CTroyMathis
02 January 2003, 09:38 PM
Las Colinas: Business area changing with housing boom
Urban center packing in homes, apartments to create big-city feel
01/02/2003
By LEE POWELL / The Dallas Morning News
Long a home for corporate campuses and gleaming office towers, Las Colinas is poised to become a place an increasing number of people call home.
A coming residential building boom will add thousands of new apartments and hundreds of homes to the master planned development in north Irving.
At least five projects are in various stages, mostly in the urban center core of Las Colinas.
The number of apartments here could zoom to 2,931 units from the 1,157 units already on the ground, officials said.
These will be some of the densest residential developments in the city at 40 units per acre compared with the typical apartment development in Irving of 18 to 20 units per acre.
Higher densities allow developers to play off the area's big-city feel rather than emulate garden-style apartments found in the rest of Irving, city officials say.
"We're trying to achieve a different type of environment there," said Ed Barry, the city's community development director.
A just-constructed thoroughfare will tie together residential projects on the east side of Lake Carolyn. Eventually, DART light-rail trains will traverse the area on a line linking Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and downtown Dallas.
The growth spurt comes amidst a slump in the commercial real estate market, with large blocks of office space vacant in Las Colinas.
And it comes at a time of falling apartment occupancy levels in North Texas.
Still, the Las Colinas market has tended to differentiate itself by strong employment growth and its reputation, said Greg Willett of M/PF Research, Inc.
"The norm is to have significant growth there," he said. "The other factor is really the living environment out there. It really is uniformly all upscale."
Just how many apartments Irving should allow and where they should go proved contentious several years ago. The city halted new apartment construction for a time while drawing up a growth plan for future development.
The City Council decided to allow an additional 12,000 apartments to be built. When there is no more land open for development in Irving, about 60 percent of the city's housing will be apartments and roughly 40 percent single-family homes.
This is opposite most cities, where homes tend to outnumber apartments.
Within the Las Colinas urban center, city plans allow for 4,910 units.
North of here, on a tract of land known by its zoning designation, Planned Unit Development No. 4, the maximum is set at 6,000 units. There are to be 4,000 apartments and 2,000 homes.
Site work has begun on the 197-acre La Villita project near the intersection of Royal Lane and O'Connor Road. This mixed-use development will include apartments, homes, shops, and office space.
Cousins Properties, which manages the Las Colinas development, is overseeing La Villita as well as a lofts project in the urban center.
"The thinking is if you build a really nice project in a really nice location, the people will come," said Bobby Stewart, a vice president with Cousins.
Much of the urban center and now La Villita is developed around lakes and along canals and built to encourage pedestrian traffic. In planning La Villita, Cousins worked with Florida architect Andres Duany, a disciple of "new urbanism," in which developments resemble traditional neighborhoods.
The bulk of residential development in La Villita will be apartments, but plans include single-family homes and townhouses.
Council member Herbert Gears, whose district includes Las Colinas, said the city has an interest in the ratio of apartments to houses. The feeling is that homeowners have more of a vested interest in the community, which helps neighborhoods, he said.
"Let's get the homes built as quickly as possible," Mr. Gears said. "I'd like to see the single-family communities develop along with the apartment construction that's going to happen."
The prospect of new apartment units sprouting nearby does not concern Craig Gerberding, property manager at the Oakwood Grand Venetian on MacArthur Boulevard.
Newly minted developments advertise heavily, which bring people to the area, he said. The growth in retail and restaurant outlets supported by a growing population base also helps.
"It's selling us a lot more," Mr. Gerberding said. "It's an attractive place to be."
City officials are hoping residential development will be a boost to the Las Colinas urban center, whipsawed by economic conditions and high property taxes.
Office buildings draw employees during the day, but there is little to keep them there after hours.
More than 80,000 people work in Las Colinas. At night, the area's residential population falls to about 25,000 people.
"It's important we get more warm bodies with access to Las Colinas and the urban center," said Mr. Gears, the council member. "We've seen when you do that, other development seems to follow."
Urban center packing in homes, apartments to create big-city feel
01/02/2003
By LEE POWELL / The Dallas Morning News
Long a home for corporate campuses and gleaming office towers, Las Colinas is poised to become a place an increasing number of people call home.
A coming residential building boom will add thousands of new apartments and hundreds of homes to the master planned development in north Irving.
At least five projects are in various stages, mostly in the urban center core of Las Colinas.
The number of apartments here could zoom to 2,931 units from the 1,157 units already on the ground, officials said.
These will be some of the densest residential developments in the city at 40 units per acre compared with the typical apartment development in Irving of 18 to 20 units per acre.
Higher densities allow developers to play off the area's big-city feel rather than emulate garden-style apartments found in the rest of Irving, city officials say.
"We're trying to achieve a different type of environment there," said Ed Barry, the city's community development director.
A just-constructed thoroughfare will tie together residential projects on the east side of Lake Carolyn. Eventually, DART light-rail trains will traverse the area on a line linking Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and downtown Dallas.
The growth spurt comes amidst a slump in the commercial real estate market, with large blocks of office space vacant in Las Colinas.
And it comes at a time of falling apartment occupancy levels in North Texas.
Still, the Las Colinas market has tended to differentiate itself by strong employment growth and its reputation, said Greg Willett of M/PF Research, Inc.
"The norm is to have significant growth there," he said. "The other factor is really the living environment out there. It really is uniformly all upscale."
Just how many apartments Irving should allow and where they should go proved contentious several years ago. The city halted new apartment construction for a time while drawing up a growth plan for future development.
The City Council decided to allow an additional 12,000 apartments to be built. When there is no more land open for development in Irving, about 60 percent of the city's housing will be apartments and roughly 40 percent single-family homes.
This is opposite most cities, where homes tend to outnumber apartments.
Within the Las Colinas urban center, city plans allow for 4,910 units.
North of here, on a tract of land known by its zoning designation, Planned Unit Development No. 4, the maximum is set at 6,000 units. There are to be 4,000 apartments and 2,000 homes.
Site work has begun on the 197-acre La Villita project near the intersection of Royal Lane and O'Connor Road. This mixed-use development will include apartments, homes, shops, and office space.
Cousins Properties, which manages the Las Colinas development, is overseeing La Villita as well as a lofts project in the urban center.
"The thinking is if you build a really nice project in a really nice location, the people will come," said Bobby Stewart, a vice president with Cousins.
Much of the urban center and now La Villita is developed around lakes and along canals and built to encourage pedestrian traffic. In planning La Villita, Cousins worked with Florida architect Andres Duany, a disciple of "new urbanism," in which developments resemble traditional neighborhoods.
The bulk of residential development in La Villita will be apartments, but plans include single-family homes and townhouses.
Council member Herbert Gears, whose district includes Las Colinas, said the city has an interest in the ratio of apartments to houses. The feeling is that homeowners have more of a vested interest in the community, which helps neighborhoods, he said.
"Let's get the homes built as quickly as possible," Mr. Gears said. "I'd like to see the single-family communities develop along with the apartment construction that's going to happen."
The prospect of new apartment units sprouting nearby does not concern Craig Gerberding, property manager at the Oakwood Grand Venetian on MacArthur Boulevard.
Newly minted developments advertise heavily, which bring people to the area, he said. The growth in retail and restaurant outlets supported by a growing population base also helps.
"It's selling us a lot more," Mr. Gerberding said. "It's an attractive place to be."
City officials are hoping residential development will be a boost to the Las Colinas urban center, whipsawed by economic conditions and high property taxes.
Office buildings draw employees during the day, but there is little to keep them there after hours.
More than 80,000 people work in Las Colinas. At night, the area's residential population falls to about 25,000 people.
"It's important we get more warm bodies with access to Las Colinas and the urban center," said Mr. Gears, the council member. "We've seen when you do that, other development seems to follow."