‘COOP-ETITION’

ALAMO-ANCHORED SKILLMAN-ABRAMS VS. LAKE HIGHLANDS TOWN CENTER

There’s a term Bob Young likes to use when discussing two nearby shopping centers:

“Coop-etition,” says Young, executive managing director of Dallasbased real estate firm The Weitzman Group. “I should have trademarked this,” he quips.

That’s how Young expects the Alamo Drafthouse-anchored Skillman Abrams Shopping Center redevelopment will interact with the Lake Highlands Town Center development a mile up the road.

“It’s going to be complementary while being competitive,” Young says. Both centers taking off around the same time “brings a level of current interest and current opportunity to a given trade area.”

The two centers won’t necessarily be fighting for the same tenants, says Lake Highlands resident Ryan Fuqua, senior associate with The Weitzman Group.

“It’s going to come down to economics,” he says.

The rents that the under construction, Sprouts-anchored Town Center will charge will be too high for most start-up mom-and-pops, for example.

“Artistik Edge is a single-owner but also an experienced operator whose been in Lake Highlands for a while,” Fuqua says. “Other proven concepts could happen” at the Town Center, he says, but he expects to see most other locally-owned businesses to flock to Skillman Abrams, where “I don’t think they can command those high rents, even with an Alamo there.”

While Skillman-Abrams is “ripe for quick-serve restaurants and services coming in,” Fuqua says, it probably won’t attract “soft goods,” or clothing stores, which he thinks will be “dominated by the Town Center because of nicer walkability.”

The old Tom Thumb shopping center “is still going to be a grocery parking lot, not like the Town Center where you can go from building to building to building.”

Before Lake Highlanders start anticipating a neighborhood Gap, however, Lake Highlands Town Center developer Bill Rafkin shuts down that idea.

“We’ve contacted them and they’ve said no,” Rafkin told us in a recent interview. Compared to Preston Royal, Timbercreek, NorthPark, “there’s not enough traffic for clothing retailers.” There could be some interesting retailers at the intersection of Wildcat Way and Wedgwood, however. Original plans called for retail at the base on the apartments on the east side of Wildcat Way, and though those plans have changed, Rafkin says he will have a few live-work units at the southern end near The Haven apartments, where artists and retailers “ostensibly have a shop on first floor and live on the second floor.”

Restaurants seem to be the main focus for both Rafkin and Skillman-Abrams Shopping Center broker Mark Hajdu. In addition to Starbucks, Rafkin tells us that he is in discussions with Mexican, Italian, burger, seafood and dessert concepts, mostly regional restaurants rather than national chains. Likewise, Hajdu says, “We’re talking to a million different tenants from Rudy’s to El Fenix to a pizza concept to an Asian fusion concept. We have more interest than we have space.”

So yes, “I would say some competition for tenants,” Rafkin says, even though the two will be very different shopping centers — one with new construction, anchored by Sprouts with a built-in population of 500-plus apartments and townhomes; the other urban infill anchored by an arthouse theater.

In addition to Starbucks, Rafkin tells us that he is in discussions with Mexican, Italian, burger, seafood and dessert concepts, mostly regional restaurants rather than national chains.

Skillman-Abrams has a winning combination on its hands, Young says.

“In retail real estate today, the most active, the hottest kind of category is food and entertainment,” he says. “If you look at shopping centers around the marketplace today, there are more food offerings than ever before. They cluster and bring people in.”

Rankin says he has talked to theaters, but industry rules won’t let them screen a movie within 2 or 3 miles of a competitor, “so Lake Highlands Town Center doesn’t make sense for major theaters.” As for arthouses like Alamo Drafthouse, Rafkin says he has “reached out to them all,” but “a lot of the arthouses don’t go into a brand new buildings, they go into repurposed buildings. We have to build a special purpose building and they can’t afford to pay those rents.”

He’s hoping to attract some sort or entertainment-restaurant hybrid to the block of land right off Skillman between the future Sprouts and the David Weekley townhomes.

“Something like The Rustic would be good,” Rafkin says, referring to the West Village restaurant with its live music patio, “so we’re kind-of holding that out, trying to find somebody like that.”

No takers yet, he says, because the dirt is still turning.

“A lot of people are saying, ‘Let’s wait and see,’ ” Rafkin says.

—KERI MITCHELL

Coming Soon

Simply called HERE , it may become the new hangout spot for Lake Highlands music and entertainment enthusiasts. Run by musicians Julie Doyle — cofounder, singer and manager of Polyphonic Spree — and former Hagfish drummer Tony Barsotti, the lounge bar is slated to open this month near White Rock Lake at 9028 Garland Road. In addition to cocktails, the 1960s and ‘70s-themed bar offers live music and a Southern-inspired menu. “It’s not going to have open garage doors and dogs,” Barsotti says. “We both had a little bit of a humble lust for this type of place. We started out wanting a bar with cheese and a piano, and then as we got in it, it just started evolving.”

MANNY’S UPTOWN TEX-MEX will replace Rex’s Seafood & Chop House, which held the location at Mockingbird and Abrams for only seven months. A timeline for when the new restaurant will open has not been set.

Open Now

Lake Highlands restaurant goers seeking a variety of flavors and a multitude of options can check out DIMASSI’S at 5500 Greenville Ave. The eatery offers day-long buffets with a Middle Eastern flair and catering for groups of 10-50. This is the Mediterranean restaurant chain’s third metroplex location.

The custom quilt shop ROCKING BOBBIN is open on Skillman near I-635 and plans a ribbon cutting ceremony Oct. 8. The business offers BERNINA products such as sewing machines and quilting products, in addition to classes and social events.

Closing Down

Seven MINYARD SUN FRESH MARKETS — including the Northwest Highway and Mockingbird-Abrams locations — shut the doors for the final time recently after the company was bought out by independent grocery store chain H-E-B/ Central Market, which owns H-E-B Plus!, Mi Tienda, Central Market and Joe V’s Smart Show. At time of publication, what will move into area locations remains to be seen.