on Thursday, January 25, 2007
By STEVE BROWN / The Dallas Morning News

Developers are breaking ground during the next week on two long-awaited Dallas condominium towers.

Work will begin Friday just south of downtown on the 10-story Beat condominiums.

And on Wednesday, builders will start construction on the 22-story Tower Residences at the Stoneleigh Hotel in Uptown.

The concrete and glass Beat building will be constructed near the corner of South Lamar and Belleview streets, across the street from DART's Cedars light-rail station.

Plans for the project were announced in early 2006.

"We are just over 30 percent sold," developer Jack Matthews said Wednesday. "We will have the first units ready in December."

There are 75 units in the building, with prices starting at $182,400. David Griffin & Co. Realtors is marketing the project.

The Stoneleigh tower, which has been in the works for more than two years, will contain 97 condos and will be built adjacent to the historic Stoneleigh Hotel on Maple Avenue north of downtown.

A $25 million renovation of the hotel began late last year. Developer Prescott Realty Group and partner Apollo Real Estate Advisors are building the tower.

"We hit sales expectations in the fourth quarter and decided to go ahead and break ground," said Jud Pankey, president of Dallas-based Prescott Realty Group. "We will be delivering units the end of 2008 and the start of 2009."

Condos will start at around $400,000. Allie Beth Allan Realtors is marketing the building.

GONE URBAN

More inner-city condo and town-house developments will soon be ready for converts to downtown living

SANDRA BAKER, PHOTOS BY JOYCE MARSHALL AND RALPH LAUER
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF

FORT WORTH -- In the past several weeks, Margaret Bunten has been busy shopping for appliances and bathroom fixtures, the finishing touches she needs for her development, the Kress Building Lofts, in downtown Fort Worth.

A model is ready for interested renters to view in the renovated 1930s building. The apartments are scheduled to be completed by the end of next month, when tenants can begin moving in, she said.

The Kress Lofts, 501 Main St., is one of four downtown residential developments that will become ready for occupancy in the coming weeks. If the downtown residential market is as strong as the developers and others say it is, the nearly 500 units that compose the four projects are expected to lease and sell quickly.

"Fort Worth is really in the first inning of the whole condominium downtown residential trend," said David Porter, president of Dallas-based PNL Cos., which is redeveloping the Charles D. Tandy Center at Third and Throckmorton streets. One of the complex's towers, One City Place, will have 180 owner-occupied condos, and the other building, Two City Place, is being renovated into office space.

PNL plans to begin demolition work inside the residential tower in September, but it will be several months before those condos are available. The developers will begin pre-sales in October.

Andy Taft, president of Downtown Fort Worth Inc., a nonprofit group that promotes downtown development, said demand for downtown living remains strong. A recent market study found a need for more than 4,000 for-sale units and more than 3,000 rental units during the next 11 to 19 years.

"The trends look very good right now," Taft said.

Inventory figures indicate that there is indeed demand. In June 2005, the inventory level of town houses and condos was 17.3 months, meaning it would take that long to sell all the available units. A year later, it was down to 7.8 months, according to figures compiled by Downtown Fort Worth Inc. from National Association of Realtors reports.

A couple of proposed projects have pulled away from the residential market. A proposed 60-story office-condo tower at Seventh and Calhoun streets has dropped its condo plan because they would have required too high a price tag. Developers say they're redesigning the building to about 30 stories of office space. Likewise, the owner of the Transport Life building on Seventh Street has switched plans from residential to office space.

But many downtown developments are being completed and are filling up with residents.

The Cotton Depot, at 555 Elm St. on the east edge of downtown, began taking tenants a year ago. Today, the 210-unit apartment community is 92 percent leased, which is about what was expected, said developer Printice Gary with Carlton Residential Properties.

"We're right on schedule," Gary said. "There's not much of a gap [in time] when units are leased and the tenants move in."

Owners have begun moving into the 58-unit Neil P at Burnett Park, the condo conversion of the historic Neil P. Anderson cotton exchange building on West Seventh Street. Four buyers are in, and about 14 more are expected to move in the next 45 days, said Matt Herring, a partner in Amicus Interests, the project's developer.

Herring said he anticipates that the remaining units will sell in the next six months.

Samantha Mulvehill, marketing director for Williams Trew Property Management in Fort Worth, which handles the leasing of condos for owners in The Tower, said leasing at the high-rise slowed in April, May and June. But the pace has picked up in recent weeks, which she attributes to growing awareness of the options now available downtown.

A few months ago, her company had 30 units to lease, but that has decreased to two, she said. Some of those leases went to executives in the oil and gas industry, which has been expanding its downtown presence and work force this year.

"People have caught on about downtown living," Mulvehill said. "It's caught on with people that they can lease in The Tower."

Marketing the various developments -- as well as living the downtown lifestyle -- is going to be the key to continued success, the developers say. In April, Downtown Fort Worth Inc. sponsored a tour of the downtown developments, and turnout was more than expected.

The developments in Uptown, on the north edge of downtown, were included in that tour, and developers there are now planning a similar event in October, said Tom Struhs, who is developing Pecan Place Townhomes, 612 E. First St.

"We're disappointed in the amount of [pedestrian] traffic," Struhs said. "If we all work together and sell the lifestyle of living downtown, it shouldn't be so difficult."

Struhs says 17 of 28 planned units in Pecan Place are in some phase of construction or completed. They should be finished by the end of the year, he said. Five owners have moved into their town houses, and two more are sold, he said.

Nearby at 600 E. Bluff St., developer Main Street Living is about six weeks away from having a model ready in the 40-unit Palisades townhouses. Dan Fuqua, a managing partner, said that they anticipate construction being completed by the end of the year, and that they are just now thinking about marketing the units, which will begin at $299,000.

At that, 25 percent of the units have been spoken for, and people have put down small deposits, he said.

"That's a good sign. Uptown is gaining momentum," Fuqua said. "We've tried to keep a low profile and not get heavily into pre-sales. There's more value in a product when you have something to see."

Likewise, the nearby Lincoln Trinity Bluff, a 304-unit apartment project of Lincoln Properties in Dallas, has opened a leasing office at 1515 Weatherford St. Construction began 14 months ago, and the first units are expected to be available in November.

Holin Barber, regional marketing director for Lincoln Properties, said that they have done minimal advertising in apartment guides, but that they expect to have a number of leases in hand in the next few months.

"We've actually had a lot of calls," Barber said. "With the kind of feedback we've been getting, it might be feasible. I've been impressed with the number of calls from people who are calling out of curiosity."

Bunten is just as hopeful. She is now displaying a large banner on the side of the Kress building, which has drawn inquiries.

Bunten said she's hoping to tap into the corporate market and push her 24-unit development with downtown businesses that might need flexible executive leases.

"Once we get the word out there and get people in to take a look, it's such a beautiful building," Bunten said.

DOWNTOWN CONDO FACTS

$327,486 average sales price for a condo or town house

$230.46 average price per square foot

95.2 percent priced between $100,000 and $600,000

61.9 percent priced between $100,000 and $300,000.

Sellers, on average, are getting 97 percent of their asking price.

SOURCE: Downtown Fort Worth Inc.

LINCOLN TRINITY BLUFF

701 E. Bluff St.

304 apartments

573 to 1,447 square feet

Monthly rental is $795 to $1,830

www.lincolnapts.com

PALISADES

600 E. Bluff St.

40 town houses

1,875 to 3,000 square feet

$299,000 to $500,000

www.palisadesfw.com

PECAN PLACE TOWNHOMES

612 E. First St.

28 town houses

1,694 to 2,653 square feet

$299,500 to $546,500

www.uptownfortworth.com

KRESS BUILDING LOFTS

501 Main St.

24 loft apartments

800 to 1,425 square feet

Leases starting at $1,500 a month

www.thekressbuilding.com

Condo projects flop across the U.S.

Developers nix or delay plans as sales slow and costs rise

02:00 PM CDT on Sunday, July 30, 2006
Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA – In a city cluttered with condominium construction, Old City 205 aspired to shine as an ultramodern residence for the well-heeled with its zinc and glass facade, loft-style homes and windows that span floor to ceiling.

Too bad no one will get to move in now: The $40 million project in Philadelphia's Old City neighborhood won't break ground after the housing market softened and increasingly picky buyers balked at its price tags from $400,000 for a studio to over $2 million for a three-bedroom penthouse.

Brown Hill Development, the company behind the project, noticed slower traffic and decided it didn't want to be left with unsold units, said partner Greg Hill.

From coast to coast, developers are nixing or delaying condominium projects as home sales decelerate, construction costs soar and lenders start to balk at financing units that might not sell. What's making it worse is the glut of high-priced condos and too few people who can afford them.

"We've gone through the biggest real estate boom in the last eight or nine years and some of these projects haven't started yet. Do you think they're going to start building now?" said real estate executive Allan Domb, dubbed Philadelphia's "condo king."

In Las Vegas, projects nixed include high-profile developments such as Aqua Blue, a $600 million, 825-unit luxury condominium-hotel resort that counted Michael Jordan as an investor; the $3 billion, 4,400-unit Las Ramblas resort, backed by George Clooney; and Ivana Las Vegas, a $700 million, 945-unit tower named after Donald Trump's ex-wife.

Related Las Vegas, one of the two developers for Las Ramblas, had cited rising construction costs and slowing sales for the cancellation.

In South Florida, canceled condo developments include 1390 Brickell Bay and ICE in Miami, Fort Lauderdale's The Waves Las Olas, and Promenade in Palm Beach County. WCI Communities Inc., a luxury home builder based in Bonita Spring, Fla., said in June that new orders for its high-rise condominiums fell by 84 percent in the second quarter. The company will now go forward with only three to five condo projects in 2006, down from as many as 15 to 17, mostly in Florida.

With housing looking increasingly anemic, it's not surprising that developers are bailing out.

Domb said he's gotten about half a dozen phone calls over the past four weeks from developers asking if he would like to buy their properties.

In May, the volume of apartment-to-condo conversions plunged to $334 million from $1.65 billion a year ago, said Gleb Nechayev, senior economist at Torto Wheaton Research, a real estate research firm in Boston owned by CB Richard Ellis. The all-time high was $4 billion, hit last September.

Builder confidence, as measured by the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index, fell in June to its lowest level since April 1995. Confidence took a hit due to rising mortgage rates, high home prices and investors and speculators fleeing the market.

The index surveyed builders of single-family homes, where the sales decline hasn't been as severe as for condos.

Jack McCabe, chief executive of McCabe Research and Consulting in Deerfield Beach, Fla., said desperate developers with finished condos are offering plenty of incentives in South Florida.

Freebies range from one year's free mortgage to the use of a yacht or upgraded kitchen packages. McCabe thinks some developers might even sell units at cost if condo sales continue to weaken.

McCabe considers the condo market, especially the luxury end, at risk of a crash. Over the next few years, he sees prices falling by double-digit percentages.

The luxury condo surplus is to blame. McCabe said about 25,000 condos are under construction in Miami-Dade County, with two-thirds costing $700,000 or higher; another 25,000 units have gotten building permits and 50,000 have been announced for future construction.

McCabe said the median household income in the county qualifies local buyers for a $225,000 home, so the luxury units are targeted mainly toward affluent, out-of-state buyers.

Meanwhile, speculators have driven up prices by flipping units, he said. But they're now leaving the market – driving down demand – and putting up for sale properties they own, adding to the glut.

Aside from Miami, he said areas at risk include Boston, San Diego, Las Vegas, Seattle, Chicago, Orlando, Fla., Washington, D.C., and Manhattan.

A big part of the problem is that many condo projects are priced high, in part because developers have to recoup the high prices they paid for land. But most buyers can't afford it.

"The sweet spot of the market is probably $250,000 to $700,000," Domb said. "That's what the majority of the population can afford. Many condos are priced higher. That's part of the problem."

Tell that to The Donald. Real estate mogul Donald Trump told The Associated Press he's going ahead with his 45-story waterfront luxury high rise called Trump Tower Philadelphia.

"It's doing fine," Trump said. "It's been intense. So many people want to move there."

He added interest has been high for the project, which he said doesn't surprise him because his name sells.

Playoffs helping sell Dallas condos

Dallas Business Journal - June 12, 2006
by Glenn Hunter
Editor

The chairman of Hillwood -- which owns Dallas' Victory Park, home of the American Airlines Center -- says the NBA Finals have helped sell luxury condominiums at the W Dallas Victory Hotel & Residences there.

"We had one guy who came for the game say, 'Look, I've got to have a place at the W; I want to live here,' " said Hillwood CEO Ross Perot Jr. "He called back the first thing this morning and is signing a contract."

During a June 9 reception for media covering the NBA Finals at the Victory Park sales office, Perot said the Dallas Mavericks' two games with the Miami Heat at the AAC have had a "huge impact" on Dallas economically.

"I'm not an expert, but I'd say about $40 million to $50 million per game will be brought into Dallas (from Thursday to Sunday) with all the outside money, all the media people traveling here," said Perot, who owns 5 percent of the Mavs. "And that doesn't count all the advertising -- just all the people around the world hearing about Dallas."

Perot said he'd invited President George W. Bush to the Finals, but Bush graciously declined. Gov. Rick Perry attended the June 11 game, which the Mavericks won to take a 2-0 series lead.

So, what's Perot's prediction for the Finals' outcome? "We're going to win in four games," he answered with a grin. "We're going to sweep 'em."

Townhouses to replace Oak Lawn units

09:15 AM CST on Thursday, March 16, 2006

By STEVE BROWN / The Dallas Morning News

Developers have bought up several Oak Lawn apartment complexes with plans to replace the rental units with townhouses.

Prescott Realty Group – the same company that's building high-rise condos at the Stoneleigh Hotel – plans to construct more than 100 townhouses on Newton, Gilbert and Bowser streets just south of Highland Park.

The first phase of the project is being built in partnership with CityView.

The California-based company was started by former San Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros to build urban housing. Mr. Cisneros is also a former secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

"Prescott Realty Group started on Prescott Street owning and redeveloping duplexes and apartments from the late 1990s," said president Jud Pankey.

"We have now found opportunities to go back into the neighborhood and begin a redevelopment process."

The first 58 townhouses on Newton Street near Douglas Avenue will replace about 84 apartments built in the 1960s.

"The first units should be available in January," said Prescott Realty director Louis Rothermell.

Designed by architect Good Fulton & Farrell of Dallas, the three-story units will be built starting this month.

The condominiums will range from 1,600 to 2,600 square feet and will cost between $375,000 and $550,000.

"It's all masonry for the most part on the exterior," said architect David Farrell. "Modernism is taking a fresh start in Dallas, and that's what we wanted here."

After the Newton Street project is done, Prescott will move on to another location on nearby Gilbert and construct 30 more units.

"We think there is a niche in the marketplace for higher-end townhomes," said Prescott Realty managing director Vance Detwiler.

David Griffin Realtors has been hired to market the Oak Lawn project.

Most of the condo and townhouse projects in that neighborhood are smaller, Mr. Griffin said.

"Since they have been able to acquire so much land, they are able to make an architectural statement," he said. "And there is not a better Oak Lawn location."

Condos up next for D.R. Horton?

Builder to venture into high-rise market with Uptown tower

12:00 AM CST on Thursday, November 10, 2005
By STEVE BROWN / The Dallas Morning News

D.R. Horton – the country's largest homebuilder – is plotting a move into the high-rise residential market.

The Fort Worth-based builder has teamed up with a Bedford developer who plans to construct an Uptown condo tower.

The project is still in the planning stages, but word about it is widespread among real estate brokers. D.R. Horton officials did not return phone calls or e-mails.

Planned for a block at McKinney Avenue and Akard Street, the 21-story project is one of two residential buildings proposed for the site by Centurion American Development Group.

Centurion is designing a building with about 150 units, which D.R. Horton would build out.

"We are just building the shell," said Centurion president Mehrdad Moayedi. Horton will then finish out the condominiums "a floor or two at a time," he said.

"It will be another 30 or 40 days before we have an announcement."

The building site also has room for a second, 10-story condominium plus a free-standing restaurant, Mr. Moayedi said.

Horton builds more than 50,000 homes a year in 23 states. Although most of the company's construction is traditional single-family homes, the builder is increasing its offerings in higher-density housing, including townhomes.

"We have talked to a few builders that have looked at this concept," said Ted Wilson, an industry analyst with Dallas' Residential Strategies Inc. "With the competition in this market, a lot of builders are venturing into new areas."

Mr. Wilson said a company such as Horton could be a formidable competitor in the high-rise condo market.

"You have a Wall Street company acting as a principal in this," he said. "You also have Horton's strength in marketing."

Few traditional builders have entered the booming high-rise residential market, but condominium sales are surpassing single-family home activity in select U.S. locations.

"It doesn't surprise me that the big builders are moving in that direction – especially in markets where condo product has proven to have a lot deeper demand than single-family," said long-time Dallas housing analyst Ron Witten.

"The big builders are eager to maximize their volumes."

Galleria condos in works

20-story tower to have 126 units; sales to begin in May

11:33 PM CST on Friday, March 25, 2005

By STEVE BROWN / The Dallas Morning News

Developers have bought the land for a high-rise condominium just north of the Galleria in Far North Dallas.

Mockingbird Group of Cos. plans to build a Mediterranean-style tower in the Galleria North complex at the northwest corner of Alpha and Noel roads.

A shopping center and two office towers have already been built in the project.

The 20-story Galleria North Condominium Tower will have 126 units ranging from an 850-square-foot condo to a 3,500-square-foot penthouse, according to the developer.

Spokeswoman Jeanette Moore said Friday that the company hasn't set prices for the units or a groundbreaking date.

Mockingbird Group filed a building permit for the property at 13733 Noel Road, according to M/PF Yieldstar Inc.

"If you think about it, the Galleria is the only true urban setting that can offer the lifestyle that so many people seek, with all of its restaurants, shopping and an office within the complex," Mitchell Vexler, president of Mockingbird Group, said in news release.

Mockingbird Group is the second developer to announce plans for a residential high-rise north of LBJ Freeway in Dallas.

Last month, Silver Tree Partners said it plans to build a condo tower on Arapaho Road overlooking the Prestonwood Country Club.

And while most of the high-rise residential construction is in the central city, developers have built several projects in the northern suburbs.

Most recently, Palladium USA Group built its 16-story Verona apartment tower on Noel Road across from the Galleria.

The Galleria North Condominium Tower will also have a swimming pool, spa, Zen garden and dog park, the company said.

Sales are set to begin in May.

Dallas Highrise Offers Options To Uptown Homeowners

Newest Addition, Azure, To Rise To 31 Stories

POSTED: 9:35 am CST January 26, 2005

FORT WORTH, Texas -- The median price for a home in the Dallas/Fort Worth area is just over $200,000. If you want to move into a new condo in uptown Dallas or Fort Worth, you will need to double that price.

The newest addition to the Dallas skyline, Azure, will rise to 375 feet above uptown and offer more than 200 high-end luxury condominiums.

Prices for the condos in the 31-story building start at around $400,000 for a one-bedroom, two-bath home. The 900-square foot unit costs an additional $4,800 a year in association fees.

"We call it Azure because it's going to be reflective of the sky. It's a new urban lifestyle that we see a need for here in Dallas," said Gabriel Barbier-Mueller with Harwood Living.

Buyers will have a lot of choices. The same $400,000 would buy a two-bedroom, two-bath condo in downtown Fort Worth's former Bank One building. The 2,000-square foot unit in The Tower comes with a hefty yearly fee of $7,200.

The Tower in Fort Worth has nearly sold all of its available condominiums.

Buyers who prefer the suburbs could move into a 4,400-square foot home in Allen for about the same cost as the downtown condos. The $400,000 home includes four bedrooms and four bathrooms as well as both a game room and a media room.

The neighborhood association fee for the suburb is just $492 a year.

Developers say it's all a matter of choice, each offering a different lifestyle.

"Azure is a new style of living. You're not just buying a condo, you're buying a landmark, you're buying a lifestyle," said Julie Morris with Harwood Living.

Construction starts on the $100 million building later this spring and new condo owners can expect to move into their new home in just two years.

2nd tower going up on Victory project

Most of the condos in the first phase sold faster than expected

10:29 PM CST on Monday, January 10, 2005

By STEVE BROWN / The Dallas Morning News

Hillwood Capital is beginning work on a second tower in its Victory project near downtown Dallas.

A 15-story condominium building will be attached to the south side of the W Dallas Victory Hotel and Residences, which is under construction.

The next residential tower, which will be built on top of the hotel's parking garage, will have 83 one- and two-bedroom condos.

Victory developer Hillwood said Monday that it has sold most of the 61 condos in the W tower.

"I don't think we anticipated we would sell the units as fast as we did," said Jonas Woods, president of Hillwood Capital.

The W hotel and condo building is set to open next year across the street from American Airlines Center. Mr. Woods said the second building will open "as close to simultaneously as we can make it."

Hillwood is building the project in partnership with Dallas-based Gatehouse Capital.

The new Victory building will have a fitness center and retail on the ground floor. As in the first tower, residents will have access to room service, housekeeping, concierge service and the hotel spa.

The condos will sell from about $400,000 to more than $1 million.

Dallas architects HKS Inc. designed the building, and local designer David Cadwallader did the interiors.

Residential analysts say Hillwood wanted to keep homes available for buyers.

"They have proven that there is a market there that perceives Victory as a location where they want to live," said Mike Puls of Foley & Puls. "The W hotel will attract a lot of people."

With the large number of high-rise condo projects in the market, Mr. Puls said, buyers have a lot of choices.

Construction also began recently on two midrise residential buildings in Victory, one with apartments and one with condos.

All the buildings will stretch along Houston Street between the W and Lamar Street.

Back on the Boulevard

New residential developments have sparked re-emergence of Camp Bowie as retail hub

By Sandra Baker
Star-Telegram Staff Writer

FORT WORTH -- For more than four decades, customers wanting to chow down on a juicy Kincaid's hamburger had to do so before the Camp Bowie grill closed at 6 p.m.

That was until a month ago, when Kincaid's owners decided to stay open two hours later.

"The customers were the reason we did it," said Morris Gardner, Kincaid's general manager.

The change in Kincaid's hours points to changes along the 9-mile stretch of Camp Bowie Boulevard from University Drive, near downtown, to Loop 820.

Camp Bowie Boulevard, once the city's premier shopping corridor, is beginning to re-emerge as a retail hub for the city. Shopping centers are being refurbished and leased quickly at higher rents. New developers are buying in.

The sprucing up of Camp Bowie comes as new developments are moving the edge of downtown closer to the street's beginning at the six- point intersection with University Drive, West Seventh Street and Bailey Avenue in the cultural district.

Pier 1's new headquarters, the redevelopment of the former Montgomery Ward, and several apartment and commercial developments along Seventh make it more possible for Camp Bowie to play the role of the uptown shopping area that Fort Worth has lacked.

Farther southwest, three residential developments are under construction in the Ridglea neighborhood, showing the heightened interest in turning sections of Camp Bowie into urban villages.

"People don't realize there is so much development going on," said Brandy O'Quinn, president of Historic Camp Bowie, a nonprofit group established four years ago to oversee the corridor's development direction.

The three residential developments are on Westridge Avenue, on an infill lot that was once planned as the site for a high-rise office tower. Instead, the land was sold to three developers to help boost the number of people living close to Camp Bowie.

Boulevard Builders in Dallas is in the midst of building Ridglea Place, a condominium development that plans 55 brownstones for the area. Sixteen residences are completed, and seven have sold. The two- and three-story condos start at $190,000.

Kyle Lovelady, a partner in Boulevard Builders, said the property was a prime location for a residential project. To spur sales, a five-year tax abatement that the project received is being passed along, saving home buyers between $100 and $140 a month.

"We try to position our properties near entertainment and employment centers," Lovelady said. "We also look for niches where other new construction is limited."

Garland-based North America Partners Development Co. has started construction on a 244-unit luxury apartment community called Ridglea View that should be ready by July, and the 253-unit Alta Ridglea, a recently completed apartment community, is 84 percent leased.

John Hilz, a partner in North America Partners, said that when the land went on the market, his group acted fast. The group would have liked to build a community with more than 350 units because demand is so strong, he said. "The depth of the market is superb," Hilz said.

This residential push is exactly what Camp Bowie retailers want to see, real estate experts say.

Rodger Chieffalo, with Chieffalo Realty, who has negotiated several land sales and continues to be a top leasing broker along Camp Bowie, said the activity along the boulevard is part of a larger, national trend of retailers and residents wanting to move back into urban areas.

The west side of Fort Worth has some of the city's wealthiest neighborhoods and has been a solid residential market for existing homes, drawing on the generations of families that founded the neighborhoods and continue to live there.

But national retailers have long wondered whether they would be able to make it on Camp Bowie, Chieffalo said.

To accommodate some of those retailers, University Park Village was built. And seeing the success of that center, the Chapel Hill Shopping Center was built, Chieffalo said.

Now, it's time for Camp Bowie to get back in the mix. Fortunately, many of the older, quaint buildings along the boulevard have survived and are being redeveloped, he said.

As those stores were closing, shopping centers and malls sprang up in the suburban communities nearer Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, in Grapevine, Southlake, Hurst and Arlington.

But that tide has also turned.

"An odd thing has happened," Chieffalo said. "All through the '70s and all through the '80s, even in the '90s, Fort Worth was the last place retailers would come.

"Fort Worth is now a market for high-end retailers. Camp Bowie is going to get their share of those tenants."

The opportunity for many of those retailers is coming with the redevelopment of the former Ridglea Center shopping area at 6323 and 6333 Camp Bowie into The Village at Camp Bowie. The center was developed between the 1940s and 1960s.

O'Quinn said the sale of that property and its redevelopment mean a great deal for future development to the west of the center. Camp Bowie is anchored on the east by world-class museums, and there's no reason museum visitors shouldn't travel a little farther west to shop and eat, she said.

"It's a huge injection," O'Quinn said of The Village at Camp Bowie. "If that property hadn't turned, it would not change this area so dramatically."

Trophy Investments in Dallas is completely redeveloping 282,125 square feet of retail space, giving it a different look and feel, including adding an outdoor plaza where shoppers can sit, relax and grab a bite to eat. Construction is scheduled to be finished in January.

Lynn Dowdle, vice president with Staubach Co.'s retail division, who is handling leasing at the center, declined to say what retailers are going into the center, but he said the project is being done at "the perfect time" and will be "absolutely unique."

"West Fort Worth has needed a really exciting and vital center for retail and restaurants," Dowdle said. "The market is calling for that kind of project. Leasing has been going great since the renovations started."

If lease rates are any indication, Camp Bowie has grown in demand.

Four years ago, lease rates ranged from $7 to $9 a square foot, and landlords paid for such items as taxes and insurance. Today, tenants are paying those expenses and about $14 a square foot in rent.

While that represents a healthy increase, it is still a good deal compared with other retail hubs. Prime shopping centers in Arlington and Southlake start at $20 a square foot, for example. Downtown Fort Worth averages $15 to $20 a square foot.

"Camp Bowie is still a great bargain, even though rents have gone up," Chieffalo said. "It's still way below counterparts in other parts of the country. No one is being run off because of the rents."

Historic Camp Bowie, too, has been spearheading a makeover for Camp Bowie the past few years, planting more than 80 trees, paying attention to other landscaping needs and bringing back the red brick road that is Camp Bowie's hallmark. Reconstruction of the red brick street will be completed a year from now, O'Quinn said.

"We believe Camp Bowie has the potential to become one of those great streets of the U.S. that people travel to and talk about how they visited Camp Bowie Boulevard," O'Quinn said.

Historic Camp Bowie, which hired McCormick Co. advertising agency in Fort Worth, is prepared to launch a marketing and advertising campaign next month with the tagline, "It's All on the Boulevard."

O'Quinn said the idea behind the campaign is to focus on the myriad merchants and businesses along Camp Bowie.

Historic Camp Bowie has also received a grant from the North Central Texas Council of Governments to create a pedestrian-oriented development in Ridglea.

O'Quinn said the $380,000 grant will be used to build sidewalks and crosswalks to make walking from the new residential developments and the Ridglea neighborhood easier along the retail stretch that includes The Village at Camp Bowie.

"We're hoping to create connectivity of the people to the retail so they don't have to get in their cars and drive," she said.

Although there are many projects on the drawing board and still more work to do to improve the appearance of Camp Bowie, all involved are confident that the street will re-emerge as a premier area of Fort Worth.

"By and large, this entire shopping market is on an upward trend, and Camp Bowie is changing for the better, more in the last three years than in the prior 15 years," Chieffalo said. "The best is yet to come in the tenants, in the rents and the quality of the developments."