Uptown activity sizzles
Gables to build apartments, retail space near the West Village
11:05 PM CST on Wednesday, November 3, 2004
By STEVE BROWN / The Dallas Morning News
Construction workers may soon outnumber shoppers on McKinney Avenue.
The Uptown strip is booming, with new shops, restaurants and rental homes. Now, apartment developer Gables Residential Trust is starting two buildings across the street from the West Village. The biggest is a retail and apartment building on Cityplace Boulevard at McKinney, next door to the shopping strip that houses Borders Books and Chase Bank. It will be 104 apartments on top of about 28,000 square feet of retail, said Doug Chesnut, senior vice president of Gables Residential Trust.
"It will be a little more contemporary-looking than West Village but should be a nice fit with the neighborhood," he said. Good Fulton & Farrell Architects designed the building, which is being built in a partnership with Cityplace Co. The adjoining retail building and parking garage were also built by Cityplace. "I think construction will probably kick off at the start of the year," said Cityplace president Neal Sleeper. "We're working on the retail tenants right now." Gables is also building the next phase of apartments for the West Village complex. West Village developers Henry S. Miller III and Robert Bagwell picked Gables to build 75 apartments on top of about 19,000 square feet of retail space. Construction is under way on the north side of Blackburn between McKinney and Cole.
Mr. Chesnut said the apartments in both buildings should rent for about $1.35 to $1.45 per square foot. West Village opened in 2003 with 150,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space and 175 apartments.
The shopping center has the Magnolia art-movie theater and such stores as Tommy Bahamas, the Gap and Ann Taylor.
These would be the remainder of block 7C(right side on the rendering) and the smaller buildings across Blackburn from the labelled West Village, though it sounds as if it will be bigger than it sounds.
