Business Buzz

The lowdown on what’s up with neighborhood businesses

Send business news tips to livelocal@advocatemaG.com

New apartments and new homes coming to Oak Cliff

Chicken Scratch (see page 14) might have to change its infamous billboard tagline for accuracy. Matt Bull of Kessler Park is the artist behind the ad on Interstate 30 that proclaims the restaurant as being “between some trailers and a condemned motel.” But the restaurant soon could be surrounded by high-end apartments. Developer Wood Partners has the Dallas West Trailer Park under contract with plans for apartments on the 8-acre property. And the Mission Motel is boarded up but not really condemned. The Dallas Morning News reports that Dallas-based Performance Properties has that property as well as the adjacent Neighborhood Credit Union property under contract. Initial plans call for closing Eastus Drive between the two tracts to create a 5-acre apartment complex.

New homes in Kings Highway

More residences are coming to our neighborhood in the form of brand-new homes. Austin-based PSW Real Estate is building 32 houses in the Kings Highway Conservation District, near the Twelve Hills Nature Center. The land had been the site of apartments, where the now-defunct developer Incap Fund had planned townhomes. The homes would be two stories on 2,500-square-foot lots with detached garages. The developer has agreed that none of the garages will face the street, and the company negotiated with neighbors to find suitable setbacks and traffic patterns. The homes must be built in the approved architectural styles for the neighborhood — craftsman, prairie or Tudor revival.

Alamo motel sign to become three sculptures

Sylvan Thirty developer Brent Jackson is keeping the Alamo Plaza Hotel Courts sign on Fort Worth Avenue. It’s just not going to be all in one piece. Jackson asked the community in March for help in deciding how to reuse the massive sign. That annoyed preservationists who insisted the sign should remain intact and in the same spot on the roadway. And it launched a grassroots effort to “save the Alamo sign.” The developer announced that the sign will be reused as three sculptural pieces throughout the development. The star from the top of the sign

Get

Wood Partners woodpartners.com/dallas

Performance Properties 2300 n. central expressway 214.373.7305

PSW Real Estate pswrealestate.com will be placed at the intersection of Sylvan and Interstate 30, where Pearl Cup is planning to open a shop. The Alamo silhouette and yellow arrow will be a combined element in the development’s central plaza. And the largest piece, with the words “Alamo Plaza Hotel Courts” will be placed near Fort Worth Avenue, close to Burguesa Burger. The sculptures will be designed by architecture firm Lake Flato and Jackson himself. It turns out he has a BFA in sculpture from the University of Texas at Austin.

Continental bridge to become a park

Work is expected to begin soon to convert the Continental bridge to a linear park and pedestrian thoroughfare. Construction was supposed to begin on the project as soon as the Margaret Hunt Hill bridge opened last year, but there have been some delays. The $10 million park is being funded by an anonymous donation to the Trinity Trust Foundation. And the city awarded an $8.3 million construction contract in May. The park will include pedestrian and bike pathways, trees, seating and plazas.

City to buy transmission shop on Zang for streetcar stop

Roy’s Transmission & Autocare owner Roy Smith has agreed to sell his shop at 138 W. Davis to the city for $375,368. The Bishop Arts District shop is exactly where the city wants to bring a streetcar stop as early as 2015. Before the streetcar extension was funded, the city had planned to improve the wonky intersection at Zang and Seventh by turning it into plaza. The shop has been appraised at $485,000, but demolition and clean-up of the site were deducted from the sale price. —rachel stone

1 Kitchen LTO, the city’s first permanent pop-up restaurant, is expected to open in September.

Sylvan Thirty iheartsylvanthirty.com

Kitchen LTO 3011 Gulden lane kitchenlto.com

Off-Site Kitchen 2226 irvinG blvd. offsitekitchen.net

Norma’s 1123 w. davis 214.946.4711 normascafe.com

2 Neighborhood resident Nick Badovinus announced plans to open a second Off-Site Kitchen at Trinity Groves.

3 Norma’s is expanding with a third outpost in Frisco.