City Lights project east of downtown
01:39 PM CST on Saturday, February 19, 2005
By STEVE BROWN / The Dallas Morning News
More than a year after tying up land for the project, developers are still refining plans for a large shopping center to be built on the eastern edge of downtown Dallas.
Called City Lights, the retail complex is earmarked for more than two blocks near Live Oak Street and Good Latimer Expressway.
Margaux Development Co. originally intended to anchor the 350,000-square-foot shopping center with a supermarket, but lining up a tenant hasn't been easy.
"The grocery store market – which drove us to pick that site – is not what it once was," said Mickey Ashmore, president of United Commercial Realty, which is marketing the project.
Because of fierce competition in the supermarket industry, some grocers have slowed or halted construction of stores.
The recent opening of a Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market grocery store near the City Lights site has also increased competition among supermarkets in that area.
"The developer has bought the land – it's not just under contract," Mr. Ashmore said. "And we are in serious discussions with six tenants.
"I think we will break ground this year and will have a 2006 or early 2007 opening," he said.
The proposed shopping center would have three levels of retail space plus more floors of parking.
"It's a very complicated project to engineer," Mr. Ashmore said.
While work on the City Lights project has continued, developers have moved forward with several condominium and townhouse developments in the same neighborhood.
Almost 200,000 people live in a three-mile radius of the planned shopping center.