Trammell Crow Says Sam’s Club at Cityplace, er, East Village, is Overwhelmingly Supported by 72% of Residents in Area

Update 9:40 a.m. Here is what Allyn says the residents were asked over the phone. Do you think it was misleading?

The Trammell Crow Company is planning to build a new development between Haskell Avenue and Carroll Avenue on the east side of Central Expressway anchored by a one-of-a-kind Sam’s Club and featuring three restaurants and a new fuel station. This will create some much-needed excitement for a high-traffic, visible area that has been underutilized for years.

Based on this information, and what you have heard about the plan for the development at Haskell and Central, do you support or oppose the plan?

Eat your Wheaties, Thursday is a big day at Dallas City Hall. The wonderful Highland House development Luke Crosland is trying to develop in Preston Center will be debated, and Laura Miller plans to show up and give ’em hell. Why she is so against this development baffles me. I think it’s a huge plus for Preston Center and the City of Dallas. Does Laura fear that she and Steve might face more leasing competition for their condo at the Athena?

The City Plan Commission will also debate whether to revisit last year’s zoning decision that gave us the current Sam’s Club CBRE Trammell Crow Co. has on tap for the southeast corner of Central Expressway and Carroll Avenue. I drove the ‘hood last evening, noted the flurry of new development, the apartments, the homes that still need to go bye-bye, and a few women pushing baby carriages. Seems like gentrification is trying it’s best to peep up in those parts. I just think it’s a dumb use of land, though I’m sure the big box will prove profitable to CBRE Trammell Crow. That Sam’s Club will go up a whole lot faster than some multi-family mixed with retail, which I would personally like to see there.

Several Dallas real estate agents plan to be at the meeting, some will even speak, like J.L. Forke with the Intown office of Dave Perry-Miller. J.L. has sold a lot of Uptown property and knows a thing or two about development. He recently sold three properties totalling 1.2 million on nearby Deere Street. He told me that the land in Uptown is gone, snatched up, and the only logical place to go next is to cross the big bad Central Expressway. So who at City Hall decided to pave multi-family paradise and put up a giant Sam’s parking lot? That, to me, is the big question.

“I would prefer to see mixed use, retail with apartments within walking distance to DART matching the “East Village ” concept that was sold to the planning commission,” says J.L., speaking on behalf of himself.  “I love our city and want a walkable urban neighborhood.  I have seen what happened to Los Angeles and what developers did to that city.  Traffic nightmare.”

The other weird thing about this is that everyone seems to have amnesia or at least short-term memory loss when it comes to what happened a year ago, who was shown what, told what, approved what, and agreed to what. Some claim that CBRE Trammell Crow “snuck this through”, an allegation they staunchly deny.

At a community meeting last week, a resident recorded an exchange in which neighbors called out a Trammell Crow representative for changing the plan without consulting residents.

“We did think it would be grocery-anchored. We did think we could get a grocery here. And then maybe have a few junior anchors,” said KC Bills, a Crow representative, to community members. “That’s not how the leasing worked out, and that’s not who was interested.”

Over at the Dallas Morning News last week, while I was in Houston, Rudy Bush called out Councilwoman Pauline Medrano who at first seemed to say she had little recollection of the developer telling her they were going to build a Sam’s Wholesale Club on this very choice. Then Rudy pressed, and the developer said “they not only showed Medrano site plans, they took her to a similar Sam’s Club and to the site of the development.”

This made Medrano recall a little more:

Yes, she said, she did go on the tour. But what was discussed was the stone work on the Sam’s Club. She said she absolutely would have remembered if Trammell Crow’s Denton Walker had told her that he planned a big box store. Those words tend to stand out.

I asked her again, was she certain no mention was made of a big box. She stressed again that that is something that would have gotten her attention.

She also told me that neighbors she talked to had told her they were fine with the development.

Really? Well, that’s not what I’ve heard.

Know what I think? I think the City of Dallas had better get it’s act together on this and fast. I think some heads should roll. This is what we get for the tax dollars we pay? I do not have amnesia when it comes to my tax bill, thank you very much. Neither should Pauline Medrano or the city staff that made a terrible land use decision, one that ticks off neighbors and threatens property values and could potentially get us into a lawsuit.

Besides, what kind of a message does it send to developers: we make stupid land use decisions, we hand out zoning permission, then we try to yank it back!

The developers will skip right over Dallas, go to Fort Worth, Plano or Houston!

And we need to re-visit our zoning notification requirements, too.

Meantime, CBRE Trammell Crow has had to do some major PR emergency surgery. Stop the bleeding. They had neighborhood meetings, sent out cards and notices, and said they polled people within a 5-mile radius of the Sam’s. The majority support the development, they say.

“A survey of local households who would be the targeted users of the retail and restaurant project shows that 72% of respondents support the plan after they were read an overview of the development, which is anchored by a Sam’s Club.” Allyn Media says 350 registered voters “who are potential users of the project” were surveyed over the phone between Friday and yesterday, and that there’s a 4-percent margin of error.

City plan commissioner Bobby Abtahi says he just wants this to be a public discussion, which it sure seems like it WAS NOT last year. Also, I’m sure he wants to see what the opposing side presents: apparently proof that could send the whole thing back to rezoning — notification letters to residents omitted language about a mega store, a notification that city rules require.

Here is the press release from Allyn Media for CBRE Trammell Crow:

 

For Immediate Release                                                                                                                                   Erin Ragsdale                                                                                                  [email protected]     

972.841.2132

 

Survey Shows Overwhelming Public Support

For East Village Project Anchored By Sam’s Club

Recent survey shows 72% of residents in area support the plan

 

(Dallas, TX – June 18, 2014) The Trammell Crow Company announced today that a public opinion survey conducted this week showed overwhelming support for the new East Village Sam’s Club development near the intersection of Central Expressway and Carroll.

 

A survey of local households who would be the targeted users of the retail and restaurant project shows that 72% of respondents support the plan after they were read an overview of the development, which is anchored by a Sam’s Club.

 

“This survey was important for us to understand what the whole community thinks of this project and to make sure we are on the right track,” said Scott Krikorian, Senior Managing Director of Trammell Crow Company for Dallas-Fort Worth. “The survey results confirmed that this is a great site for this project, it will be a benefit to the community and city and add convenience for the residents and business in the surrounding area.”

 

Here are the key findings:

 

72% of respondents said that they support the plan when given the following overview of the project:

 

The Trammell Crow Company is planning to build a new development between Haskell Avenue and Carroll Avenue on the east side of Central Expressway anchored by a one-of-a-kind Sam’s Club and featuring three restaurants and a new fuel station.  This will create some much-needed excitement for a high-traffic, visible area that has been underutilized for years.

 

Based on this information, and what you have heard about the plan for the development at Haskell and Central, do you support or oppose the plan?

 

82% of respondents said that the fact that this Sam’s Club will be like no other in North Texas because it has been custom-designed to fit the look and feel of surrounding neighborhoods, and to be more pedestrian friendly makes them more likely to support the project.

 

81% of respondents said the fact that this new development will create new tax revenues and jobs for the City without taking any public funding or incentives makes them more likely to support the project.

 

76% agreed that this project will be an improvement to the area because it will replace an old, asbestos-filled, abandoned building with a Sam’s Club custom-designed to fit this area.

-more-

71% of respondents agreed that a new Sam’s Club in the heart of Dallas, within 2 miles of downtown, will be a benefit for the city and the residents and businesses in the surrounding area.

 

Allyn Media conducted the telephone survey between June 13-17, 2014. The sample is comprised of 350 registered voters who are potential users of the project. The margin of error for this survey is 4%.

 

About Trammell Crow Company. Trammell Crow Company, founded in 1948, is one of the nation’s leading developers and investors in commercial real estate. The Company has developed or acquired nearly 2,600 buildings valued at nearly $60 billion and over 540 million square feet. As of March 31, 2014, Trammell Crow Company had $5.0 billion of projects in process and $1.8 billion in its pipeline.

 

Trammell Crow Company’s teams are dedicated to building value for its clients with professionals in 16 major cities throughout the United States. The company serves users of and investors in office, industrial, retail, healthcare, multi-family residential and mixed use projects. For those who occupy real estate, TCC can execute the development or acquisition of facilities tailored to meet its clients’ needs. For investor clients, the company specializes in joint venture speculative development, acquisition/re-development ventures, build-to-suit development, or providing incentive-based fee development services.

 

Trammell Crow Company is an independently operated subsidiary of CBRE Group, Inc. (NYSE:CBG), a Fortune 500 and S&P 500 company headquartered in Los Angeles, is the world’s largest commercial real estate services and investment firm (in terms of 2013 revenue). For more information visit www.TrammellCrow.com.

 

 

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