Dallas Fort Worth Urban Forum

Construction has begun on a new Dallas office building in the Maple Avenue corridor near Old Parkland to house a family office for three families, and will also bring additional office space to this part of the city.

The Old Parkland office campus, which has been developed by Dallas developer Harlan Crow, touts some of the highest lease rates in Dallas and has been filled to occupancy. Crow recently began the campus' last addition.

The new four-story, 31,483-square-foot boutique office building, called Parkland Knight, will sit at the corner of Knight and Fairmount streets in Dallas upon completion.

https://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/news ... lding.html

Bit of an odd spot for some ground floor retail, but this looks like a decent addition to the area. I'd imagine the coffee shop will primarily be used by the people working in this building.

Is Maple Avenue the new Ross Avenue?

Not yet, but something like that.

Maple could keep developing this way, would be fine with me.

I think Maple ave. is becoming the street that can service the growing population that lives in that area with restuarants and I do think they will use that coffee shop. Cedar Springs really can't support nice restuarants as the giant regional and tourist bar scene drives away the local residents for a daytime and early evening scene. The lastest apartment building going up around the corner will bring the largest amount of new residents to that area towards Maple and should push it even further. I own and live just down the street and am thrilled with what is happing there.

I would like to see the TJ's or Central Market move forward (or both). The neighborhood is ready.

I hope that's the same Coffee House Cafe restaurant that's in North Dallas. The logo looks the same, so it's probably not just a generic name for the illustration. That place is excellent.

I thought there was a conversation on here about a Starbucks being built at this location or a location nearby. Wasn't that long ago.

Tnexster wrote:I thought there was a conversation on here about a Starbucks being built at this location or a location nearby. Wasn't that long ago.

The discussion about Starbucks was for a site at Oak Lawn and Congress, where a mixed use 3 story building and an adjacent restaurant space will be torn down for a drive-thru Starbucks and a giant surface parking lot. I don't know where that project stands, but knowing our city leaders obsession with parking lots and copy/paste commercial architecture, I'm sure it flew through the zoning commission.

The project that this thread is about, however, faced a long uphill battle with zoning to get approved.

Matt777 wrote:
The discussion about Starbucks was for a site at Oak Lawn and Congress, where a mixed use 3 story building and an adjacent restaurant space will be torn down for a drive-thru Starbucks and a giant surface parking lot. I don't know where that project stands, but knowing our city leaders obsession with parking lots and copy/paste commercial architecture, I'm sure it flew through the zoning commission.

The project that this thread is about, however, faced a long uphill battle with zoning to get approved.

That's the one...thanks!

Cbdallas wrote:Cedar Springs really can't support nice restaurants as the giant regional and tourist bar scene drives away the local residents for a daytime and early evening scene.

Sure that's the reason why Cedar Springs stays the way it is...

As for Maple it is a connector that goes from Deep Ellum at one end and the airport at the other while traveling through Uptown so it's no surprise a few developers have been able to latch on to the forgotten north side of the street. Plus I would like to point out Maple in many areas is a narrow street that moves a lot of traffic despite not being a giant thoroughfare. There is a much better balance of its uses compared to other connectors in the immediate downtown area.

cowboyeagle05 wrote:

Cbdallas wrote:Cedar Springs really can't support nice restaurants as the giant regional and tourist bar scene drives away the local residents for a daytime and early evening scene.

Sure that's the reason why Cedar Springs stays the way it is...

It's not the fault of the bar scene that the nice restaurant scene has yet to flank The Crossroads.... that so much of the tourist-popular bar & club scene evolved under one owner has been the reason for the scene became so successful, is also the reason an ancillary neighborhood scene remains dormant.

I would lop The Melrose Hotel into the same bucket that stifles a vibrant neighborhood.

Should Maple continue the Crow/Parkland redevelopment trend, as this one on Knight seems to show, a more thoughtful focus from within the gay tourist destination ought to occur and filling heretofore unaddressed opportunities will begin. we'll see.

There are also two fractions in the neighborhood fighting and I don't mean just the bars but all the business owners along Cedar Springs and the old guard are afraid of any changes that might ruin the sanctity of the gaybourhood. I get it, it took decades to keep an area where our community could feel relatively safe and that is a unique thing that we should try to maintain but trying to freeze frame Cedar Springs in bronze for fear of the future is doing the opposite as far as keeping the neighborhood culture.

As for Maple, it's certainly interesting to see Parkland be such an influence in recent history in that more and more apartments are gentrifying the largely Hispanic section north of the tollway.

From Today:

Parkland Knight by Thymant, on Flickr

Untitled by Around My City, on Flickr
Untitled by Around My City, on Flickr


Untitled by Around My City, on Flickr

Looks really nice. I'd love to see more of these smaller, pedestrian friendly, boutique office buildings pop up in Oak Lawn.

Certainly starts to make the gay bars at this intersection start to look even seedier...

Matt777 wrote:Looks really nice. I'd love to see more of these smaller, pedestrian friendly, boutique office buildings pop up in Oak Lawn.

Would like to see more of these in all urban parts of the city actually.

cowboyeagle05 wrote:Certainly starts to make the gay bars at this intersection start to look even seedier...

Good riddance if Liquid Zoo and Marty's are next to go, but leave my Grapevine Bar alone.

I agree and this is a nice medium ground from Urban to the Suburban design by putting parking behind but still in an open secure lot. No pricey parking garage but an entrance lobby that easily runs from the street side up front to the parking access in the back without compromising the buildings positive street presence and pedestrian friendliness.

We lucked out with them adding ground floor cafe space. Who knows how much the coffee shop will be open but hopefully they will try to develop some local interest since the building isn't huge they can't be dependent on just office workers above.

lakewoodhobo wrote:

cowboyeagle05 wrote:Certainly starts to make the gay bars at this intersection start to look even seedier...

Good riddance if Liquid Zoo and Marty's are next to go, but leave my Grapevine Bar alone.

I have never been in Liquid Zoo but I never heard good things about them. Then they moved to the strip and then moved away to this spot. I never liked Marty's Live either. I am the kind of guy that likes the main strip and on rare occasion Tin Room when a group is hell-bent on going.

I imagine someone could build something similarly sizable to the office building if they got Liquid Zoo and the small liquor stores land.