Irving: Las Colinas Development

[gc]

Las Colinas' home economics
Focus shifting to residential development
10:58 PM CDT on Thursday, October 9, 2003
By STEVE BROWN / The Dallas Morning News
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dallas/business/stories/101003dnbusLasColinas.c251c.html

A real estate project planned as a "city of tomorrow" is looking back in time as it plans its next phase.

In the 1970s and '80s, developers envisioned that Irving's sprawling Las Colinas community would be full of futuristic skyscrapers.

"If you looked at some of the original architectural renderings of the Las Colinas Urban Center, it looked like Hong Kong," said Dary Stone, whose company manages the project. "It looked like there were more buildings than in downtown Dallas."

As Las Colinas celebrates its 30th anniversary, there are plenty of tall buildings on the former ranch land northwest of Dallas.

But some of the last remaining developments will have a small-town flavor, with more residential construction than commercial.

"Residential development has gotten to a much hotter point than commercial," said Mr. Stone, a vice chairman with Cousins Properties, which has managed Las Colinas for the last 11 years. "Residential builders are paying more per square foot on average for development sites than office developers."

To that end, Cousins Properties has sold a handful of prime building sites in the high-rise Las Colinas Urban Center at State Highway 114 and O'Connor Boulevard to developers planning low- and mid-rise apartments.

And near LBJ Freeway and Royal Lane, almost 200 acres once earmarked for a business park will now be carved into a neo-traditional residential neighborhood.

"In all, we have about 1,200 acres of Las Colinas left to develop," said Charles Cotten, Cousins Properties' senior vice president. "Today there are probably about 400 acres that we have specifically identified for residential development."

Las Colinas was once the largest mixed-use development in the Southwest with more than 12,000 acres.

The mammoth real estate project started out as a cattle ranch owned by Dallas businessman Ben Carpenter and his family.

Called El Ranchito de Las Colinas – the Little Ranch of the Hills – the river-bottom farmland was a weekend getaway for the Carpenter family, which owned one of the state's largest insurance companies.

"We liked it the way it was, but then they plopped the airport next to it," said John Carpenter III, whose father began the project before the airport even opened. "We had to create the market out there – there wasn't anything for miles."

With construction of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport almost at their doorstep, the Carpenters decided the family farm was better suited for business than bovines.

Some of the country's top urban planners were consulted to lay out an entire town – an unprecedented undertaking that predated later projects in Plano, Allen and other suburbs.

The Carpenters carved the prairie into office parks and hotel sites and built miles of roads, artificial lakes and country clubs.

During the early years, commuters on State Highway 114 saw a surreal landscape of excavation and paving.

"You felt like you were driving through a military testing ground or something," said Mr. Stone. "There were a couple of small office buildings, and that was about it."

Skeptics predicted that Las Colinas would be a developer's folly. But the 1980s building boom proved them wrong.

Changing focus


Las Colinas wound up as the favored location of relocating companies and office developers, attracting such companies as Exxon Corp., GTE Telephone (now Verizon), Kimberly Clark and Associates Corp.

Today, almost $5 billion in properties are located in Las Colinas, compared with about $14 billion for the entire city of Irving, Mr. Cotten said.

"Another 6.5 million square feet of office space were built in the most recent [late 1990s] boom," he said.

But for the next few years, the biggest chunk of construction in Las Colinas won't be for office space.

"Oh, we still have some office sites," said Mr. Cotten. "But there isn't a lot of demand for office land right now."

Starting off


Later this year, construction will begin on La Villita, a 200-acre neighborhood at O'Connor Boulevard and Royal Lane.

Designed by renowned Florida architect Andres Duany, the community will have houses, apartments and townhomes built around a series of parks, boulevards, town squares and a 40-acre lake.

Mr. Stone said his company wanted the intimate, traditional feel Mr. Duany builds into his neighborhoods at projects including the Seaside resort development in Florida and the Kentlands community in Maryland.

"Duany has been very successful with his projects," Mr. Stone said. "We've already got granite curbs out here, so we didn't want schlop."

Cousins Properties and Teachers Insurance and Annuity will invest $25 million in infrastructure to start the project. The New York-based Teachers pension fund has owned the undeveloped portions of Las Colinas since acquiring them during the early 1990s.

A demand for housing


Construction on 700 apartments will start in January, and in the spring lots will be readied for 250 single-family homes and 150 townhomes.

Cousins is negotiating with single-family home builders including Darling Homes and Goodman Family Builders.

Housing analysts predict strong demand for homes in a location so close to one of North Texas' biggest employment centers. Almost 100,000 people work in the Las Colinas area.

"This is a prime location, and there should be a lot of demand for this type of community," said Ted Wilson of Residential Strategies. "It will be very much of a village concept – borrowing from developments of the past but still with some modern ideas."

Las Colinas' second development phase is along DART's planned commuter light rail line in the Urban Center on the east side of State Highway 114. Land on the far side of Lake Carolyn that was once designated for office towers will be used for apartments, condos, retail and mid-rise commercial buildings.

The transit line is tentatively scheduled to be completed in 2009, but by the time the train gets there, people will already be living in the apartments.

"One developer – Hanover Co. – is already under construction," Mr. Cotten said. "And the other three apartment builders all plan to start in the next three months."

Along with Hanover, which is building a rental project called the Lofts of Las Colinas, United Dominion Realty and Billingsley Co. will build high-density apartment projects in the Urban Center.

'Toe in the water'


Billingsley's rental community will be its first outside the developer's Austin Ranch mixed-use project in Carrollton. "I wanted to put my toe in the water outside Austin Ranch, so we are building 238 units," said company president Lucy Billingsley. "It will be a great fit with the Urban Center."

Apartment analysts say a moratorium on multifamily housing construction a few years ago in Irving helped create some demand. And the changes in Las Colinas' original layout make sense given the dramatic swings in the real estate market during the last 30 years, Mr. Carpenter said.

"It was always supposed to be a mixed-use project," he said. "And if you had tried to build everything out there based on the original master plan, you'd be waiting a long, long time."

E-mail stevebrown@dallasnews.com
-----------------
I have attached an aerail view of the Las Colinas Urban Center from DMN website.

[Kelley USA]

I love Las Colinas! It's a great place for those who can't decide between urban and suburban- sort of in the middle!!

[rantanamo]

The new residentiasl are exciting I think. I know most that haven't explored the area think of it as a suburban office park only, but at close examination there is some great mixed use there with ground level retail topped by garages, office, and apartments. The apartments right up to the shore of Lake Carolyn are awesome I think. The office of one of my jobs is near the urban center, so I get to see it a lot, and I'm totally impressed with the areas of the new construction and the Jerry World candidate site. The Lofts project is right on the water, next to the Williams complex with water on two sides of it. The mandalay project on the barren shore of Lake Carolyn is right up to the water as well, and looks to be right up to rail line. Really cool I think. The La Villita site looks very promising. It's a little bit further away from the urban center, but maybe only a mile. Definitely walkable or shuttle able to the transit center on O'Connor. The waterways have already been finished, and dirt is actually moving. Would love to see a rendering. Imagine the impact though of Jerry World. Football is the biggest sport in North Texas, Texas, and the United States. Throw in a little mixed use, and you have a more catalyzed urban center. I'm sorry if many hate to read this, but I'm totally convinced of the potential of Las Colinas as a great host for Jerry World. Just think downtown would be better.

[Kelley USA]

Found this website today: www.lavillitalascolinas.com

[gc]

cool thank you

[CTroyMathis]

Good find!

The scope of this Duany-designed project is far more massive than I had imagined. Especially if all phases are completed.

[tamtagon]

It looks nice, although I would have thought a city park would be appropriate in the multi-family, high deisity sectors as well as the single family, low density sectors.

[CTroyMathis]

A phase approved for one developer within La Villita:

One new commercial project was approved – Lincoln at La Villita will consist of 23 three-story apartment buildings (409 total units), a leasing office building, and swimming pool.

From an old reliable online resource here:
http://www.universityhills.net/tlcarpt

[CTroyMathis]

Any new news on La Villita?

http://www.lavillitalascolinas.com/AboutLaVillita/Amenities/Lakes/images/RF_View-Lake-Plaza.jpg



For that matter, the other Irving-Las Colinas items?

[Kelley USA]

They have yet to start any work on the housing section- but Lincoln Properties is well underway with its apartment complex. In fact- they should have initial move-ins next month. All of the infrastructure is in place for the entire development- but I think they had a major sewage line break and have been trying to get that resolved for many many months now. Once they get that fixed- I'm sure we'll see some rooftops.

[CTroyMathis]

What of the fire at the Lofts at Las Colinas construction site. I am playing major catch-up on some things - did it kill the project, is it on hold, or is it underway again?

[Kelley USA]

Nope- they are still woking fast and furious on it!

[CTroyMathis]

Thanks! Good to hear.

[texman]

How did that fire start?

[Kelley USA]

I think it was a spark from a welders torch...

[rantanamo]

They wasted no time with La Villita. The first time I read of it, they were already shaping the land for it, and you could make out where streets would be. That was back in 2003. This seems to be the forgotten new urbanist development. Probably since it can be considered Las Colinas.

[noelamador]

Las Colinas on the rise

Interest revived in the Irving development

12:10 AM CST on Friday, February 4, 2005

By STEVE BROWN / The Dallas Morning News

Frisco's office market is booming. The Telecom Corridor is dialing up big leases. But what's happening in Las Colinas?

Apartments like this new complex in La Villita are playing a key role in Las Colinas' renewed growth.

Until recently, not much.

One of North Texas' star business districts has been limping along the last few years, with tenant move-outs and swelling office vacancies.

Now a string of recent leases and the prospect of better economic days are improving the outlook for the Irving development.

A surge in apartment building in Las Colinas may also help, and two major transportation projects will eventually add to the area's appeal.

Las Colinas' almost 6 million square feet of empty office space ? much of it the result of the tech industry crash ? is hard to ignore.

"There is nothing driving demand out there," said Jim Vanderslice, the president of Dallas' GLV Realty Advisors who's working with a tenant looking for about 30,000 square feet of space. "We did a survey, and they had 60 different choices."

One reason Las Colinas is lagging may be today's office leasing market.

"Las Colinas always benefits from the major corporate relocations, and we have not seen a significant number of those yet," said Jack Eimer, president of Transwestern Commercial Services' Central Region. "I certainly think we are going to see some renewed relocation activity this year."

Cousins Properties, which manages Las Colinas, is also predicting a return of corporate moves.

"We are seeing good activity in small and medium-size tenants," said Dary Stone, Cousins Properties' vice chairman. "I believe we are going to get the relocations for all the reasons we always have.

"The fundamentals are even more appealing than they were 10 years ago," he said.

Las Colinas' location next to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and its supply of first-class office buildings have made it a favorite for Fortune 100 companies.

But with a vacancy rate of more than 26 percent ? almost 35 percent in the high-rise Urban Center ? the area now trails many other suburban office markets.

Brokers and investors say they aren't worried about the slump.

"We've always been a big believer in this market," said Chuck Anderson, a partner in Bandera Ventures, which bought two empty office buildings in the Urban Center last year. "We have seen the office activity start to pick up and are hopeful that sometime in 2005 we'll see some relocations.

"When Las Colinas turns, it can turn pretty quickly," he said.

Growth signs

The switch may be under way.

During the last few weeks, several significant office leases have been signed, with tenants including General Motors Corp. and Cottonwood Financial Ltd.

Brokers say other deals are in the works.

"There is space available in Las Colinas, and the market automatically perceives that there are deals out here, and there are," said Phil Baker, president of Magellan Commercial Realty Inc. "It's a good time to be looking."

With the amount of construction in Las Colinas, there is no outward sign of a slowdown. But none of what's being built is speculative office space.

More than 1,500 high-end apartment units are being built in the Urban Center and the nearby La Villita complex, including projects by Lincoln Property Co., United Dominion Realty, Hanover Co. and AMLI Residential Properties Trust.

Palladium USA International Inc. is building its 306-unit Canal Side Lofts apartments just east of State Highway 114 in an area dominated by office towers.

"Once we get through all the mud, we'll be making real progress," said Palladium's Tom Huth, who says the first units will be ready in October.

Mr. Huth and Cousins Properties officials predict that additional residential projects will make Las Colinas' commercial buildings more popular. "When you add 4,000 people living in the Urban Center, it's a structural change," Mr. Stone said.

Apartment aid

Greg Willett, head researcher for Dallas apartment analyst M/PF YieldStar, formerly M/PF Research Inc., agrees that the apartment boom will be a benefit.

"The mixed-use projects have held up much better in this downturn," he said.

Las Colinas has a vacancy rate of about 7 percent. Rents were up almost 2 percent last year.

"It is certainly by far the strongest of the [Dallas] suburban markets," Mr. Willett said.

In the years ahead, Las Colinas will also benefit from the expansion of DART's light-rail system to the Urban Center. The line connecting Irving and downtown will open in six years.

Construction of the State Highway 190 extension to State Highway 114 in Las Colinas is also under way.

"The dynamics out here are getting better," Mr. Stone said. "We have just gone through a period of office consolidations."
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RON BASELICE/DMN

Apartments like this new complex in La Villita are playing a key role in Las Colinas' renewed growth.


Photography | PhotoStore
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[sterling]

So glad they are focusing on residential for a while, though I hope it's less "cookie-cutter" than it seems. It's always nice how the downturn in one market (in this case garantuan office buildings), forces developers into another direction. Frustrating at times, but it eventually comes full circle (please, in my lifetime). Another "Sleeping Beauty/Rip Van Winkle" awakes to reality!

[CTroyMathis]

http://www.loftsatlascolinas.com/
^ Just putting another website reference in the thread.

[gc]

^ nice

[Loft Boy]

Here is some information about the Lofts at Las Colinas. I have posted some pictures for everyone to see how the finish out the building is coming. As I take more from the construction site I will post them for you.
Take care.
www.loftsatlascolinas.com or Telephone: 972.402.0007

[gc]

Thanks Loft Boy and welcome to the forum.

[jsoto3]

The link doesn't work for me.

[Loft Boy]

The link doesn't work for me.

The website address is : www.loftsatlascolinas.com
Email me if you can't get it at "leasingdirector@loftsatlascolinas.com"

Good Luck
Loft Boy

[crescentboi]

Here's some pics that I got last week of some of the development in Las Colinas in the Urban Center.

[Tnekster]

GlobeSt.com EXCLUSIVE: Legacy Starts in Texas With $30M-Plus Project
By Connie Gore
Last updated: December 15, 2005 08:25am

(To read more on the multifamily market, click here.)


IRVING, TX-Legacy Partners Residential Development Inc. is closing on a 4.3-acre site to develop its first project in Texas: the 258-unit Delano. The $30-million-plus development, being funded Friday, will have a front-row seat for a planned light-rail station in the Las Colinas Urban Center.


"This was the best site left in the Urban Center," says Garry Gibbons with Prime Income Asset Management Inc., who brokered the land sale to Legacy's Texas partner, Spencer Stuart Jr., a veteran developer with a longstanding penchant for Las Colinas projects. Bought for roughly $12 per sf, Legacy's site is bounded by Lake Carolyn Parkway, Riverside Drive (formerly Rochelle Drive) and O'Connor Boulevard.


Stuart tells GlobeSt.com that the general contractor, Andres Construction Co. of Dallas, will be pulling permits Monday so site work can begin. The Delano will deliver in late winter or early spring 2007.


The Delano has been designed by Dallas-based Humphreys & Partners Architects LP with many of the same upscale components as those that Stuart used in projects for another company, including the Grand Treviso at 330 E. Las Colinas Blvd. which has been converted to condos. Stuart's added a new twist to the Delano--resident garages inside a parking structure, with private accesses to air-conditioned interior corridors. "No one is doing this in the Dallas market," he says, crediting his long-time business associate, Michael Puls of Foley & Puls Inc. in Dallas with helping to game out the special amenity.


"It was technically challenging, but we found a way to do it," Stuart says. "It added a lot to the cost, but it added quite a bit to the value." He estimates the all-in cost will exceed $30 million. The Delano's interior designer is the Atlanta-based Des-Syn Inc. and landscape architect, Enviro Design Inc. of Dallas.


Stuart says the Delano has been designed "to reach for the gap in the market" that's been created by the Grand Treviso's conversion. "We are going to backfill the space created by the removal of those units," he says. The Delano's units will average 1,044 sf and rent for $1.39 per sf or a range of $964 to $2,420 per month.


Stuart says the plan is to build, lease and then the Foster City, CA-based Legacy and its New York City equity partner will decide whether or not to sell the Delano, a four-story, art deco building patterned after high-end product in Miami. The Las Colinas Architectural Control Committee has cleared the design and colors so that the Delano "can look different from other projects in the area," says Stuart, who with Legacy's vice president of development Richard Brownjohn has built nearly 1,000 units in Las Colinas.


Stuart says he is in discussions with other Las Colinas landowners for more land, a large enough tract for another 300-unit rental property. Meanwhile, he's under contract to buy development sites in Plano, Austin and Richardson.


Stuart, who opened Legacy's Texas office in November 2004, spent most of this year building the pipeline. According to Gibbons, the Urban Center tract has been under contract practically since Prime Income bought it and 30 abutting acres a year ago. "They stepped right up and paid our price," Gibbons says, citing the location as the lure, particularly since the Dallas Area Rapid Transit board plans to extend the line to the Urban Center and the Delano's doorstep within five years.

[jsoto3]

Please post source links when posting articles. Thanks.

http://www.globest.com/news/434_434/dallas/141125-1.html

[I45Tex]

I was going to post this article. I quite like the design, myself. Here's a link straight to the image (http://globest.com/newspics/dal_delano.jpg)

[CTroyMathis]

^ I quite like the design also.

[CTroyMathis]

May find a larger rendering someday at this site, perhaps on this page even: http://www.legacypartners.com/Legacy.asp?loc=r_dev_menu1&div=R

(Aside from the Humphrey's website. . .)

Also, I noticed theres this going on in the LC UC (alluded to way, way back in the first post if this is the same project. . .) :


855 Block Apartments: A 268-unit apartment complex located at 1851 Riverside Drive. The developer is Billingsley Lake Carolyn Partners.
Source for quote: http://universityhills.net/tlca1105

[CTroyMathis]

More apartments

The Las Colinas apartment boom shows no sign of a let-up.

The latest project in the Irving development is by California-based A.G. Spanos Cos. The developer has purchased a 6.6-acre site on Las Colinas Boulevard in the Urban Center.

The property is near the right of way for DART's light rail line, which will be extended through the area.

The land was purchased from Las Colinas Land LP.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/columnists/all/stories/DN-recol_23bus.ART.State.Edition1.15566619.html

[CTroyMathis]

Las Colinas to get a taste of Uptown
Gables to develop 13-acre, mixed-use site in Urban Center
09:46 AM CST on Wednesday, January 11, 2006
By STEVE BROWN / The Dallas Morning News
Visit: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/DN-gables_11bus.ART.State.Edition2.135e265f.html

Gables Residential, the busiest apartment builder in central Dallas, is going to take a little bit of Uptown to Irving.

Gables has purchased about 13 acres in the center of Las Colinas, where it plans to build a high-density mixed-use project. The lakeside development will include hundreds of apartments, a shopping center and a future condo tower and hotel.


The development site is in the Las Colinas Urban Center on O'Connor Boulevard east of State Highway 114. It is directly across the street from Las Colinas' landmark bronze mustangs sculpture.

"It's across from Williams Square and on the water," Gables senior vice president Doug Chesnut said Monday. "It's a great piece of real estate."

Gables purchased the property from the Las Colinas Land LP in a deal negotiated by Cousins Properties. The sale was one of the last made by Cousins before Houston developer Hines took ownership of the remaining vacant land in Las Colinas at the end of 2005.

It will take almost a year to plan and engineer.

"We will do it in multiple phases," Mr. Chesnut said. "We can make this the heart of the Urban Center."

Early concepts call for almost 800 apartments with more than 200,000 square feet of retail space on the lower floors.

With more than 1,000 apartment units under construction in Las Colinas, the addition of an Uptown-style retail center should boost rental demand in the neighborhood, said Dallas apartment analyst Mike Puls.

"Walking to nearby retail is a great advantage for apartments," he said.

And Gables has experience with mixed-use development. It is part of the next phase of Dallas' Cityplace project.

The two Gables projects are located across the street from the West Village and include apartments above ground-level stores.

[Kelley USA]

Good news for Las Colinas... Maybe this will help spur a revitalization of the canal. I have always thought mixed-use would work well there.

[rantanamo]

guess they will build this under/around the people mover track?

[tamtagon]

It will be sweet when you can take a DART train from the urban environment of downtown Dallas to the urban environment of Las Colinas. Right now, it's SO easy to have a blanket view of the Dallas CBD and Las Colinas Urban Centre as cut-throat rivals since both areas compete aggressively for new jobs and corporate relocations. But with the point of view of a urban resident getting around by train, the difference between the CBD and Las Colinas is great. Everything this train puts within walking distance is on the verge of combining to finally deliver that highly touted convenient big city lifestyle.

Ten more years, damn, that's too long. TxDOT need to go ahead and front DART a billion dollars TODAY to get DART trains running between DFW Airport and the CBD by 2010.

[EscapeToCity]

TxDOT give DART money? That would be fabulous but don't hold your breath...

TxDOT has shown a general disregard for mass transit projects. I have done some work for the planners at TxDOT HQ here in Austin and the mentality is still "roads, roads, roads"...when you mention terms like sustainability they shoot suspicious looks your way...it's very funny in a way, and very sad...you have some people at TxDOT who would love to see thirty-lane expressways with ten-lane frontage roads, damn the environmental & social impacts...(they are getting just that, or near to, down in Houston with the massive Katy Freeway/I-10 expansion)

Nevertheless, Gables' announcement is very good news for Las Colinas...I've always liked the Urban Centre and thought it had a lot of potential.

[dfwcre8tive]

Thousands of apartments in works in Las Colinas
01:14 PM CST on Friday, February 10, 2006
By STEVE BROWN / The Dallas Morning News

RON BASELICE/DMN

Fidencio Navarro works on a new apartment building. Las Colinas "is leasing up like gangbusters," says Spencer Stuart Jr., senior vice president of Legacy Partners.
Developers are keeping the dirt flying in Las Colinas with a new round of apartment building. More than 1,000 rental units are under construction in the Irving development, and at least that many more are planned in the next round of building.

Most of the apartment projects are being built in the Las Colinas Urban Center, a 900-acre complex of high-rise offices, hotels and residential space on the east side of State Highway 114.

California-based developer Legacy Partners just broke ground for the latest deal – a 258-unit luxury rental complex on O'Connor Boulevard. "Everything in Las Colinas is leasing up like gangbusters," said Spencer Stuart Jr., senior vice president of Legacy Partners. "All of the properties under construction are going to do pretty well out there."

Legacy Partner's four-story complex will be aimed at the upper end of the market, with rents averaging more than $1,400 a month. "We are going after the luxury-oriented renter who wants a lot of amenities," Mr. Stuart said. "The average income in a one-mile radius of our project is over $200,000. There is plenty of desire by renters to live in that market."

So far, statistics bear that out. Only about 5 percent of the rental units in the Las Colinas area are empty, according to the latest numbers from market researcher M/PF YieldStar Inc.

That's one of the lowest vacancy rates in North Texas. And rents at the end of 2005 were up about 1 percent from a year ago. "Long-term it's one of the best places to be building," said Greg Willett, M/PF YieldStar's vice president of research and analysis. "Las Colinas is going to continue to be a significant job growth center."

Opening

Houston-based developer Hanover Co. is finishing its Lofts at Las Colinas – a 341-unit project on O'Connor Boulevard, which is almost a year behind schedule after a fire destroyed much of the complex. But the delay hasn't hurt Hanover's leasing.

Other projects were finished last year by developers Lincoln Property Co. and AMLI.

Developer Palladium USA International expects to start moving tenants into its Canal Side Lofts project on Las Colinas Boulevard in a few weeks. "We already have about 180 prospects," said Tom Huth, president of Palladium USA International. "We think this project is going to fly off the shelf."

Mr. Huth said the projected rents for the project were about $1.30 per square foot, "and we are exceeding that" in preleasing.

He says he isn't worried about the flurry of groundbreakings up the street. "We've never been afraid of competition," Mr. Huth said. "We think it brings more people to the market, and we will get more than our share."

Long-term prospects

Gables Residential and A.G. Spanos Cos. are planning two more major apartment developments for the Las Colinas Urban Center. "It wouldn't surprise me if we have a couple of quarters with too much product coming on the market at once," Mr. Willett said. "But we are still incredibly confident about Las Colinas in the long run."

If anything, the market is expected to get better in the years ahead. Dallas Area Rapid Transit's light rail commuter train is scheduled to start service to the development in five years. Developers and market analysts predict demand for rental housing will accelerate when the train rolls in.

Unlike in other popular Dallas area rental markets, there's still land available in Las Colinas, said Mike Puls of apartment analyst Foley & Puls. "The only place there is any raw dirt is in Las Colinas," Mr. Puls said. "You've got to go to Denton or Frisco from there. "This market has been good for a long time, and we think it still has some depth."

E-mail stevebrown@dallasnews.com

[tamtagon]

Friday, February 10, 2006
By STEVE BROWN / The Dallas Morning News

Las Colinas Urban Center, a 900-acre complex of high-rise offices, hotels and residential space
...
Legacy Partner's four-story complex
...
"Las Colinas is going to continue to be a significant job growth center."
...
Developer Palladium USA International expects to start
...
Dallas Area Rapid Transit's light rail commuter train is scheduled to start service to the development in five years.

I hope there's a solid plan to link every development in Las Colinas with convenient pedestrian access. That place is shaping up to be a third downtown area with a stand alone atmosphere.

Las Colinas could be the location in the Metroplex where family oriented high rise dwellings take root first, being that Irving is dry and everything (although I'm still leaning toward North Oak Cliff (area) closest to TRP to house the most families in highrises). Anyway.... Highly concentrated residential and job opportunities in Las Colinas separated only by a 15-20 minute train ride from highly concentrated residential and job opportunities in downtown Dallas will be a very potent epoxy for big city living in the Metroplex.

I guess Palladium is back to give Metroplex master plan developments another go....

[FoUTASportscaster]

That would be nice if that scenario happened. To add to that, Irving ISD does not have the stigma of the DISD, however undeserved some may preceive it, to lure the families to live like that.

[dfwcre8tive]

Las Colinas developer Carpenter dead at 82
10:10 PM CST on Friday, March 3, 2006
By JOE SIMNACHER and STEVE BROWN / Staff Writers

Ben H. Carpenter, a visionary Dallas businessman who turned his river bottom ranch into one of the country's most successful real estate developments, died Friday at his home.

Mr. Carpenter, 82, built one of downtown Dallas' biggest skyscrapers and ran one of the country's largest insurance firms. But his Las Colinas development in Irving is his most visible legacy.

What started as the family cattle spread is now home to some of the country's biggest corporations, including Exxon Mobil and Kimberly-Clark. Thousands of people live in Las Colinas' homes and apartments, and the project has become a model worldwide.

The development that in 1973 was estimated to cost $700 million is now valued at more than $5 billion. "He was so far ahead of his time," said longtime Dallas real estate broker Wayne Swearingen. "He built a tremendous project – it was his ranch and he wanted to do it right."

Mr. Carpenter was one of the last of a generation of business leaders who helped transform Dallas into an international city. "Look at the titans in the real estate industry in Dallas – Ben was one of them," said John Scovell, president of Woodbine Development Corp. "He was part of the generation that was critical to this city's growth."

A third-generation Texan, Mr. Carpenter was born in Dallas but spent much of his youth on his family's Hackberry Creek Ranch, which would later become the centerpiece of Las Colinas. His mother called the homestead El Ranchito de las Colinas, the Little Ranch of the Hills.

Mr. Carpenter's days at Hackberry Creek Ranch became a microcosm of his life. He built his first project on what would become Las Colinas when he was just 9 years old: a two-story bunkhouse from surplus scrap iron.

Later he became the ranch's weekend foreman. After graduating from Highland Park High School, Mr. Carpenter went to the University of Texas at Austin, where he intended to study law. But he volunteered to join the Army less than a year after enrolling and became the youngest officer ever commissioned at the cavalry school at Fort Riley, Kan.

During World War II, Mr. Carpenter saw service in Greece, Italy, England, France and the China-Burma-India theater, where he was awarded the Silver Star for bold action. After the war, he returned to the University of Texas, graduating in 1948 with a degree in business administration. That same year he married Betty Ann Dupree of Dallas.

Mr. Carpenter was part of a powerful Dallas family. His father, John W. Carpenter, who founded Southland Life Insurance Co., was a force in Lone Star Steel Co. and president of the Dallas Railway and Terminal Co. He was also chairman of Texas Power & Light Co., a predecessor of TXU Corp.

John W. Carpenter Freeway bears his name. The elder Mr. Carpenter passed along to his son not only opportunities, but also his love of ranching and his business drive.

At age 26, Mr. Carpenter was elected to the board of directors of the insurance company. Two years later, he was elected chairman of the company's executive committee. In 1959, upon his father's death, he succeeded him as chairman of the board. That same year, Southland Center opened downtown, the city's tallest skyscraper. Planned by Ben Carpenter, it is now the Adam's Mark Hotel.

Under Ben Carpenter's leadership, Southland Life Insurance more than doubled the dollar amount of insurance policies it had to more than $1 billion by 1959. Southland Life Insurance later became Southland Financial Corp. The company was liquidated in 1989 after getting caught up in the regional economic crash.

Mr. Carpenter's grandest accomplishment, unquestionably, was Las Colinas. He realized in the 1960s that the planned regional airport between Dallas and Fort Worth would transform the sleepy ranch land, so he decided to develop it.

In 1973, he unveiled a 20-year blueprint for a 3,500-acre master-planned community of homes, golf courses, shopping centers and skyscrapers.

There were plenty of skeptics. "It was farmland and a flood plain" miles from downtown, said Frank Schubert, one of Mr. Carpenter's former financial officers. "Ben was a long-term thinker – far beyond most people."

The development was in the right place at the right time. It soon mushroomed to include more than 12,000 acres and dozens of towers. By the late 1980s, it wasn't uncommon for first-time visitors to Reunion Tower in downtown Dallas to misidentify the massive Irving project as Fort Worth's skyline.

Mr. Carpenter was a stickler for quality – from the exterior of his Southland Center made of handset Italian mosaics, to the curbs in Las Colinas, which were solid granite blocks. "None of us can take it with us into immortality, so let's resist the attitude of some real estate developers in the past to squeeze out the very last short-term dollar," Mr. Carpenter said in a 1974 letter to his employees.

His attention to detail usually paid off – the equestrian sculpture he commissioned at the center of Las Colinas became an instant landmark. "Looking around the country, there are very few like Ben Carpenter who could think so far ahead," said Dallas real estate broker Roger Staubach. "He had a lot of integrity, and he always did things right. He'll go down in Dallas history right up there with John Stemmons."

Frank Miller, chairman of one of the country's largest apartment builders, JPI Cos., got his start working for Mr. Carpenter in 1974. Mr. Carpenter's cattle ranch roots and desire for a low profile could be misleading, he said. "He had traveled the world and was in the purest sense a renaissance man," Mr. Miller said. "He was well read and capable of running multiple businesses."

Mr. Carpenter's list of professional honors includes accolades from the American Institute of Architects and the Dallas Civic Garden Center's prestigious Flora Award.

Mr. Carpenter rarely concerned himself with what skeptics thought about his grand plans, Mr. Miller said. "There are a lot of us who wouldn't be where we are today without people like him," he said. "There is no question he had a big impact in the real estate community. Let's just hope some of us continue the legacy guys like him set up."

Irving Mayor Herbert Gears said: "What he did was create the opportunity to have a growing tax base, a large employment center and to take advantage of an international airport with great commercial development. He really laid a lot of opportunities in our lap with his efforts in Las Colinas."

In addition to his wife of 58 years, Mr. Carpenter is survived by his sister, Carolyn Carpenter Williams of Dallas; a son, John W. Carpenter III of Dallas; daughters Laura Carpenter of Austin, Elizabeth Carpenter Frater of Dallas, Barbara Carpenter Kendrick of Dallas and Ellen Carpenter Pace of Austin; and nine grandchildren.

Services are pending at Sparkman/Hillcrest Funeral Home.

TIMELINE
March 10, 1924: Benjamin Howard Carpenter is born in Dallas.

December 1936: His brother, John W. Carpenter Jr., dies in Austin from injuries suffered in an auto accident.

Spring 1941: Mr. Carpenter graduates with honors from Highland Park High School, where he had been the advertising and business manager of the school annual and vice president of the literary society.

1942: After attending the University of Texas at Austin briefly, he volunteers to serve in the Army during World War II and is decorated.

1945: He returns to the University of Texas after his release from the Army.

1948: He graduates from UT with a degree in business administration.

June 1948: He marries Betty Ann Dupree.

March 1950: He is elected to the Southland Life Insurance Co. board of directors.

March 1952: He is elected executive vice president of Southland Life. He is the chief administrative officer of a company with assets of more than $200 million, with more than $1 billion of insurance in force, 1,600 employees and 63 branch offices.

1955: He is the first president of the Trinity River Authority. He serves on the board for 18 years, leading the construction of numerous projects for flood-control, water supply and other uses.

1959: He oversees construction of the Southland Life Building in downtown Dallas.

June 2, 1959: His father, John W. Carpenter, 77, dies of a heart attack.

August 1968: Ben Carpenter, usually associated with the Democratic Party, is named to head the Texans for Nixon Committee.

1967: The UT-Austin school of business administration is named in Ben Carpenter's honor.

September 1969: Carpenter Freeway is named for John W. Carpenter.

1988: The National Sculpture Society presents Mr. Carpenter with a medal for the Mustangs of Las Colinas.

1989: Las Colinas is sold to a partnership headed by Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of New York.

1997: Mr. Carpenter sells the last 56 acres of his family ranch to GTE Corp., now Verizon Communications.

2000: Mr. and Mrs. Carpenter give $1 million to what is now the St. Paul Foundation for advanced heart research in honor of physicians who treated his heart disease.

December 2005: The last 600 acres of undeveloped land in Las Colinas is sold to Houston developer Gerald Hines.

March 3, 2006: He dies in Dallas.

SOURCE: Dallas Morning News research
Staff writer Eric Aasen contributed to this report.
E-mail jsimnacher@dallasnews.com and stevebrown@dallasnews.com

[Tnekster]

EXCLUSIVE: Dallas Developer Ties Up Prized 46 Acres in Las Colinas
By Connie Gore
Last updated: March 6, 2006 09:08am
http://www.globest.com/news/488_488/dallas/143544-1.html

(For more retail coverage, click GlobeSt.com/RETAIL.)
IRVING, TX-A Dallas developer has locked down 46 acres to raise a mixed-use project of predominately retail space at the doorstep of several corporate campuses. The land is being bought in four closings with three property owners to get control of two corners at a prime intersection.

Cross Development Co. to date has acquired eight acres, is bearing down on a closing for another two and has locked in another 36 at the intersection of Interstate 635 and Belt Line Road--the newest development hotspot in the Las Colinas submarket. "We've all been waiting for it. When we saw an opening, we jumped in there," Casey Shires, president of Cross Development, tells GlobeSt.com.

Magellan Commercial Real Estate Inc. has been assembling the land deals for Shires and his partners. Magellan's Michael DeLier negotiated a four-acre sale from Second Century Development Co. of Dallas, which is about to turn over another two acres so a 10-acre retail project and extended-stay hotel can rise on the intersection's southwest corner. Shane Jordan with local firm, Jordan Realty Advisors, is Second Century's man at the bargaining table. The 4.16-acre balance was picked up from the New York City-based Travelers Insurance Co. in a deal pulled together by Magellan principals Phil Baker and Russell Cosby and DeLier.

Meanwhile, Shires and the Magellan team are negotiating a 36-acre takeover of the intersection's southeast corner from a Houston-based investment group. If all goes as planned, the deal will close by July. Shires says that the corner will be built out with specialty retail, condominiums and multifamily units. "We are seeking to team with a DFW brokerage house to prelease it," he says.

In assembling the land, Cross Development has gotten a front-row seat to the 632,000-sf Citigroup campus, Koll Development Co.'s Intellicenter project and Billingsley Co.'s Cypress Waters, a development with 82 acres for retail space and 355 acres for single- and multifamily development. "Along the LBJ Freeway in Las Colinas, this would be the last large available tract that will be suitable for retail," Baker says about Cross Development's closed and pending acquisitions.

Until now, Cross Development has been building small centers in Wal-Mart Supercenter shadows, with 10 projects now underway in the US. In its bid to step up in development size, Cross also is fine-tuning mixed-use plans for 200 acres in San Marcos and 188 acres in Pflugerville in Central Texas.

In Las Colinas, Shires says construction will begin within 90 days on the 10 acres. He estimates Regent Plaza carries an all-in development cost of nearly $20 million. Three acres will be flipped to a hotel developer and the balance has been carved up for 40,000 sf of retail space and five pad sites for restaurants. Cross Architects designed the Regent Plaza; Tegrity Contractors Inc. of McKinney, TX will build it. Delivery is planned for early 2007.


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[carousel]

Any renderings?

[Tnekster]

^There were none in the article and I have not seen anything anywhere yet.

[CTroyMathis]

From: http://universityhills.net/tlca0206.htm

Project plans for the following developments have been submitted and are currently in the review process:

Monterra Apartments – a 282-unit apartment community located on Las Colinas Boulevard, adjacent to the Marriott
Lincoln at La Villita Phase II – a 331 unit apartment community

[Tnekster]

^One of my friends just moved into the Lofts at Las Colinas and it is a great place. I have to admit I am slightly jealous but I could never fit in that place anyway. Being close to the lake and access to the water taxis is cool. I wish they would do some condo/townhouse developments out there as well.

[Kelley USA]

I might be wrong- but I think Monterra is already under construction (or something over there is going up). LC has lots of momentum right now!

[jsoto3]

I wish they would do some condo/townhouse developments out there as well.
There will be in the not-too-distant future.

[sogod]

That would be nice if that scenario happened. To add to that, Irving ISD does not have the stigma of the DISD, however undeserved some may preceive it, to lure the families to live like that.

Actually a huge chunck of Las Colinas, including a sizable porition of the downtown area, is in the Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District.

I have to say, if any place is going to do high-rises for families, Las Colinas is in the best positition right now.

[Tnekster]

North American Properties has broken ground on Positano, a 170-unit, gated condominium project in Las Colinas. Developed on 15 acres on Tuscan Drive between MacArthur Boulevard and Las Colinas Boulevard, the project will offer two- to four-bedroom units ranging in size from 1,860 to 3,400 square feet and priced from $238,000 to $445,000.

[Lakewooder]

Shouldn't a Positano be on an Amalfi Drive, not a Tuscan Drive?