DEVELOPMENT DIGEST An update on major projects in Preston Hollow Building it bigger

At an ‘iconic corner,’ can neighbors halt high-rise development?

Story by Emily Toman

A high-traffic intersection could be home to another high-rise residence.

At the northeast corner of Preston and Northwest Highway, Transwestern has proposed demolishing the 24-unit apartment complex and the 12 townhomes behind it to make way for a possibly eightstory luxury rental community with close to 300 units.

The project requires a zoning change, and many surrounding residents are organizing in opposition to what they say will dramatically change the neighborhood.

“This is our community where we’ve lived for most of our lives,” says Ashley Parks, president of the homeowner’s association for Preston Hollow East, which lies directly north of the three-acre site. “We want to keep that neighborhood feel.”

At press time, 682 neighbors had signed a petition via change.org, urging the City Plan Commission and the Dallas City Council to vote against a zoning change. And on Feb. 22 — around the time this magazine is being published — opponents are rallying at Preston Hollow Park.

This, all before the developers have even filed an application. (“Welcome to Preston Hollow,” one resident told them in January at a standing-room-only meeting of concerned and vocal neighbors.)

Bill Dalstrom, a land-use attorney at Jackson Walker L.L.P., which is working on the project with Transwestern, says the developers have gone above and beyond what the city requires when it comes to informing the neighborhood, having met with dozens of homeowner groups in the area.

So, here’s their pitch. The tree-lined, two-building residence would include large, two- and three-bedroom units. There would be an underground parking lot, with street parking prohibited. A community park on the north end would help provide a buffer for Preston Hollow East. The entrance would be on Preston.

Eight stories is the highest the building can go under the residential proximity slope, a 3-to-1 height restriction meant to protect abutting homeowners. For every foot of height, there’s a three-foot setback.

Why not build something under the existing zoning, which allows for only three stories?

“We can create something of much higher quality,” Dalstrom says. “We see this as an iconic corner.”

Transwestern will ask for a planned development district (PD), a type of zoning that allows developers to customize the restrictions of a given site. This is what would allow for an underground parking garage, among other features.

Rents would range from $2,000 to more than $5,000 a month, catering to an aged, wealthy demographic, including empty nesters — people who don’t follow the typical 9-to-5 schedule, says Mark Culwell of Transwestern.

“We’re not trying to re-create something you’d see in Uptown,” he says. “This is something that will appeal to a more mature market.”

The development would join other high-rise communities on Northwest Highway, including the 29-story Preston Tower condos and the 21-story Athena condos.

In this debate between developers and homeowners, a key player is absent: District 13 Councilwoman Jennifer Staubach Gates. Her husband, John Gates, is CEO of Jones Lang LaSalle, the commercial real estate firm that brokered the deal with Transwestern. City policy requires that she remove herself from the process “to ensure fair and impartial decision making and to avoid the appearance and risk of impropriety,” Gates said in a letter to the public. Neighbors instead will work with District 11 Councilman Lee Kleinman.

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More Preston Hollow development updates

Shops at Park Lane to add three more buildings

The 33-and-a-half-acre shopping complex just across the freeway from NorthPark Center is expanding its retail, restaurant and office space by more than 160,000 square feet. The Shops at Park Lane broke ground on three new buildings in January at the north end of the shopping center. Developers also hope to create an outdoor plaza for community events. The project is slated for completion in spring 2015.

New restaurant strip goes vertical

Hermansen Land Development is making progress on the new construction of a three-tenant restaurant strip at the northeast corner of Forest and Inwood. The center will house Einstein Bros. Bagels, Rusty Taco and The Juice Bar. All three eateries should be open “easily by the end of the year,” says Kirk Hermansen.

Tenant updates for Preston Hollow Village

Construction on the 42 acres of mixed-use development is well underway at the northwest corner of Central Expressway and Walnut Hill. The first phase includes the anchor tenant Trader Joe’s, 46,000 square feet of office space and eight to 10 retail and restaurant spaces; construction is scheduled to be complete by the end of the summer. There are also plans for three sevenstory residential towers when it’s all said and done.

FOLLOW ALL NEIGHBORHOOD DEVELOPMENT UPDATES at prestonhollow.advocatemag.com