Could the New Cityplace “State of Art” Urban Project Be In Jeopardy Because of Trammell Crow’s Big Box Sam’s?

Last year, Dallas real estate developer Neal Sleeper, president of Cityplace Co., said that the east side of North Central is starting to gain some momentum.

“The east side of North Central is really starting to gain some momentum,” he told Steve Brown. “Parmenter’s plans make a lot of sense, and I hope they follow through.”

Momentum, yeah. The neighborhood surrounding Cityplace tower is booming. I hear it from Realtors all the time. Across the expressway, developer Forest City Enterprises is constructing a high-rise apartment complex near West Village.
The Richards Group is building a new office headquarters. All these plans are in place because buyers believe everyone around them is like-minded, investing in snazzy mixed-use developments next door to the same, NOT a Sam’s Wholesale Club warehouse. Could this fiasco be negatively impacting other developments in the area?

Even worse: will it end up looking so bad that institutional investors lose confidence in Dallas as a place to make large investments?

I woke up on Memorial Day thinking this was all some sort of joke, like a very late April Fools joke. Rudy Bush at the Dallas Morning News says “City staff and the city attorney’s office are surely nervous about this case. They will urge appointed and elected officials to let this one slide through. Not much we can do now, you see.”

Oh, they had better not!

Florida-based Parmenter Realty Partners bought Cityplace last year, and immediately began making plans to push ahead with cool construction plans for the two vacant blocks adjoining the building.

“We definitely see that as part of the value-add to the property,” said Steve Bronner, who heads Parmenter’s Dallas office. “We want to do something that is accretive to the office tower and creates the live, work and play environment everybody is seeking.”

That vision is a  “state-of-the-art urban mixed-use development” with more than 600,000 square feet of apartments, restaurants, shops and maybe a hotel on vacant land surrounding the tower on Haskell Avenue just east of North Central.
The grassy areas were originally intended to be three six-story office buildings that were never constructed. Foundations for the buildings, underground parking and mechanical systems to operate them were all included in the tower development, Steve Brown reported last year And it was hailed as a great real estate move.

Then there’s this lonely little sentence in Steve’s story:

“On the east side of the highway and closer to the Cityplace tower, developer Trammell Crow Co. is working on plans for a new shopping and mixed-use center just north of Haskell Avenue.”