Plan for Ballpark Plaza filed

[CTroyMathis]

Plan for Ballpark Plaza filed
By Steve Mclinden
Star-Telegram Staff Writer

A prominent local developer will soon begin construction on an upscale north Arlington "garden-office" project called Ballpark Plaza. The project will total 92,000 square feet and be built in two to three phases.

Developer and architect Mojy Haddad, who is also the Arlington planning and zoning chairman, has filed plans for the first phase of an office and bank complex that will sit on 6.8 acres. First Savings Bank will be an anchor tenant.

The buildings, at the northwest corner of Ballpark Way and Brookhollow Plaza Drive, will be in classical Italian-plaza architecture, Haddad said. This will include cast-stone details, pillars and an arched entryway with an analog clock, plus outdoor seating, landscaped pedestrian walkways and other green spaces, he said.

Haddad will break ground in January on the 22,000-square-foot first phase, with a slated completion date of August. It's about 50 percent leased, he said.

About 30 northeast Arlington residents were split in their support of the proposed development, which the commission approved more than a year ago in a 7-0 vote, with Haddad abstaining. His firm, CHS Architects, will handle the design work.

Pappas Restaurants, which bought the former Cozymel's Coastal Grill site in October, may be leaning toward opening its first Tarrant County Pappas Pizza there.

Officials of the Houston-based chain said Monday that the location will most likely become Pappas Pizza, but they did not rule out a Pappas Burger there. The 8,746-square-foot building, at 1300 W. Copeland Road, seats 300 and is large by chain-restaurant standards.

Employees of another Pappas restaurant next door, Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen, also said the burger concept has been bandied about for the former Cozymel's site and added that a bridge will probably be built to link the two restaurants in any case. The two sites are separated by a creek and thickly wooded lot.

The only Pappas Burger restaurant is in Houston.

The Metroplex's sole Pappas Pizza restaurant is in Addison. The chain sells about 80 beers, including 30 on tap. In addition to pizza, its offerings include appetizers, sandwiches and oversized desserts. Its restaurants have multiple large-screen televisions and a sports-bar atmosphere.

The privately traded company, which also operates barbecue, steak and Mexican restaurants, has about 50 locations in Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, Beaumont, Atlanta, Chicago, Denver and Phoenix.

[freewaytincan]

Why why why? This is profoundly stupid, because all those promises of "urbanity" and "density" will fail, and it will be more sprawl to deal with. Tom Hicks, for this (and considering selling the naming rights to the Ballpark) you will burn in Hell.

Of course, he was going to anyway...

[gc]

My roots are in Arlington. I personally like this idea, especially being near the ballpark. I will say, however, that I'd prefer to see the development become more vertical in nature and closer to the ballpark. I know that Hicks promised something many years ago that he has yet to deliver, but A-town needs some love too and there is no better place than near the Ballpark (my opinion of course)

[bloodandpopcorn]

It would be ncie to see urbanism spread to Arlington, but I don't think it could ever possibly suceed there. My fathers family all live there (what must be like 40 people now), and all of them and tehir friends couldnt be less urban. Not to mention out-right rejections of public transportation, etc. If this gets built, I predict it fails pretty quickly. People might drive to a game early to eat, but it won't become a big hot spot, I don't think.

[freewaytincan]

Yeah, it is kind of out of the way...at least for now... :rolleyes:

[gc]

I agree that true urbanism may not succeed in A-town. But I'd like to see growth in that city, especially around the ballpark. It can truly add to the experience of attending an event in that area.

I am not sure I understand the comment about Arlington being out of the way. I think it is relative. One might say that urbanism in Plano/Richardson is out of the way as well. To me, the obvious focus areas are Dallas and Fort Worth. Whoever wants to create a more urban environment is fine with me.......as long as it is limiting the dreaded SPRAWL!

[freewaytincan]

Yeah, but you don't go out into the floodplains or through farms to get to Galatyn Park!

[CTroyMathis]

I'd really like to see Arlington mature into it's 'own.' I wish, and have been waiting a LONG time, the area around the ballpark would become more urbanised. So many ideas/promises/plans with nothing yet to come out of it all.

I was also born in Arlington, so have plenty of fondness for the city that is busting at the seams in population - but, is essentially a bunch of "highways in search of a city." (Old quote there...)

I still like to think, since old downtown Arlington would likely be out of the question, the ballpark/entertainment district could really become a major commerce/multi-use center with effort. Albeit, a LONG-TERM effort at that. Just not office parks, though. I also don't think I've ever met an urban enthusiast in Arlington either, except for those at UTA going to school for that purpose!

[freewaytincan]

That's the problem with bang up projects like this. They do everything at once, and development just does not do that! They realized it in Galatyn Park; they have not even been designing the twelve remaining acres in the urban center portion extensively.

"Rome wasn't built in a day." - Another old quote...

[gc]

Urban, you are correct with that statement. However, I think Arlington/GP is in a unique situation. That is, they are positioned between Dallas and Fort Worth.....the anchor cities of this region. Don't get me wrong, I applaud the growth and direction of Plano/Richardson but like you, I am pulling for my home town.

I pose a question to you. Have you ever gone to a Chicago Cubs game or a Redsox game? It is not just a game, but an experience. There are restaurants/bars/pubs/etc surrounding the ballparks. They both compliment transit and pedestrian traffic. I am not saying that A-town can accomplish that, but it can easily improve the current situation.

Additionally, I think Arlington's continued growth could accomodate some dense residential/retail development around the ballpark. This type of development was promised and planned for many many years ago.

Just my opinion.

[freewaytincan]

Okay, we are on the same level. But the developers have to be patient! The stuff up in Chicago had to grow, and it took a long time.

[CTroyMathis]

I'd love to see all the stuff along the lines of Addison Circle and the ideas behind Victory near the ballpark.

As an aside, I'm not sure I'd want to see the football team from Irving there, though. One - leave it for Irving or Dallas, etc. to reach out for. Two - it'd take up some of the land I'd like to instead see for a ton of dense mixed-use. Throw in a southern cross-metro commuter rail station in the mix, too. Arlington and Grand Prairie represent nearly half a million people that surely could really use a more local and centralised urban center. But, as has been said - most people living down in that general area aren't too 'into' the whole idea yet it seems. Maybe in time, I hope.

[gc]

I'm with you on that Troy. Addison-like decelopment around the ballpark.....very very nice.

I would like to see the Cowboys stay in Irving or go home to Dallas (where they belong). It makes no sense now to move them into Arlington, Grapevine, whatever.

[CTroyMathis]

Once again, Arlington is suffering from an identity crisis
By O.K. Carter
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
Posted on Sun, Mar. 30, 2003


It's difficult standing alone as a pioneer in urban sociology, but here's my latest unsubstantiated harebrained theory: Arlington is in the early stages of reinventing itself.

Again.

The city that has one identity -- the mining municipality, the gold rush town, the oil boom burg, the factory town -- generally becomes a miserable place to live once that identity disappears.

Credit luck, location, market forces and far-too-sporadic bursts of innovative leadership for Arlington managing to reinvent itself several times over more than 150 years. Consider the history.

Arlington has been around the block more than once. First, the Treaty of Bird's Fort in 1843 created the Johnson Station trading post and stage stop. The Texas and Pacific Railroad came through in 1876, and the city quickly became a classic farming town with cotton gins, mills and saloons. Arlington College, predecessor to the University of Texas at Arlington, showed up in 1895.

That's three identity shifts before 1900, but the game went on.

When the Interurban electric trolley connected Fort Worth and Dallas through Arlington, the first commuters arrived. A downtown water well produced water so mineralized that a byproduct, Arlington Crystals, became a national medicinal staple. For more than three decades the city housed the Berachah Home on "Rescue Hill" for delinquent girls.

During the 1930s, W.H. Waggoner's horse racing track, Arlington Downs, put the city on the national map. An illegal but prosperous casino, the Top o' The Hill Terrace, operated in Arlington for two decades under the watchful eyes of gambling kingpins Fred Browning and Benny "The Cowboy" Binion. Arlington was Las Vegas before Vegas was.

That's four more identity shifts between 1900 and 1950.

A combination of a new General Motors plant and the massive Great Southwest Industrial District after 1950 made Arlington the home of choice for thousands of World War II veterans. The town that resulted was part of the edge city phenomenon, the great suburban exodus from urban cities.

But then came Six Flags Over Texas and the Rangers. Arlington's regional and national identity then centered on roller coasters and baseball. From 1950 right up until about 1990 Arlington was one of the fastest-growing cities in the nation.

That's three identity shifts from 1950 through the present.

And now here we are in 2003 with a populace that doesn't quite know where the city's going and has subsequently become more than a bit balky. Voter turndowns on issues such as funding cultural amenities, linear parks and mass transit are in large part grounded in an identity and public trust crisis: What is this place and what should it become?

Too, economic slowdowns and a population undergoing a socioeconomic change have put things in a sort of community stall -- future directions to be determined. The fact that May's election will result in four new council members and a new mayor -- certainly unique for this modern era -- is clearly indicative of a community looking for leadership.

Though market forces can't be denied, no one wants their city's future to be determined simply on happenstance. What the current communitywide 2025 comprehensive plan of "visioning" is really about is simply the need to establish the city's new identity for this new century.

Maybe it'll get the town off its current high-center stall. Maybe not. We can only hope.

That's my theory of reinvention. Shoot me an e-mail or letter. Let's kick this subject around.

[aceplace]

First of all, Arlington is just a municipal government. The area we call Arlington is not a city because it is not surrounded by country.

Another way to describe it is as an area of suburban land use outside of, but dependent upon, Central Dallas and Central Fort Worth.

When we say that, for example, London is a city, we mean the area of Greater London surrounded by countryside. Same for Moscow. Or Buenos Aires.

If Arlington has an identiti it is as a borough of DFW. Dallas-Ft Worth is a "city" and Arlington, Plano, Irving, etc are boroughs, in the same way that Enfield, Merton, etc are boroughs of London.

Why am I pressing this point? Because to properly define is to understand.

I think that an urban center would work in Arlington, precisely because it is a part of DFW. If Arlington were 300,00 people in the middle of West Texas, an urban center would be very unlikely to succeed in Arlington.