“O” Alert: Peek Inside the New, Quickly Filling Stoneleigh Residences — I Saw, I Toured, I Fell in LOVE!

If you have not had the chance to tour the new 22-story Stoneleigh Residences, which are filling up very quickly over off Maple Avenue at Wolf Street, I strongly suggest you stop in and give your eyes a holiday treat. I not only toured one of the units the incredible (and CandysDirt-approved!) Sharif & Munir folks are finishing out over there  — a sleek contemporary — but I attended a party at a friend’s house who now lives there and could not be happier.

First, who all is buying there? As we have told you, Don and Linda Jo Carter shed their Park Cities home in July of 2013 and snapped up a penthouse at The Stoneleigh. Also, of course, a place at The Ritz. So did Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle, plastic surgeon Natan Yaker, and a sprinkling of physicians and professionals. Of 75 units on the Dallas County Appraisal District records, only 42 are left to sell and five are pending. The sales office tells me six homeowners bought additional spaces to enlarge their original shell. Some are combining units so there may ultimately be fewer to sell. This is not the building for junior sized homes. According to Donna Smith, sales director,  4000 seems to be the magic number for square feet. 

Actually, the party we attended took place in the Stoneleigh’s party room, a veritable 4,500 square foot ballroom (they call it banquet room, I call it a ballroom)on the third floor that is available to all guests for large events and parties, without a fee, I might add. HOA’s are running .53 per square foot and include the use of more than 15,000 square feet of common spaces including the lobby, a bar, the aforementioned ballroom with an extensive catering kitchen attached, decked out bar with owner’s lounge, a quiet room, a 3500 square foot exercise center with spa, lockers and steam and dry sauna room, a private pool that is heated year round, conference rooms (3) a gas grill and fireplace and strolling lawn, including an area for pets.

Just writing that was exhausting. Think I need someone to walk the pets — no problem, they have such a person on staff. Speaking of staff, Will Terry, formerly of The Mansion Residences, is back in Dallas as General Manager at the Stoneleigh Residences.

And the theater — there is a 26 seat theater with leather chairs complete with drink holders built in, and the seats in the first row recline completely. The sides panels and ceiling of the theater is illuminated onyx. You can reserve it for your family or slip in and see a movie if you like what’s on the schedule.

Really, I think the Stoneleigh offers the largest, most comprehensive owner’s spaces I have seen thus far in the local condo market.  I have to say that the decor finish of the building’s interiors by Dallas Design Group should really take home a truck-ful of prizes. We may have waited a long time for it, but the Stoneleigh is elegant, sophisticated, timely and dazzling. I truly felt as if I was in a New York City building on Park Avenue with touches of Hollywood glam. In fact, being a huge fan of The Imperial House Behind the Pink Wall, I see some similarities in quality of materials, elegance and construction that will make the Stoneleigh timeless. The feel is contemporary, but warm, sparkling but not glittery. The use of blacks and golds, Greek key design, padded and studded doors, brass elevator doors with a slight deco atmosphere, leather seats, and the highest quality marbles and onyx, combine to create a very rich feel that must make it feel wonderful to come home to.

 

Our friends, for example, are retired, and say that walking in the Stoneleigh door every day is like a reward for their years of hard work. Inside their home, they have plenty of space for art, a large gourmet kitchen, and living areas. The ballroom, as I call it (there are even tables and crystal chairs available to entertain 100, so no more Ducky Bob’s!) handles all the large-scale entertaining, though they certainly entertain on a smaller scale in their home. I mean, you could host a small wedding on that floor. The architects even conceived a back entrance for guests to get up the elevator, to the ballroom, and out, moving towards the valet parking attendant more quickly AND keeping away from other homeowners who might be enjoying the Quiet room.

As for the homeowner’s elevators, they land directly into the units.

As I may have told you in previous stories, the Stoneleigh is selling a bit differently than other local condos: you buy a shell (starting at about $800,000) and you finish it out to your exact specifications and desires based on three floor plans. But the plans are only guidelines, and can be modified and changed to the owner’ preferences.

“The plans can be modified to the extent of plumbing restrictions,” says Sales Director Kay Zafar. “HVAC is not restricted.”

Only two home builders working in the building: Sharif & Munir and Crescent Estates/TriArc, Mehrdad Moayedi’s luxury construction divisions. (TriArc is his newest luxury condominium developer, offices conveniently across the street.) Thus no two Stoneleigh Residences homes will ever be the same or even mirror images of each other. All homes have two balconies, and there are four units per floor.

Sharif & Munir is finishing out 3,400 square feet on the 21st floor, unit 21B, that is literally a cutting edge design. The finish out is quite contemporary with Fry Reglet baseboards. These are clean-lined baseboards — maybe I snapped a pic. They are making extensive use of built-in, floor-to-ceiling cabinets, pocket doors, Zoom beds, all sorts of space-saving and storage tricks to make 3,400 square feet feel like 6,400.

Let me take you in the door. Prepare to be dazzled each time you walk in. There are two entrances — one on Wolf Street, the other on the east side of the building that flows to the valet and Stoneleigh hotel. Walking into the lobby is more like walking into a Four Seasons than a condo residence, and you are greeted by a wall of onyx mosaics and a shimmering drop chandelier. Three elevators whisk you up directly to your unit. The second floor is the resident’s lounge area, complete with a lounge, the huge bar of Michelangelo marble with wine storage, the theater and 3,500-square-foot exercise studio and spa. The third floor is party central for homeowners with the professional catering kitchen decked out in stainless appliances on gleaming black and white tiles, white leather padded and studded swing doors. There is the ballroom with serving bar, with a living room/lounge area preceding it. This is where party guests can wander off and mingle. There is even a freight elevator to this floor to make it easier on caterers and bands.

Outside, the grounds give you enough turf to get your green fix, and the new infinity pool is for residents’ use only, not the hotel. I have always thought the Stoneleigh was in a great location because it is in an actual neighborhood, a natural neighborhood, where you can walk to at least a dozen restaurants on Maple, while a block away Fairmount Street has fun antique stores. To me, Maple Avenue would be as close to Chestnut Street living (Chicago) as I could get in Dallas. Or Sutton Place in New York City.

Fancy schmancy, that it is. But living at the Residences at the Stoneleigh doesn’t mean you have to dress in couture to go down and retrieve the mail. That’s the beauty of this neighborhood: pop on jeans and a tee shirt and head across the street to the Stoneleigh P for a burger and fries. Or, if you prefer, dial the Stoneleigh P and have that burger sent up to the Stoneleigh R. You’ve made it this far, you definitely deserve to put your feet up and relax in the best of style.