Flower Mound: Lakeside DFW

[CTroyMathis]

So, has anyone heard what's up with this thing up past Grapevine in Flower Mound? Their website (http://www.lakesidedfw.com/index.htm) is rather dull and I was curious before sending emails (http://www.lakesidedfw.com/contact.htm) if someone already knows some sort of status.

[gc]

I saw that once before a long long time ago. At the time, I was unaware of the start date. It looks great it would make one heck of a resort, office, retail, residential, etc. Will it happen? Is there demand for that kind of development in that area (at least the mid-rise residential)? What is the expected start date? Is there any real interest? Anyhoo, it looks cool.

[CTroyMathis]

Some of the retail and office was supposed to have started a year ago. That's what I was told, anyway, ages ago by someone from that site - so I put it like that in the under crane part of the site. Don't know anything else now, though.

[chiboi]

Interesting rendering. I am going to function hosted by the new Opryland Hotel that is being built in Grapevine. I'll let everyone know what I find out.

[crescentboi]

It reminds me a bit of Williams Square in Las Colinas. Different layout, but same idea. I wonder if they'll have an equestrian sculpture!?

[kelli]

ME AND MY HUSBAND ARE MOVING RIGHT ON THE EDGE OF FLOWER MOUND RIGHT OVER THE DAM...PRETTY MUCH THIS PROJECT IS GOING TO BE BUTTED UP TO OUR NEW HOUSE...THEY HAVE SIGNS OUT NOW RIGHT THERE AT THE DAM WHERE IT COMES INTO FLOWER MOUND...SEEMS LIKE IT WILL BE VERY COOL..CONDOS, RESTARANTS, HOTELS, SHOPPING. RESTARAUNTS...THEYRE SAYING THAT FLOWERMOUND, GRAPEVINE ANYTHING IN A 10 MILE RADIUS WILL BE THE PLACE TO LIVE...IF YOU LIVE THERE NOW YOUR PROPERTY IS GOING TO SKY ROCKET....

[CTroyMathis]

Welcome to the forum kelli

........................

From Flower Mounds website:
http://www.flower-mound.com/econdev/properties-lakesidedfw.html

Lakeside DFW, a Verizon SmartPark®, is the international business center overlooking the 15,000-acre Grapevine Lake Recreational Area. Only six minutes from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, Lakeside lies at the center of the region's most desirable housing, retail and entertainment. Its panoramic perspective of the Dallas/Fort Worth area will provide all those lucky enough to work or visit here…an extraordinary point of view.

It is zoned and approved for corporate campus, office, hotel, conference center, fitness center, spa, retail, dining, entertainment and medical facilities. The European master plan is designed to place the lake and all of these uses within a pleasant five-minute walk of each other to enhance the business experience.

Underneath it all will be the most sophisticated utility infrastructure available, designed to minimize operating costs while delivering the ultimate in performance and reliability. As a Verizon SmartPark®, Lakeside will have the most advanced telecommunications…unmatched for broadband, flexibility and reliability.

............................


This thing has been planned for a long time... Let us know if you see anything in the way of progress in that corner of DFW.

[Gen5Dallas]

Flower Mound business district may be divided
Business park in middle of counties' dispute

08/06/2003

By KEVIN KRAUSE / The Dallas Morning News / www.dallasnews.com

As the Texas Supreme Court considers whether to intercede in a boundary dispute between Denton and Tarrant counties, Flower Mound officials and developers are anxiously waiting to learn whether almost half of a business park they are spending millions to develop will slip out of the county.

The Lakeside Business District, which is in the early stages of development, is envisioned as a marketplace along Grapevine Lake with offices, shops, restaurants and a hotel. Developers hope it lures industry and shoppers to the southern part of Flower Mound.

If the Supreme Court declines to hear Denton County's appeal – as it already did once – some property owners in the district will see their tax rate almost triple, from the 24 cents per $100 of assessed value to Tarrant County's rate of 64 cents per $100.

"It adds a whole new burden to property owners," said Alan Stewart, president of the Lakeside DFW development in the district.

Jim Lang, Flower Mound's director of economic development, said property owners also would face higher insurance rates and lose tax incentives Denton County offered, such as a 55 percent rebate on property taxes for five years. That, he said, will make it difficult to attract new businesses to the 1,500-acre commercial district created in 1999.

"I very much hope this will end in a way that ... would not be detrimental to our business district," said Stephani Spruill, Flower Mound's mayor pro tem. "It certainly affects their county incentives and makes for a less attractive package for businesses locating there."

Some developers signed contracts with the town requiring them to generate a certain amount of tax revenue in exchange for the town spending $25 million to outfit the business district with roads and infrastructure. If the properties fail to develop within seven years, the developers will have to refund some of the town's cost.

While some properties in the district stand to be engulfed by Tarrant County, other businesses would straddle the two counties, meaning they would have to negotiate assessments with two appraisal districts, Mr. Lang said.

Under appeal

Denton County is appealing the high court's decision not to hear its arguments in the legal dispute over 3,500 acres along Denton County's southwestern border. The dispute originated with a 1997 Tarrant County lawsuit.

Denton County wanted the high court to overturn a decision last year by the 2nd Court of Appeals in Fort Worth that moved Tarrant County's border north.

The appeals court overturned a trial court decision upholding the county line established in 1852.

Although Flower Mound would still receive municipal tax revenue should Tarrant County prevail, Denton County would lose millions in potential tax revenue, Mr. Lang said.

Because of the potential value of the Flower Mound land in dispute, some in Denton County have questioned the motive in challenging the boundary line.

"This litigation is all about money," said Rider Scott, an attorney hired by Denton County. "Denton County wants nothing but to protect history. Tarrant wants money. That's a shame that it would be the basis of litigation and not the preservation of a historic boundary that's been around for 150 years."

Mr. Rider said the value of the land is estimated to be worth about $1 billion dollars by 2010.

Tarrant County Judge Tom Vandergriff rejected the argument.

"It's simply that our attorneys are convinced the property belongs in Tarrant County," he said. "I assure you our county is not in such desperate need of income to have that as its motive."

Properties affected

Among the Flower Mound properties that could be affected are a 600,000-square-foot Best Buy warehouse that opened in November, Mr. Lang said.

Mr. Stewart's Lakeside DFW development would be nearly split in half.

"There's nothing about this that's positive," he said.

"Denton County calls it a land grab. I don't know what else you'd call it."

Mr. Stewart, whose family has owned land in southern Flower Mound for 30 years, said Tarrant County officials have never approached them.

"They didn't ask us what we think of it," he said.

Flower Mound council members voted about two weeks ago to spend $6,000 to file a brief with the Supreme Court supporting Denton County's position.

[INTX dave]

This looks like an interesting project, but two words that I notice missing the zoning and description are: 'residential' and 'living'. Without that I think it would end up being just another generic suburban office park, unable to really compete with the likes of Addison Circle, Legacy Town Center, and Las Colinas Urban Center.

[Gen5Dallas]

What sane person would trade this...

[Gen5Dallas]

... for this?

[Gen5Dallas]

After all, isn't this sort of development what freeway intersections are for?

The industrial park sounds especially attractive...

(From the Flower Mound Chamber of Commerce website)

Lakeside Industrial Park

"Lakeside Trade Center is being developed by Hillwood Investment Properties and is approximately 81 acres in the Lakeside Business District, located northeast of International Parkway/FM 2499, east of Old Gerault Road and southwest of Lakeside Parkway. The tract’s land use designation and zoning classification accommodate campus industrial development. Hillwood intends to develop the tract with approximately 1.4 million square feet of flex-office and/or flex-warehouse facilities."
_____

Let's hope this baby drowns in its own bathwater.

[bloodandpopcorn]

I agree! this is a much better resource for all of DFW in it's current, beautiful, natural state. You want to make a lakeside office park, do it to a lake that's closer in to DTD or DTFW, don't ruin one of these places to "run off" to...

[CTroyMathis]

And...., what's the dealio with this one also?

Site is still there:
http://www.lakesidedfw.com/index.htm

[CTroyMathis]

Town ratifies hotel project incentives (http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=14500941&BRD=1426&PAG=461&dept_id=528195&rfi=6)
By: Molly McCullough
05/10/2005

The Flower Mound Town Council approved an $8 million incentive package for Flower Mound's first luxury resort hotel to be located in the Lakeside Business District on Monday night.
Town officials say this hotel will be the first "domino" that will attract major corporations to Flower Mound, specifically the Lakeside Business District.
The luxury hotel will have 280 rooms, a conference center, two ballrooms, two restaurants, a spa and a feature pool.
The hotel will also have 45-65 condominiums located on the top floors of the hotel, with a purchase price of $500,000.
Hines Development will be building the hotel, the same development corporation that built the Galleria Malls in Dallas and Houston, as well as the Westin Riverwalk Hotel in San Antonio.
A Hines representative told the council the hotel would be roughly the same size as the Westin in San Antonio.
The hotel will cost roughly $56 million on the 9-acres plot overlooking Lake Grapevine. The hotel will bring approximately $51 million in commercial tax base, comprising of $27 million in hotel value, $18 million in condominium revenue, and $6 million in business personal property.
The net benefit to the town is just more than $17 million.
The hotel is estimated to be complete within the next two-and-a-half years; the next six to eight months spent designing the project. Hines representatives said the hotel will be independently branded, such as Grapevine's Gaylord Texan without major labels such as Hilton or Westin.
Despite the long-awaited excitement expressed by town staff and officials, a few residents objected to the hotel's condominiums, claming residential use fell outside the Master Plan for that property.
Flower Mound resident Sherilynn Flick questioned the council and staff by asking how this would fit into the Master Plan, how school districts and busing systems would work, and when citizens get a chance to participate in the decision to allow the condominiums as part of the project.
Town Attorney Terry Welch said since the primary use of the project would be a hotel; a use allowed in the Master Plan, the accessory residential use of the condominiums was not controlled by the Master Plan.
Flower Mound Mayor Jody Smith said there was both an elementary and middle school in the area and that the chance to speak against the condominiums was during that meeting.
Flower Mound resident Marsha Gavitt also spoke against the condominiums, as a representative for Flower Mound's political action committee Voters United to Preserve Flower Mound, saying the process to consider something like that an accessory use was vague.
She said she thought of accessory uses of hotels as being things like laundry service and restaurants.
"This could be a slippery slope in the future concerning accessory uses," Gavitt said.
The Hines representative said several hotels are incorporating condos into their design and said Hines had a few currently under construction that included condominiums.
During the public hearing, no one spoke against the incentive package for the Hines project. On the other hand, several residents spoke in favor of the incentive package and project.
"I think this is what Flower Mound has needed for a long time, top quality economic development," Flower Mound resident Sylvia Inboden said.
Resident Donna Bradshaw said she was pleased that she finally had somewhere in Flower Mound to put her family.
Town officials firmly supported the project in their comments before their anonymous vote of approval for the incentive package.
"Flower Mound is already a wonderful place to live, now this could make Flower Mound a nice place to visit," Councilwoman Laurie Long said.
"This is the first domino to get these corporations here...That is significant folks," Councilman Tim Trotter said.
Councilman Paul Stone responded to questions about the town council's agenda by allowing condominiums as part of the project.
"What our agenda here is, is to kick start and get something started in the Lakeside Business District," Stone said.
Councilman Joel Lindsey told the audience that the Stryker Corporation, a recent addition to the Lakeside Business District, had asked if there would be a hotel for their business travelers within the town.
Lindsey said Flower Mound is fortunate because, if denied, this multi-million dollar hotel could have easily been built on Grapevine's side of the lake.
Now, with the council's decision, this won't have to happen and Flower Mound has a new element to show off to future corporations.

[rantanamo]

Strange, that for years, no one seemed to build anything but homes on area lakes. Now all of a sudden you see the Rockwall projects, Grand Prairie, A fight to build a building at White Rock, Gaylord, and now this. Wonder why it took so long?

[texman]

I'm amazed it doesnt have a convention center attached..since every city in DFW is doing that....

[Route Pack Six]

But the town council would rather strip out all the nice lush land here for more industrial warehouses (the English translation for "campus industrial park"). Just go on Lakeside from FM2499 eastward towards SH121 and they've done some significant land clearing for MORE WAREHOUSES.

And to think this town put up "Shop Flower Mound" banners. Shop where? Albertsons? Tom Thumb? Walgreens? On any given weekend check out the exodus of cars headed out of Flower Mound on FM1171, FM3040, and FM2499 as everyone "Shops Everywhere Else".