New East Dallas Apts - near Uptown

[dallastophoenix]

Company breaks ground on East Dallas apartments

11:05 PM CST on Sunday, November 23, 2003

By STEVE BROWN / The Dallas Morning News

A Dallas apartment developer that's been a pioneer in East Dallas construction is kicking off another project in the area.

First Worthing Cos. has broken ground on a 221-unit rental community on Fitzhugh Avenue just east of North Central Expressway.

The apartment community is being built on the site of the former Chilton Corp. office complex that was recently demolished at Fitzhugh and Alcott Street.

The first rental units in the project should be finished by summer, said John R. Allums, First Worthing executive vice president.

"There will also be about 3,000 square feet of retail space and a parking garage," Mr. Allums said. "We like the location because it's close to the Knox-Henderson business district and Cityplace."

The site is just blocks away from booming Uptown neighborhoods where developers are paying a premium for land.

Mr. Allums said the lower development cost on the Fitzhugh site was one of the factors that drove his deal. Rental rates will also be lower – "$900 or less for the majority of units," he said.

The Fitzhugh is about a mile from where First Worthing is building the Worthing at Live Oak apartments, the first Uptown-style project in that neighborhood.

The project at Live Oak Avenue and Peak Street will contain 238 units built above below-grade parking.

Architect James, Harwick + Partners designed First Worthing's Fitzhugh development with craftsman-style features on the exterior, Mr. Allums said. "There are a lot of nice craftsman and bungalow houses in that area," he said.

Bank of America Corp. is providing construction financing.

First Worthing is a 25-year-old company that builds, acquires and manages apartments nationwide. It has more than 55,000 apartments in the United States and 19 projects in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, mostly in the suburbs.

E-mail stevebrown@dallasnews.com

[CARTMAN]

Does anyone have photos or a weblink to the rendering of this project?

[aceplace]

The Fitzhugh is about a mile from where First Worthing is building the Worthing at Live Oak apartments, the first Uptown-style project in that neighborhood.

I've looked the Live Oak and Peak project a couple of times and I like it.

If you look at just the Live Oak side, it looks pretty bleak... the neighborhood along Live Oak is not quaint.

If you go one block north, to Peak and Bryan, you find a very quaint neighborhood of small shops and restaurants... very walkable, especially from the apartments.

[gc]

Cityville targets young East Dallas urbanites
FirstWorthing takes brand to Uptown's edge
Christine Perez - Senior Writer
http://dallas.bizjournals.com/dallas/stories/2003/12/22/story7.html

Suburban multifamily developer FirstWorthing is launching a new brand of apartments in an old part of town.

The Dallas-based company is making its first foray into the urban core with two projects in East Dallas geared toward young professionals.

First up is Cityville at Live Oak, a 240-unit complex at Peak and Live Oak streets. Leasing will begin next month, with the first renters taking occupancy in March. Also under way is Cityville at Fitzhugh, a 220-unit complex scheduled for completion in the third quarter of 2004. The Fitzhugh project also will contain about 4,000 square feet of retail space.

At both developments, about 70% of the units will be efficiencies or one-bedroom apartments averaging about 800 square feet in size with monthly rents below $900, said John Allums, executive vice president.

Before joining FirstWorthing early last year, Allums was executive vice president at Post Properties, one of the most prolific developers in Uptown. He said his goal is to take his experience there and bring it to a new market.

"Basically we're providing good quality Uptown product to what we're calling the edge of Uptown," he said. The projects make sense, he added, because demand is strong and competition is limited.

"They're both in good infill locations with barriers to entry and both are near large employment centers," he said. "Fitzhugh is right on the edge of the Knox-Henderson, Cole park area of Uptown with access to North Central Expressway, and Live Oak is more geared toward Baylor Hospital and the huge concentration of workers in the central business district."

Competitors in East Dallas include Dallas-based JPI, which recently opened Jefferson at Texas Street at 2801 Live Oak St. Apartments there range in size from 620 square feet to 1,375 square feet, and in price from $910 to $1,740 per month. In 1999, JPI built a 420-unit luxury complex between San Jacinto and Live Oak streets. It sold the property, now called AMLI at Bryan Place, last year.

Over the past 25 years, FirstWorthing has built or acquired more than 55,000 apartment units valued at $1.9 billion. It's also active in student housing. The company has apartment properties in 16 markets in 10 states, all in the southern sector. Until now, FirstWorthing has focused on the suburbs, Allums said. Based on the success of the Cityville model in Dallas, it plans to take it to other areas of the country.

"We're looking for opportunities to be the leader in middle-market rental housing," he said.

Don Ostroff, co-director of the multihousing property group at Cushman & Wakefield of Texas Inc., said East Dallas could eventually become the new Uptown.

"People were critical and questioned Robert Shaw when he first started developing in Uptown years ago," Ostroff said. "He built in neighborhoods that, at the time, weren't terribly attractive or appealing, but now every major developer is there.

"There's not much existing product on the east side of North Central Expressway, but I think there will be good investment interest in the future," Ostroff added. "It takes a while to transform the landscape when you're doing it one project at a time. If it were easy to go into new areas, they wouldn't call it pioneering."

Contact DBJ writer Christine Perez at cperez@bizjournals.com or (214) 706-7120.

[jsoto3]

RTKL designed this project. It is going to be pretty nice. I have access to renderings and drawings but am not allowed to post them. It is pretty well along in construction so you can see it in person and get a good idea of what it will be. No one has taken up my offer to visit the office yet, but I am still willing to have guests and show renderings, etc. for various local projects.

[bloodandpopcorn]

Can you say how many stories? with this be a more traditional, 3-story deal, or could this be five or six stories?

[jsoto3]

3 storeys on top of 1-storey of parking.

[rantanamo]

Some new East Dallas Apts

The Easton
http://img6.photobucket.com/albums/v19/rantanamo/East Dallas/Resize_of_DSCF0049.jpg

Cityville at Fitzhugh
http://img6.photobucket.com/albums/v19/rantanamo/East Dallas/Resize_of_DSCF0048.jpg

Cityville(Live Oak and Haskell)
http://img6.photobucket.com/albums/v19/rantanamo/East Dallas/Resize_of_DSCF0037.jpg

[gc]

very nice, thanks rantanamo

[crescentboi]

Wow! I really like the look of the ones on Live Oak. Provides some color and interest to that area. Especially when compared to that god awefull ugly behemoth of a building behind it! What is the point of building a building like that with little or no windows!

[rantanamo]

^how tall is that building? It's pretty tall. 600+ ft?

anyways, I wish my camera had cooperated more on the Easton. I really thought that was a sharp looking complex with nice landscaping. It's a few blocks down Henderson in Cochran Heights, and really towers over that neighborhood and a school. I wouldn't be surprised to see much more in this area. Its a great location to NCX and a future Knox-Henderson rail stop.

[freewaytincan]

^how tall is that building? It's pretty tall. 600+ ft?

anyways, I wish my camera had cooperated more on the Easton. I really thought that was a sharp looking complex with nice landscaping. It's a few blocks down Henderson in Cochran Heights, and really towers over that neighborhood and a school. I wouldn't be surprised to see much more in this area. Its a great location to NCX and a future Knox-Henderson rail stop.

Rather tall. It's got a door on like, the 20th floor, opens to the outside. Sometimes it's open and swings in the wind.

[texasyndicate]

i hate the building on live oak,it should have been a couple of mid-rise buildings(i dont know a good 6-8 stories would be good)or a couple 18-24 story buildings

[psukhu]

i hate the building on live oak,it should have been a couple of mid-rise buildings(i dont know a good 6-8 stories would be good)or a couple 18-24 story buildings

I guess we'll see many more of these in the area over the next couple of years. I think these "sticks and bricks" apartments are serving as the foundation for gentrification.

1- cheap to build- developers have less exposure and can afford to take a chance on a neighborhood
2- gets residents into the neighborhood that have disposable income
3- shows other developers that people are willing to move into that neighborhood
4- uses up vacant land

Hopefully, midrises will become the norm one day. Until then I guess we'll see one Mondrian for every five of these.

[clipper]

The building on Bryan with no windows is a major AT&T equipment center. It started out decades ago full of switchboards and women phone operators. At that time it was one of the largest such facilities in the country. Now it is mostly floors and floors of switching equipment and such. The door way up there on the back has a hoist where they lifted equipment up there in the old days.

[Foucault]

I hope that building is heavily protected. It's probably the most single vital building to the functioning of Dallas.

[freewaytincan]

I hope that building is heavily protected. It's probably the most single vital building to the functioning of Dallas.

They need to illuminate the antenna assembly.