Let’s Gondola Over to Dallas Midtown Valley View… Shaping Up as a New Dallas Community
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Valley View Shopping Center is shaping up on paper like a Victoria’s Secret glossy ad, but one thing’s for sure: it may never again look like the Valley View Mall many of us grew up with! I will never forget the opening of Bloomingdales over there, how cool was that? Alas, now Valley View is suffering behind the road hell that is LBJ is and you almost cannot even see it anymore. But like I tell myself every time my tires touch LBJ, this too shall pass and something way better will be here. Well, after a year working closely with the City of Dallas, neighborhood stakeholders and internationally respected architects, i.e. everyone, Beck Ventures is giving us a first look at detailed plans for the transformation of Dallas Midtown. And it is, to say the least, ambitious!
Yes, that is a gondola! Dallas Midtown will soon be a community within a community, another depot for shopping, entertainment, working, high density living or gondola riding.
The plan covers all the land from Galleria Dallas on the west to Preston Road on the east, and from LBJ Freeway on the south to even a couple of blocks north of Alpha Road. Over the next couple decades – yes, twenty years — about 60 percent of the existing buildings could be torn down.
Eventually, the potentially $10 billion project could include 14 million square feet of commercial — 30 story high-rise office commercial towers, mixed-use and residential buildings, green space including a park four times the size of Klyde Warren Park, and the “entertainment destination” still holding the last prime remnants of the old mall. More than 10,000 people potentially could live there.
Scott Beck, you may recall, is the dude who purchased the rather sorry Valley View Shopping Center last year, and has sworn $2 billion to revive the largest continuous tract north of 635 into a vibrant, bustling center of activity. If you don’t remember, read up on my interview with him here. It’s called Midtown even though it’s not really in the middle of Dallas. In fact, if we looked at a map of Dallas, what would be “Midtown”? University Park? Highland Park Village? I don’t think it really matters because everyone’s perception is that the intersection of LBJ and Preston Road is the middle of Dallas. I like the name. Sorry!
Yes, Scott has big plans to revamp “Midtown” but also connect it to the city. There will be hike and bike trails connecting to White Rock Lake, the parks, open spaces, a trolley system and Gondola rides to Galleria (what? Don’t drop me on LBJ!), interactive water features throughout the development, including a wave pool and Ariel Show Fountains, two luxury hotels, upscale condos and rental apartments, office towers, 16 screen movie theater, boutiques, restaurant and entertainment venues.
Ariel Show Fountains? Are we thinking The Bellagio? That is exactly what they are planning at BahaMar in Nassau.
“Since our firm first announced the acquisition of Valley View Mall, the interest in this project has been unprecedented. We are attracting national and international attention. We are honored to be stewards of a crucial transformational project of this scale. The city of Dallas and our elected officials have been fantastic partners in helping this vision become a reality, ” says Scott Beck. The young president of Beck Ventures is bringing in some never-seen-befores, like a seven-story glass enclosed European style market. He says he’s focusing intently on details, and when people come to Dalla Midtown, they won’t want to leave.
City Hall seems pretty pumped, as it would thinking of the expanding tax base cha-ching cha-ching. But, as The Dallas Morning News reports, this immense project will require millions for infrastructure — new sewers, water lines and roads. It will require police and protection. It is yet to be seen if the Dallas Plan Commission is on board.
“This development will create a city within a city. With restaurants, shopping, housing and office space, Dallas Midtown will completely redefine this part of Dallas, ” said Linda Koop, Dallas City Council, in the press release.
“Dallas Midtown will become a major economic driver for the city of Dallas. It will strengthen our tax base and help our city lure and retain corporate headquarters. This is an extremely desirable site and this is the perfect way to develop it,” dittoed Tennell Atkins, Dallas City Council, also in the press release.
I am so excited about this project. I mean, did you ever think you’d see a park in Dallas over a highway? I can imagine the Tweets: Let’s GG: gondola to the Galleria.
This is pretty coolio!
This is pretty coolio!
I own a 5,000 square foot “pool hall" being replaced by a 20 acre park as part of this 400+ acre development. A dubious honor at best.
In our defense, I would like to say a few words. We pay over $100,000 in rent per year, and have a payroll employing a dozen or more employees of over $120,000 per year, which in turn supports several young families. Now I like parks as much as the next person, and when I see a bunch of kids playing soccer on the parking lot behind my pool room, I understand first hand why we need more parks in the area. I also see on occasion, why some folks hang their dislike of pool halls on the mis-logic of "starts with P, rhymes with T, & stands for Trouble". However, I can assure you after having owned it for 20 years, there are more fights in one season of Dallas Stars' 3-hour hockey games than there have been in the 20 years at Hawley's Billiards, which is open 365 days a year from morning until 2am and more illegal drugs in a Cowboy locker room.
It is ironic that the Midtown Project, which refers to itself as an entertainment center, wishes to replace a form of entertainment enjoyed, in the United States alone, by almost 22 million participants in 2012 according the National Sporting Goods Association. This participation rate is more than Golf, Tennis, Soccer, Softball or Volleyball and more than Skateboarding, Skiing, and Snowboarding combined. It is time Dallas' leadership and certain developers quit demonizing a sport that they evidently know little about and likely are not one of the many millions of participants. With professionally design space and financing, Hawley's Billiards would welcome the opportunity to be a part of this revitalization effort in an area with which we are intimately familiar. One need only go to a Fox and Hound to see how a properly financed and designed poolroom could add to the ambiance desired by Beck Ventures. But misdirected attitudes and biases will need to change.
Walter, email me and let's talk about this further. Great story idea! I have never been to a pool hall and think it would be fun!
I own a 5,000 square foot “pool hall" being replaced by a 20 acre park as part of this 400+ acre development. A dubious honor at best.
In our defense, I would like to say a few words. We pay over $100,000 in rent per year, and have a payroll employing a dozen or more employees of over $120,000 per year, which in turn supports several young families. Now I like parks as much as the next person, and when I see a bunch of kids playing soccer on the parking lot behind my pool room, I understand first hand why we need more parks in the area. I also see on occasion, why some folks hang their dislike of pool halls on the mis-logic of "starts with P, rhymes with T, & stands for Trouble". However, I can assure you after having owned it for 20 years, there are more fights in one season of Dallas Stars' 3-hour hockey games than there have been in the 20 years at Hawley's Billiards, which is open 365 days a year from morning until 2am and more illegal drugs in a Cowboy locker room.
It is ironic that the Midtown Project, which refers to itself as an entertainment center, wishes to replace a form of entertainment enjoyed, in the United States alone, by almost 22 million participants in 2012 according the National Sporting Goods Association. This participation rate is more than Golf, Tennis, Soccer, Softball or Volleyball and more than Skateboarding, Skiing, and Snowboarding combined. It is time Dallas' leadership and certain developers quit demonizing a sport that they evidently know little about and likely are not one of the many millions of participants. With professionally design space and financing, Hawley's Billiards would welcome the opportunity to be a part of this revitalization effort in an area with which we are intimately familiar. One need only go to a Fox and Hound to see how a properly financed and designed poolroom could add to the ambiance desired by Beck Ventures. But misdirected attitudes and biases will need to change.
Walter, email me and let's talk about this further. Great story idea! I have never been to a pool hall and think it would be fun!