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View Full Version : Trademark firm unveils mixed-use Allen development



sogod
08 June 2004, 08:31 PM
http://dallas.bizjournals.com/dallas/stories/2004/05/31/story2.html

Fort Worth-based Trademark Property Co. has designs on a high-traffic Central Expressway site in Allen, where it plans to build a 50-acre, mixed-use development called Market Street.

The upscale, urban-style project, designed to cater to the affluent residents of the northeastern Metroplex, will include nearly 300,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, 50,000 square feet of office space, 150 hotel rooms, 50 brownstone units and 150 multifamily residential units, said Trademark officials, who unveiled the project at the International Council of Shopping Centers convention in Las Vegas.

"Allen is where Plano was 10 years ago," said company representative Reif Chron. "It's really humming. We think Allen is very under-retailed."

Market Street, which is expected to open by early 2006, is slated for the southwest corner of Central Expressway and Bethany Drive on what's known as the old Montgomery Farm property. It is directly across Central from the 5.5 million-square-foot Allen Technology District and just north of Cinemark Tinseltown.

The development will serve as the "town center" of the planned 500-acre Montgomery Farm community, which is expected to eventually feature at least 1,500 luxury residential units, including townhomes, zero-lot line homes and estate lots that will be built by Dallas-based Emerson Partners, as well as 250 acres of open space, according to Trademark.

Trademark CEO Terry Montesi said the firm has the 50-acre parcel at the "hard corner" of Bethany and the south-bound Central Expressway access road under contract for the development.

The firm would likely sell off the hotel portion of the land to a developer/owner, he said.

A site plan for the open-air complex includes a grocery-store anchor space, a pair of two-level buildings with ground-floor retail space and either office or residential components on the second floor, a two-level bookstore and seven restaurant pad sites. No tenants have been announced.

Marketing literature called the mixed-use complex "a natural oasis just minutes from central Dallas...that will serve the fast-growing and under-retailed North Central Corridor, including Allen, East Plano, Richardson and McKinney. The residents of the area that will be served by Market Street have money to spend, but nowhere great to spend it."

The trade area surrounding the development includes a population of 300,000 within a 15-minute drive and an average household income of $87,786. Average household income in Allen is $94,664. There is not a lifestyle center or fashion mall within 7.5 miles of the site, Trademark said.

"As you can see, it has great demographics," said Montesi.

David Palmer, senior vice president and development partner with Dallas-based Cencor Realty Services, said the land "is a great piece in terms of I-75 access and visibility."

Trademark is "a top-quality company and if anyone has the wherewithal to pull it off, they do," he added.

If the site faces any challenges, it will be in immediate population depth, he said. "The broader trade area itself is big."

The 1,500 residential units planned for Montgomery Farm are expected to be priced from $350,000 to $2 million, averaging $500,000, according to Trademark.

Montesi, former principal and co-founder of Huff, Brous, McDowell & Montesi Inc., founded Trademark in 1992. The firm has developed, or is in the process of developing, more than 3 million square feet of retail space nationally.

freewaytincan
09 June 2004, 07:32 AM
Affluent? More like in-debt-ent. Anyone ever follow the forclosure reports for the last two years? Ouch.
Market Street. Wow. How many miles away is San Francisco? Anyone? Anyone?

North Texas is anything but "under-retailed". And even if Allen is, what are these suburbanites owning cars for?!

Ahh, nothing says "urban" like restaurant pad sites.

Just minutes from central Dallas? Is this now like one of those car dealerships? How many minutes? I guess 60, 120 are all minutes, right?

What the hell is this? Who found this guy? If one more person calls Central, a US highway, I-75, denoting Interstate statues, someone's going to get a shoe up their ***. These are the same types of developers who came up with names for streets like "La Coas" (Spanish for "The Thing") in North Dallas thirty years ago. Sheesh.

rjlevins
08 July 2004, 08:56 PM
I can't believe this is the first time I came across this. This is good. This is very good for Allen and East Plano. I've been pretty worried that the growth would die down before Allen got a good piece of it.

Yes, yes....it is sprawl. Yes, yes...it's not Dallas and everyone hates the suburbs, but if yall look at Allen (I am biased), I think it has grown differently than most of the other suburbs. Allen was first just houses and everyone drove to Plano and gave them our business. It wasn't until after Allen had a substantial population did it start adding it's own large commerce and businesses. I really hate how Frisco started out as the mall...if it weren't for the communities around it, most of the stores would go out of business. Besides south Allen, east Plano isn't exactly the newest or farthest of areas. This project would help sustain those areas so we can avoid seeing large pockets of abandoned buildings across them. Think of it as "sub"-urban infill.

Why am I writing this? No clue. I just think Allen is a true suburb...what a suburb is suppose to be. It doesn't take up much land and it has grown modestly out. It's pretty much a residential community in need of a big city. A true suburb.

bloodandpopcorn
08 July 2004, 10:18 PM
It's a suburb of a suburb, leeching the leech, and shouldn't exist. Inner ring suburbs are fine, but any further out than Plano = bad, IMO. It may lead to "sub"-urban infill, but that will simply fuel more sprawl and help to eat away at the metroplex as a whole. If we were guaranteed that after Allen, suburbs stop, then yes infill would be necessary and great. But as it is, this project will try to "re-create" similiar areas in other, inner suburbs and within Dallas itself, however Allen does not have public transit (I'm pretty sure, but correct me if I'm wrong) so all of the traffic that this project will almost certainly create cannot be releaved by public transit. And it wil encourage development further out. A suburb is "suppose" to be a municipality that supplies a workforce to the urban core. Allen, however, sends too many workers to suburban offices, etc.

So I must respectfully disagree with you.

If Allen were where Richardson is, or where Garland is, or especially where Desoto is, this wouldn't be that big of a problem. But being further out, it will encourage further sprawl.

freewaytincan
09 July 2004, 02:18 AM
If Allen were where Richardson is...

Hah! Once again, I win.

rjlevins
09 July 2004, 01:09 PM
121 is coming...sprawl will continue northward. Both spread out McKinney and Frisco are expecting numbers to surpass Plano. My concern with suburbs like Plano and Allen is that they do exist and I don't want them to become those inner ring suburbs like farmers branch and carrolton, but it's already begun to happen. Plano put a lot of money in to its east side to help stop it and I think this project could eventually help those efforts. Too much of money and business is driving out to the west to Frisco. (oh, and side-note...those inner burbs stole just as much if not more from Dallas. Farmers Branch, Addison, Irving...none of them have the population to support the immense business they have.)

You commented on Allen sending too many workers to suburbs. If Dallas was able to keep the businesses than that wouldn't be a problem. Here's the thing though...if it weren't for Plano and some of the other burbs, I do not think Dallas would be what it is today. Texas grew with the mentality that it was going to be a suburban state. I think it was FDR or one of his staff who envisioned the US as one large suburb with helicopters. The evils of sprawl have been seen in places like St.Louis and Detroit where donuts have been left, but if Dallas city can energize....Dallas will have the best of both worlds...an upbeat urban city with relaxing, rich suburbs. But both must happen....we must retain our suburbs and promote the city.

rantanamo
09 July 2004, 03:32 PM
You commented on Allen sending too many workers to suburbs. If Dallas was able to keep the businesses than that wouldn't be a problem. Here's the thing though...if it weren't for Plano and some of the other burbs, I do not think Dallas would be what it is today. Texas grew with the mentality that it was going to be a suburban state. I think it was FDR or one of his staff who envisioned the US as one large suburb with helicopters. The evils of sprawl have been seen in places like St.Louis and Detroit where donuts have been left, but if Dallas city can energize....Dallas will have the best of both worlds...an upbeat urban city with relaxing, rich suburbs. But both must happen....we must retain our suburbs and promote the city.


You can't blame Dallas for not being able to keep business out of the suburbs. They are businesses. If something can be done cheaper and save money, that's what they will do. Unless you have the cinergy of an older pre-auto inner city its almost in possible to keep businesses from going for the cheap, sprawly buildings. I think Dallas would be greater if it weren't for the sprawl mentality that is plagueing our nation. All of our cities would be. If these were simply bedroom communities I'd have no problem, but when you have aggressive suburbs like Garland that took thousands of well paying industrial job from Dallas and Plano or Irving that took thousands of corporate jobs from Dallas, then you begin to have a problem. This only continues to worsen, and to the detriment of our landscape.

Texas grew with the mentality that it could go along with segregationist practices like redlining and deals that made billionaires out of oilmen, auto execs and building barons all under the guise of giving everyone a semi-agrarian lifestyle with a lawn to replace their fields, and false safety because you were away from 'undesireables'. Maybe I'm a bit cynical on the formation of this nation and how we got where we are, but I'm sorry, this is the nation who created all of its drug law based on fear of minority drug use.

FriscoRocks
10 July 2004, 02:27 AM
One thing that will change the landscape of the US in the near future is that most companies will not be building new campuses. More and more work will be offshored and what isnt will become more "home" based and/or telecommuting work.

Companies are trying to shed their real estate costs to compete globally. So, the ability for Dallas or Frisco for that matter to lure large corporations to build an EDS style campus will likely be futile for the most part. There will still be some companies that build, just not near as many. In addition, I doubt if you see many, if any, more call centers in the US. What will hang around are law firms, banking, medical & education. Downtown may benefit from this to some degree.

rantanamo
10 July 2004, 02:40 AM
^Very good points. Should be very interesting to see how the next round movements affect the landscape. Who will be the GMs or Boeings of this century. Telecom giants that want us all working from home taking out road infrastructure and putting us in more dense immediate areas? Should be interesting.

Man of Leisure
12 July 2004, 05:37 AM
Texas grew with the mentality that it could go along with segregationist practices like redlining and deals that made billionaires out of oilmen, auto execs and building barons all under the guise of giving everyone a semi-agrarian lifestyle with a lawn to replace their fields, and false safety because you were away from 'undesireables'. Maybe I'm a bit cynical on the formation of this nation and how we got where we are, but I'm sorry, this is the nation who created all of its drug law based on fear of minority drug use.
:cheers: ....LOL, it almost looked like you were about to venture into the draconian drug law fiasco.