WEST DALLAS GATEWAY/THREE-HOLE PUNCH
A community meeting was held June 29, 2016, to present staff-recommended alignments for three new north-south connectors between Singleton and W. Commerce. These three new street connections will punch holes under the railroad tracks and add north/south connectivity for this part of West Dallas. The three new connectors will be at Amonette/Hardwick, Herbert/Haslett (the street at the eastern edge of Alta West Commerce), and Bataan. A traffic circle/roundabout is proposed to connect the intersections of West Commerce, Fort Worth Avenue, and Bataan. $34 million in bond money has been allocated for the project. Design, railroad approval, completion of the final master plan, and continued public involvement is scheduled to wrap up in spring 2018, with construction to begin in the summer of 2018 and to be completed in 2020. As of July 7, 2017, the Public Works Department says that the design contract will be awarded on August 9, 2017. Design work will take about 18 months, which pushes the beginning of construction to early 2019. The work will take two years, so the earliest completion date is likely to be early 2021.
SYLVAN
Sylvan Avenue reconstruction between Fort Worth Avenue and Singleton began in August 2017. While the road will remain open, the number of lanes open to traffic will be reduced during construction, so delays are to be expected, and you might want to seek alternate routes if possible. The road will become a four-lane divided roadway with dedicated on-street bike lanes and improved sidewalks. Drainage and water improvements are also part of the package. The $7.5 million construction project is expected to be complete in spring 2019. The work was originally scheduled to begin in August 2016 and to require approximately 15 months. Construction was delayed for the moving of AT&T utilities. The project manager is Haytham Hassan.
SYLVAN TERRACE
Plans have been released showing shops and restaurants at the northeast corner of Fort Worth Avenue and Sylvan. Susan Gandy, an investor in the Belmont Hotel renovation, has plans to build four retail or restaurant buildings on the property she owns across the street from the Hotel. Plans designed by Dallas-based Architexas show a complex of five new retail and restaurant buildings with a combined total of 9,000 square feet on the property A two-story building is planned on the corner along with two one-story buildings along Sylvan that will have rooftop terraces. A final two-story building will have a second-floor patio. All should have skyline views. The plans also show an interior surface parking lot and a patio on the northern end of 430 square feet. 723 Fort Worth Avenue, an existing 2,740-square-foot building on the property, has already been renovated, and Gandy plans to renovate the 2,480-square-foot building at 727 Fort Worth Avenue as well.
RESIDENTIAL/MIXED-USE
Multifamily developments currently leasing include the Alexan West Dallas, Alta West Commerce, Alta Yorktown, and Sylvan 30. 1864 apartments and 77,934 square feet of retail were either leasing, under construction, or in the planning phase for the Fort Worth Avenue corridor as of May 2016. The projects currently leasing are Sylvan 30 with 201 apartments and 49,134 square feet of retail and Alta West Commerce by Wood Partners on the site of the former mobile home park with a three-story, 252-apartment development with 14,400 square feet of retail to be located at the northwest corner of W. Commerce and Pittman. Joining them is Wood Partner’s Alta Yorktown development located immediately east of and adjacent to Sylvan 30, the former site of the W & B Service Company, with 226 units in three, four-story buildings. Crow’s Alexan West Dallas, with 340 units, is completing construction on its adjacent, two-story retail/restaurant/office space at Yorktown and FWA in January 2017.
Broadstone Trinity Groves, with 308 units of mid-rise apartments, is under construction on 4.5 acres of land on the north side of West Commerce at 305 W. Commerce. This project, valued at more than $48 million, will also include multiple spaces for restaurants and retail facing West Commerce. Delivery of the first residential units is expected in October of 2017, and construction is underway as of spring 2016.
Lincoln Properties purchased the 18-acre site of the former Colorado Place Apartments located at Colorado and Fort Worth Avenue in April 2016. This purchase included the site of the former Gator Wash (demolished and cleared in late May) as well as the vacant parcel on the north side of Fort Worth Avenue. Lincoln Kessler Park filed for a permit on May 3, 2016 to construct 299 apartments in eleven buildings at 2300 Fort Worth Avenue. The Colorado Place parcels lie in PD 714’s Subdistricts 4a and 4b (south and north of Fort Worth Avenue respectively), which call for mixed-use development.
As of February 2016, eleven homes have been completed at the Villas just north and west of the Belmont Hotel. One 800-square-foot home is under construction, and five townhomes and two single-family homes are about to start.
PSW has announced 60 single-family, detached homes in Western Heights west of N. Willomet on both sides of Seale Street.
The View at Kessler Park (299 units in an 11-story building) has been purchased by the Turner Multifamily Impact Fund, a real estate investment fund that is focused on preserving quality workforce housing in densely populated, ethnically diverse urban communities. The View was formerly known as the Indigo and the Wedgwood Tower Apartments.