DART's new Green Line will roll out this weekend, linking downtown Dallas with stops stretching from Carrollton to Pleasant Grove. But real estate developers are running late for the train.
The timing couldn't be much worse for the $1.8 billion transit project when it comes to generating real estate development.
The industry has been all but shut down because of the recession and tight lending. So no new apartment, retail or office projects will be there to greet DART's first Green Line riders.
"It will certainly happen at some point, but the projects aren't ready for the opening date," said Greg Willett, vice president of Carrollton-based apartment analyst MPF Research. "It just wasn't the right time to build."
Only one major development is under construction on the Green Line – the Maple Springs apartments next to the Southwestern Medical District/Parkland Station. And the three-building apartment community won't open until next spring or summer.
"Currently the economy is a drag on the whole system, particularly with anything nontraditional multidimensional like transit-oriented development," said DART economic development director Jack Wierzenski. "Over the last year, I have had calls and discussions with property owners near the stations north of Northwest Highway along Denton Drive positioning themselves for the future.
"And I've been having discussions in the Buckner to Lake June station area with some folks, nondevelopers, looking to position this area," he said.
Almost no dirt is flying other than for public-sector improvements.
Still, some private developers say they hope to get projects started along the Green Line next year.
Dallas-based PRG Realty Investors in partnership with Odyssey Residential Holdings owns 3.5 acres adjoining DART's Inwood station, where it hopes to build an apartment and retail complex.
"Right now, we are in a planning stage and serious financing discussions," said PRG principal Mark Robertson. "We'd like to get ground broken in 2011."
Robertson said he began shopping for property along the DART line two years ago. "I went up and down the line from Buckner Boulevard to Trinity Mills in Carrollton," he said. "We put three properties under contract but only retained this one.
"That was not only because the times are tough enough to get one deal done, but we thought this one was superior."
Some developers and investors who tied up properties along Maple Avenue and Denton Drive near DART stations have delayed or canceled their plans.
"We own one tract along Maple but have nothing in the works," said Scott Sherwood of apartment developer JLB Partners.
The Elliott's Hardware property across from the DART line on Medical District Drive at Maple might have attracted a mixed-use development a few years ago. The property is under contract to Kroger for a new supermarket.
Kroger spokesman Gary Huddleston said the nearby transit stop was a factor in picking the Elliott's site for a new store. "As you know, our Mockingbird Station store is also on a DART line," Huddleston said.
One major project is close to getting started in Carrollton, about a year behind schedule: Trammell Crow Co.'s Broadway at Carrollton Station mixed-use project at Main Street and Carroll Avenue.
"We were delayed during the financial crisis but are back on track for a 179-unit phase," said Art Lomenick, managing director of Crow's High Street Residential subsidiary. "We'd like to be delivering apartment units and the ground floor retail in early 2012."
Despite the slow start, Lomenick believes that DART's new line will be a big catalyst for real estate development. "The Green Line is going to be a really strong thing for the Dallas area," he said. "It will link several major jobs centers – downtown, the design district, Baylor Medical, Southwest Medical, Love Field.
"It's hitting more nodes than any other transit line."
At the north end of the Green Line at Frankford Road in north Carrollton, brokers trying to sell nearby properties aren't seeing a big jump in interested buyers.
"I haven't seen much new activity yet," said Chris Colombe, a senior vice president at Henry S. Miller Brokerage who's marketing a development site near the station. "The DART station surely will have a positive effect. It may not start until after the new year."
DART's Trinity Mills station will be the junction for the Denton County Transit Authority's new A Train. That service, which will run to downtown Denton, is scheduled to begin in June.
At the first stop on Denton's A Train line at Hebron Parkway in Lewisville, developer Huffines Communities has broken ground on what it bills as the largest transit-oriented development in North Texas.
The 90-acre Hebron 121 Station will have more than 1,700 apartments and 250,000 square feet of retail and office space. "We will start occupancy [on the first apartment project] in April right before the A Line opens," said Bob Kembel, Huffines Communities president. "We are very fortunate to have identified this development site.
"There has really never been this kind of transit access on the north side of town before," he said. "We think it will stimulate growth in that whole area."
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Phil Hobson, H Group, Prudential Texas Properties
www.hgroupdallas.com
(214) 659-3624
The Maple Springs apartment community near the Southwestern Medical District/Parkland Station is expected to open next spring or summer. ">
The Maple Springs apartment community near the Southwestern Medical District/Parkland Station is expected to open next spring or summer.
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