Near East Dallas: New Henderson Ave. Developments

[psukhu]

You guys should check out Sandy's when you can. Cool bar with great DJs.

1924 N. Henderson Ave.


http://www.guidelive.com/sharedcontent/dws/ent/music/stories/DN-upallnight_0608gl.ART.State.Edition2.447010c.html



http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/img/06-07/060807gl_musicinside.jpg


http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/img/06-07/060807gl_musicinside2.jpg

[tamtagon]

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/img/06-07/060807gl_musicinside2.jpg

So, like, trucker hats are still in?

[sheilock]

Also went to Capitol Pub on Friday night - good crowd - the entire parking lot in front of the new Shops on Henderson - (not yet open) was almost filled.

sufficient (alot of large) tvs for sports watching?

[freewaytincan]

So, like, trucker hats are still in?

That's so two years ago.

[Tnekster]

That's so two years ago.

What's a trucker hat?

[sheilock]

:2ot: What's a trucker hat?

structurally (tall...sometimes with mesh) resembles a hat that truckers traditionally wore...now they've added fashionable touches...still in by the way

[sheilock]

www.capitolpubdallas.com[/url]

I went by for dinner last night, and to catch some of the Phili/Pats scrum. I'm not sure I've ever walked into a smokier environment in my lifetime...dear god the stench! It was as though the place was on fire. I'm not sure how anyone could consume food with all that smoke...too bad because the menu looks decent, and the place itself is very nice. I frequent the bar and club scene often; so i'm used to smoking, but this was disgusting. The place was packed...how do people subject themselves to this? Everyone who was there last night must have lost at least 5 years of their lives, due to 1st and 2nd hand smoke.

[sheilock]

Inner City Grows Despite Dallas City Hall
By Jim Schutze
Published: November 29, 2007



What used to be Jerry's Supermarket on Henderson is molting into a sleek new butterfly.
Subject(s): East Dallas, downtown, Henderson Avenue I have always been a member of the Church of We-Have-to-Save-Downtown. Whatever that means. I sing in the choir. It's a lifelong expression of my profound wannabe urban cosmopolitology. A religion.

Why? Obvious. Because downtown is...uh, well it's down. And it's...you know...town.

Now all of a sudden I have doubts. We see all kinds of cosmopolite activity all around downtown in concentric rings, most of it developing without any help from and often in spite of City Hall. I'm talking about whole areas of the inner city that seem to want to burst up through the grime and redevelop on their own.

So we have to pour billions into saving the embalmed, asbestos-filled towers of downtown why?

A weekend ago I went on that annual gallery tour they do every year in the Cedars area just across the freeway south of downtown. Last time I went was three years ago. Back then it was still your typical Dallas moonscape of artists separated from crack-heads by bales of concertina wire. Instead of an art stroll it was more of an art trot with your eyes over your shoulders at all times.

This year I saw absolutely amazing change. From Buzz condominiums on Akard (new construction, $160,000 to $350,000) to The Beat Condominiums right across the street from the Jack Evans Police Headquarters on South Lamar (new construction, ready next spring): Very serious money is being poured into the ground in this recently embattled area just outside downtown.

It's going on all over in the inner city. Just not downtown. It sneaks up on me even in my own neck of the woods.

A week ago on a Sunday afternoon I'm driving down Henderson Avenue south from Central Expressway toward my little neighborhood, and I have a head-snapping experience that makes me feel like I might be experiencing a mild aneurysm.

There were certain tunnels of junk you had to drive through to get to my part of East Dallas. Gaston Avenue—oh, I used to love Gaston, back before it cleaned itself up. Gaston was like the dark scary pathway through the forest that Dorothy and the Tin Man have to traverse to get to Oz. Henderson was like that. I always figured Henderson helped scare the weenies back into the Park Cities.

So I'm driving down Henderson; I turn barely to my right, and there before my very eyes is a large and inviting woody, rocky, smoky, cozy-looking place called The Capitol Pub. On a Sunday afternoon the place is absolutely jammed with 20-something, employed-looking couples of the serious car payment variety.

For a split second I think, "I must have just gotten fatally rear-ended by a 1989 Pontiac La Felonia, the occupants of which are even now soaring over backyard fences like eagles, and this must be urban heaven." I pull into the next driveway to check for signs of stroke. This should be the parking lot of Jerry's Market. And now I am seriously disoriented.

Jerry's Market was always a wild and wacky jumble of people selling piñatas, telling fortunes and shaking their fists at each other. But in its place I see the sleek, emerging bones of a cool new oasis still under construction.

Somewhere in here I can still see the faint outline of Jerry's, but it looks like somebody has gone over Jerry's with a powerful chic-blaster. A sign on a door tells me part of this building will soon be the Glo Lounge.

Now as I pull back out onto Henderson my eyes are open at last, and I see all the same things I saw in the Cedars the weekend before—really serious investment, residential and commercial development just popping up out of the ground all over the place. This is all stuff the land-holders downtown would give their right gargoyles for. And it comes from where? From whom?

So later last week I went back and found out whom—the Andres brothers, Marc and Roger. Their grandparents, Harry and Chaya Andres, ran a grocery store where the Meyerson Symphony Center is now. Their father bought property in this area. They went to St. Mark's, UT and UCLA in the late '70s and early '80s, and then they came back to the family business, which by then was real estate. Now they sort of own Henderson, or at least control it.

"We've been here a long time," Marc told me. "We plan on being here a long time. We're not just financially vested in the area but mentally and physically, as you can see."

The transformation of Henderson has been nothing short of phenomenal. It has broken into public view so quickly and so recently that even I, who drive this street several times a week, didn't see it until I saw it.

In their offices a block down Henderson from Central Expressway, Roger and Marc Andres showed me before and after pictures. They were explaining that the Capitol Pub, which looks as if it has been there forever, just opened days before I drove by and saw it packed with thirsty payment-makers.

Like the old Jerry's, the building occupied by Capitol Pub is a very creative reuse of an existing older structure. Roger referred to one of the previous tenants as "Wino Pizza," which I took to be a derisive shorthand, until he showed me the before picture. There it was on the front of the building—a brightly colored sign that said, "Wino Pizza."

Also lost from the area, thanks to the recent changes, is a business named "Jugs" that was next door to a business named "Buns."

You know, you live in East Dallas long enough—or too long—and you develop a certain blind eye for sleaze. I wonder how many mature Parkies got only this far and started shrieking at each other, "Jugs, Buns, Wino Pizza! Turn the car around!"

Or their children: "'Jugs, Buns, Wino Pizza.' Park the car."

The Andres brothers drove me up and down Henderson but also deeper into the neighborhoods on both sides, where block after block of down-at-the-heels 1920s bungalows have been scraped to make way for fancy-pants condo and apartment developments.

Subject(s): East Dallas, downtown, Henderson Avenue I don't want to get into a whole thing here about gentrification and affordable housing, which are important issues. I have known enough people and families in these little neighborhoods to know that you had two kinds of residents previous to this change.

There were stable, upwardly mobile Mexican-American families who bought these houses for $10,000 in the mid-'70s and have now sold them for $250,000. They're up and out—the American dream.

Then you had completely ghastly God-awful crime-bin apartment buildings like the one my wife chased a purse-snatcher into in the early 1980s because when my wife gets mad she gets totally crazy. When I had to do the manly thing and go in there to look for her purse I was so scared I thought I was going to cry.

Sorry. I do not miss that building. Good riddance, and I hope they moved the whole thing—lock, stock and barrel—to Irving, which deserves it.

Because the Andreses are young, because they know this ground like the backs of their hands, and because their father got them into the area on a good basis, they have been able to perfectly capture the new zeitgeist.

"The planners always talk about how they want to develop 'live and work' environments," Marc said. "We think it's live and play."

The young payment-makers don't care where they work, he said. They work all over. But they want to live and play in a streetscape where they can walk their dogs to the Capitol Pub, meet friends and maybe do some more pub crawling without risking a D.U.I. Like in Paris.

My guess is that the opportunity the Andreses have spotted on Henderson is just a few degrees off from what somebody else sees in the area between Baylor University Medical Center and downtown, which is just a twist and a turn different from what somebody else sees in the Cedars, in Uptown or Bishop Arts.

Each of these areas happens because it taps into the new emerging urban class. That's not unique to Dallas. It's national. But each one happens a little differently on its own turf—and works—because somebody like the Andres brothers is right there waiting for it, knows the ground and also, for whatever reason, happens to be in the right position.

I worry that the old downtown is in the wrong position. I don't think many of the people holding downtown are especially tuned to the zeitgeist. The übermeister of downtown, Robert Decherd of Belo Corp., seems to think the secret will be tidier parks.

Hmmm.

I was here a few decades ago when the owners of downtown did everything they could to scour away the sidewalk-level streetscape, which they thought was dirty and cheap. Now reproducing it from scratch is proving to be daunting.

Plus, when have you ever seen a single big government initiative to make things happen in real estate that ever worked? Especially in a top-down town like Dallas, how do we know we aren't just looking at 12 guys who hold a bad hand full of downtown real estate who are trying to use our tax money to bail themselves out?

Given the incredible energy bubbling up in the concentric rings, why wouldn't we just wait for the market to work itself out naturally in those areas? Then maybe 10 years from now there will be so many people jammed in cheek by jowl all around the edges of downtown and the rents will be so high, all of a sudden redoing those old asbestos silos downtown will begin to pay out.

I'm still a devout cosmopolitologist. But I'm kind of back-sliding on my faith in the Church of We-Have-to-Save-Downtown. I may go across the street and join the Church of Let-Downtown-Save-Itself.

[Lakewooder]

Thanks sheilock -- I just saw a discussion about that column on:

http://backtalkeastdallas.typepad.com/back_talk/

Schutze's pokes at the Parkies are hilarious to those of us who grew up in East Dallas!

[AeroD]

^^ A couple years ago Virginia Postrel wrote a similar column about government efforts to revitalize city centers. She mentioned that what makes cities great are its neighborhoods, and not necessarily its downtowns.

[jsoto3]

http://cbs11tv.com/video/?id=23255@ktvt.dayport.com

[Lakewooder]

The McCollough guy is wrong, they didn't 'take out'' Jerry's Food Store, it closed years ago. I think he went a little far to say 'ethnic cleansing'...

I don't want it to be ALL-'anything'....I know Jesus and I think he is really concerned more about the prices..

[txRNGr]

That guy in the video reminds me of the short-lived panic over the Hollywood Door Co near the Lake Highlands Town Center on this forum just a few months ago. Dallas seems to be getting an over-haul in many of its neighborhoods, and I believe they are all for the better.

[DallasMan]

^Could not agree more...all of these changes appear to be for the better. The market is driving these changes, and many of these new residential units along Henderson are more reasonably priced. I couldn't be happier w/ the changes so far....well, unless they start widening the sidewalks and adding streetscape improvements, then I'd be happier.

[c0ldgirl]

I'll be the happiest when the overpopulated apartments between Bennett and Henderson finally get torn down. I can deal with cultural differences, but the gunshots I heard last night and the gang fight last weekend is too much.

...And before anyone says it...I am moving away from the neighborhood. I'm really going to miss the location though. :crycloud:

[Lakewooder]

Our discussion got a mention here: http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2007/12/life_is_a_carnival_except_when.php

also a site plan for the old Carnival/Kroger site was linked: http://www.barkingdogs.org/bd_drupal_graphics/1800Henderson-SP-3-Zoning-Rev.pdf

[lpepping]

Our discussion got a mention here: http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2007/12/life_is_a_carnival_except_when.php

also a site plan for the old Carnival/Kroger site was linked: http://www.barkingdogs.org/bd_drupal_graphics/1800Henderson-SP-3-Zoning-Rev.pdf

Do you think the rezoning has a chance? Or will it go the same as Cityville?

[clipper]

Will never happen. These are the people who won't let them have a diner at Cityville. Clueless they are.

[Lakewooder]

http://www.pegasusnews.com/news/2007/dec/11/zoning-changes-filed-dallas-carnival-site/#c18640

[BGM]

Good to hear. It does seem like it's been vacant for awhile.

[Lionel Hutz]

Here's a picture of the new development at 2510 Henderson (snapped from my car a few weeks ago):

http://img503.imageshack.us/img503/3124/cimg0554wr3.jpg

[lpepping]

Is there a website for this development?

[hamiltonpl]

Zale|Corson plans high-end apartments on Henderson

10:18 AM CST on Tuesday, December 18, 2007

By STEVE BROWN / The Dallas Morning News
tbox@dallasnews.com

Developers have purchased a prime East Dallas tract for construction of an apartment complex.

Zale|Corson Group said Tuesday that it has acquired 2.5 acres at southeast corner of Henderson and Belmont avenues for its rental home project.

The property was bought from Perry Homes, which recently canceled plans for townhouses on the land.

Zale|Corson Group officials say they plan to begin construction in the fall on their rental project.

"The Henderson area has undergone enormous transformation starting with the opening of the area¹s trendy restaurants and retail," developer Charlie Corson said in a statement. "We want to take advantage of the area¹s intellectual soul by providing high-end, community living with a new, urbanist human-scaled design."

Newt Walker Co. negotiated the land sale.

The development site is in an area that's seen significant rebuilding.

Phoenix Property Co. has a multifamily housing development under way across the street. And United Dominion Realty is demolishing several nearby blocks of older apartments. The land will be used for new rental units.

Zale|Corson Group is a 2-year-old company that is also building a 398-unit apartment community at Ohio Drive and McDermott Road in Plano.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/111807dnbusApartments.2a527d90.html

[Lakewooder]

Good scoop, hamilton. I guess I would have liked townhomes better, if they hadn't been Perry...

[LongonBigD]

Last Friday's DBJ reported that Salad Creations would be opening its second Dallas location in January on "Knox/Henderson St near Central Expressway." Anybody know which side of the highway (Knox or Henderson) this would be? The company's website just says "Coming Soon - Dallas"

[rantanamo]

Everytime I look at all of these apartments, I wonder what will keep history from repeating in 20-30 years.

[clipper]

$5 gasoline.

[auburndan]

Anyone know the completion date for this project? When the Dallas Business Journal did an article on the place it said they expected it to be open in October. Well, now it looks like the're gonna add on to the building(concrete work and framing in front of the Mr. Do Laundry bldg. where it's gonna be located). Any updates from those in the know would be appreciated.

[DallasMan]

Drove through here last night...WOW! My girlfriend used to live at the Easton Apartments, around 6 months ago, and the changes since then are insane in this area! The blocks b/tw Henderson and Fitzhugh are completely different. I noticed the new apts on Fitzhugh started construction w/ their new parking garages, and that they have started framing now.

Drove down Manett where Easton is, and there are some nice new townhomes, and some ugly modern looking ones as well. Looks kind of odd b/c many of the old cottages are still there, so you have cottage, ugly modern townhomes, cottage. Some of the others matched the neighborhood much better!! Lots of cleared lots as well on Manett.

This area is crazy right now - I'm going back during the day to get a better look this weekend!

[sheilock]

from the architect:
New Urbanist vision of Henderson Avenue, and I am excited to announce that we recently applied for the zoning to allow for the redevelopment of the 2.95-acre former Carnival Grocery Store at 1800 Henderson Ave in accordance with that vision.



Our proposed mixed-use design includes a substantial retail and restaurant component that will open to Henderson Ave. and be marketed to service oriented retailers (like a neighborhood grocery store, delicatessen, café, boutique shops, etc…), as well as a significant number of residential units to help energize the burgeoning southeast end of Henderson! The final balance of residential units and retail space will vary a bit based on the retail and restaurant tenants the development attracts, but our preliminary plans call for as much as 30,000 SF of ground floor commercial storefront facing Henderson Ave, with as many as 250 residential units behind and above the commercial space. A few quick stop parking spaces will be provided at the front of the project, but the majority of the spaces will be hidden in a central parking garage, a welcome change from the current expansive concrete parking lot!



This proposed urban infill development is in keeping with the City of Dallas’ forwardDallas! Comprehensive Plan, which stresses the importance of creating walkable communities with blended uses in Dallas’ urban neighborhoods. The project will anchor the entrance to Henderson from Ross and should be a catalyst for the redevelopment of the other surrounding abandoned parking lots that scar the gateway to our neighborhood, while improving the pedestrian environment with wide sidewalks and generous landscaping easements.



follow this link
http://www.andresproperties.com/zoning.shtml

[lpepping]

I hope the crazy neighborhood association doesn't try to shoot this down like CityVille.

[Kelley USA]

A few quick stop parking spaces will be provided at the front of the project

I counted 44 parking spots in front of the project- that's hardly a few. That's terrible!!!!

[sheilock]

I hope the crazy neighborhood association doesn't try to shoot this down like CityVille.

i was told there are already some "not in my backyard" people who would be against any change. this project would be a huge improvement for the neighborhood. i can't stand when people can't see the forest from the trees.

[DallasMan]

Overall, this would be a much-needed improvement to this site, and I think they are right that it would create an anchor for the redevelopment of Henderson at Ross, and you would see it begin to fill in b/tw Ross and the new places at Belmong (Capitol Pub, etc.).

Although there are "quick" parking spaces in front of the retail, it appears that the sidewalks are going to wider here compared to the rest of the street - if so, that is very good. Am I reading the plans correctly?

The drawing of the shops on the flyer is a little misleading...it shows people in front of the shops, but what it leaves out are the cars that would be parked in front of those people in those street-front parking spaces.

[clipper]

¥ep, the keep "East Dallas ratty" coalition is already lined up against this deal. Won't happen.

[DallasMan]

Do you have some kind of inside information about this, or are you just surmising a local backlash?

[clipper]

I'm very familiar with the mindset of the people who live in that area and swing a big stick at city hall. I've been to zoning meetings with them and have talked with developers who've fallen by their sword. They want nothing over three stories, nothing with density, nothing that serves alcohol and nothing that will attract folks from other parts of the city. In other words, they want nothing.

[smudoode]

¥ep, the keep "East Dallas ratty" coalition is already lined up against this deal. Won't happen.

I know this is sarcasm but it's really not appreciated, especially if you want to get support from the community for the project! I believe it will happen. Who would honestly perfer an empty grocery store to urban infill? It's not an industrial project so I can't see how property values in the area would be diminished. Quite the opposite actually.

AND: this area is needing development. Driving around this area you would see that the residents are those with lower incomes. Plus this property backs up to Lowest Greenville and other recently completed mixed use projects.(Would be hypocritical to deny such a project that would neighbor already existing mixed use communities) The businesses on Lowest Greenville will, in my prediction, support such a development because of the influx of residents more likely to walk to their bars/restaurants.

AND: demographically speaking, this area of Dallas is getting younger and defiantly more open to such a development.

[Lakewooder]

I'm very familiar with the mindset of the people who live in that area and swing a big stick at city hall. I've been to zoning meetings with them and have talked with developers who've fallen by their sword. They want nothing over three stories, nothing with density, nothing that serves alcohol and nothing that will attract folks from other parts of the city. In other words, they want nothing.

I own two homes in Cochran Heights so I hope we will be able to express support for the Andres brothers - they are greatly appreciated by many of us..

We have had some pretty good East Dallas battles over the last 20-30 years, I'm always up for another!

Actually they are quite entertaining and most people don't stay mad, something else may come up and the cast of allies will change.

[clipper]

Answer: The same crowd who would prefer an empty store front to letting John's Diner move into Cityville.

[sheilock]

everyone who is interested should attend the Tues Jan 15th meeting at the Carnival location 6.30p-catered by Cafe San Miguel--speak your mind! :director:

[lpepping]

I know this is sarcasm but it's really not appreciated, especially if you want to get support from the community for the project! I believe it will happen. Who would honestly perfer an empty grocery store to urban infill? It's not an industrial project so I can't see how property values in the area would be diminished. Quite the opposite actually.

AND: this area is needing development. Driving around this area you would see that the residents are those with lower incomes. Plus this property backs up to Lowest Greenville and other recently completed mixed use projects.(Would be hypocritical to deny such a project that would neighbor already existing mixed use communities) The businesses on Lowest Greenville will, in my prediction, support such a development because of the influx of residents more likely to walk to their bars/restaurants.

AND: demographically speaking, this area of Dallas is getting younger and defiantly more open to such a development.

All your arguments make sense but you should see what that neighborhood group did to CityVille.

[clipper]

That's right - be there and get counted in favor or let the NIMBY mafia have their way.

[BGM]

I agree that there might be some changes to the development plan for the site but as time goes on they will not be able to turn down every project plan along the Henderson corridor---there's too much demand in the area. It's not like in Park Cities where there is/was a proposed WalMart or something which is only one building that everyone is fighting.

[Lakewooder]

More info about the meeting tomorrow night:

http://lakewood-now.net/view/article/2030

[Lionel Hutz]

There is a sign up for "Barcadia" and they are continuing to work on the patio.

[Lakewooder]

See: http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2008/01/view_larger_map_right_now.php

BTW the "Lakewooder" on there is not I...

[KBilly]

Answer: The same crowd who would prefer an empty store front to letting John's Diner move into Cityville.
Otherwise known -- in real life -- as Maxine and her LGNA posse. I sometimes wonder if the woman and the geriatrics she leads ever smile and have fun in life. Sooooo glad I no longer live in LGNA.

[Lakewooder]

I went to the meeting last night - huge crowd, the whole 'Carnival/Minyard's/Kroger' parking lot was full. The Andres brothers had a great presentation with aerial shots, before and after pics of their projects, full illustrations, experts on urban planning and architecture, etc.

There was a brief question period and some guy in the back was trying to pin them down on how much longer it would take to get from Ross to Central on Henderson if the project is built. Sheesh. Everyone else seemed to be pretty supportive and it was quite an informed-looking group - I saw several familiar faces and even saw some old friends I hadn't seen in 20 years.

They said this is a $40 million project. I for one am truly excited about this - it will merge Henderson and Lower Greenville and become a huge catalyst for one of the last dumpy areas of East Dallas. This truly is Dallas Forward.

And this is being done by hometown boys who care, not some drive-by developer gracing us with another CVS or bank. Even the architect is Larry Good, Lakewood boy.

[clipper]

A shame if this gets shot down but that's very likely. Here's some of the yammering already on the Observer blog:

The site plan you linked to is bad, suburban design. They need to pull the building to the front of the property and put the parking in the rear. They need wide, unobstructed sidewalks along Henderson with a landscaped street buffer and plenty of pedestrian access along the interior of the project.

They need to reduce the number of residential units, increase the SF of the units, use at least 90% masonry exteriors, bury all power lines, increase the greenspace, park the buildings fully with 10' wide spaces, and put the residential parking underground. They need to use "real" windows with expressed muntins and mullions, not the fake cheap crap everyone uses nowadays.

Fix all that, plus a couple of other things, and this project will be an asset to the community.

Luckily, some neighbors still understand that no development is better than bad development.