Dallas Fort Worth Urban Forum

Work starts on apartment high-rise on U.S. 75 near SMU
Mill Creek Residential is building the apartment tower.

https://www.dallasnews.com/business/rea ... -near-smu/

Construction is kicking off on another Dallas high-rise residential building — this time on the edge of Highland Park.

Developer Mill Creek Residential is building the new apartment tower on North Central Expressway just south of Mockingbird Lane.

The 14-story building is at the dead end of McKinney Avenue and on the Katy Trail.

Insane how they just keep coming, awesome!

This would be the tallest we've seen from Mill Creek, correct? Nice to see underwriting move away from 5-story parking doughnuts.

From the Dallas News story: https://www.dallasnews.com/business/rea ... -near-smu/

Construction is kicking off on another Dallas high-rise residential building — this time on the edge of Highland Park. Developer Mill Creek Residential is building the new apartment tower on North Central Expressway just south of Mockingbird Lane.

The 14-story building is at the dead end of McKinney Avenue and on the Katy Trail.
“It will be prominent over Central Expressway,” said Michael Blackwell, Mill Creek senior managing director. Mill Creek...bought the more than 1-acre site for the project about a year ago. The site is now occupied by the former Carter Eye Center building, which is being demolished. Mill Creek will build 217 rental units in the new high-rise, which was designed by architect BKV Group.

On the McKinney Avenue side of the building facing Highland Park, the building will have walk-up townhouse units and a pedestrian lounge. The new Modera Katy Trail rental community will include a piano lounge, a fifth-floor amenity level with resident clubhouse, a fitness facility and a landscaped pool deck facing downtown. Coworking office booths in the clubhouse will be themed as vintage rail cars like those that once ran on the Katy Trail railway line. A penthouse “canopy club” will have private dining, workspaces, wine storage and views of SMU and Highland Park.

It’s the ninth apartment development for Mill Creek in the Dallas area since 2011. The North Central Expressway tower will be Mill Creek’s first high-rise project in North Texas, but the developer has done apartment towers in other U.S. markets. More than a dozen high-rise residential towers are being built or have just opened in North Texas.

Didn't see this one coming. Someone on this forum commented recently that this little wedge of Dallas north of uptown and east of Highland Park should be chock-full of high rises. This project gets them one step closer to that goal.

A couple of new ideas I've not see in Dallas before (piano lounge, coworking office booths and penthouse "canopy club.") Any clues what a "pedestrian lounge" might be? Seems like one must raise the bar in order to compete with all the luxury apartments buildings going up around here in order to stand out. Not sure how the piano lounge will go over, but it's a nice nod to Steinway Hall next door (I think the greyed out building in front of this rendering is Steinway Hall).

This rendering is also from the Dallas News story.

What happened to toll brothers project that was near Mockingbird station by the Highland Hotel?

https://lakewood.advocatemag.com/2018/0 ... -building/

Tivo_Kenevil wrote:What happened to toll brothers project that was near Mockingbird station by the Highland Hotel?

https://lakewood.advocatemag.com/2018/0 ... -building/

The other two Toll Brother's project currently going up, the high-rise in Oak Lawn and 7 story mid-rise in West Dallas, took a long time to get off the ground after being initially announced so I would be surprised if this project took a while to get going as well.

Didn't SMU buy the shopping center on Mockingbird a little north of here a few years ago? Will be fun to see what happens with that corner!

^ They bought everything north of Mockingbird years ago.

They are keeping the shopping center SMU management sees no need to exchange a profitable strip center that serves students well with something else. SMU is focused on East Campus at this point and the additional housing being built around it.

I found this on the architects website along with some other renderings (this project is pages 32-33). [url]bkvgroup.com[/url]. I hope they stick with the white brick and grey metal as most of the other Moderas are mostly stucco. Don’t know about this “light gauge steel” method.

MODERA KATY TRAIL
DALLAS, TEXAS
Known for light gauge steel construction, BKV Group continues to expand our work in this construction type from the Midwest and northeast states, and into Texas and larger southern regions. Modera Katy Trail is the manifestation of the firm’s growth into this region with the project being one of the first light gauge steel structure project ever constructed in Texas.

Strategically, Mill Creek Residential approached BKV Group for light gauge construction as they desired newer building technologies to construct faster, easier, and smarter. In being Mill Creek’s first light gauge project to date, the building will be prominently positioned in the uptown area of Dallas – a hotbed of vertical density, booming with housing projects and mixed-use developments.

At 15 stories, Modera Katy Trail is oriented to take advantage of views to downtown, the Trail, and the surrounding Oak Lawn neighborhood. In being composed of white brick with pops of dark metals, Modera will make an elegant statement next to the existing red brick buildings, while also feeling spacious with the building not densely nestled against the surrounding structures

I love that they are claiming surrounding Oak Lawn area...and Uptown. Lol First of all Uptown stops just before West Village second Oak Lawn? They would do better to claim Highland Park SMU since that's who they will be leasing to anyway. SMU parents will pay lots of money for three bedrooms in this area and Two bedrooms as well.

If you want to truly break it down you could argue historically speaking this area was a part of the city of Oak Lawn which is partially why the Oak Lawn committee regulates development in Knox Henderson. I assume this project is just outside of their map of control cause everything in this immediate area they have required parking is contained in underground garages.

The writer of the text may not be very knowledgeable regarding the immediate location. There was this....

Located on the very northern end of McKinney Avenue, Modera Katy Trail is positioned next to the actual Katy Trail – a system winding its way throughout Dallas, connecting the city to the larger Fort Worth area. There is a superb pedestrian story with the building being adjacent to the trail as walkers, runners, cyclists, and more can take advantage of the trail network, in addition to the convenient access road along I-75.
With construction beginning in 2019, Modera Katy Trail is slated for completion in 2021, delivering a product that’s cost effective, yet extremely innovative for the area, and ideally positioned within Dallas’s emerging urban core.

I had no idea that the Katy Trail connected Dallas to the LARGER Fort Worth area!

Untitled by rlopez2011, on Flickr

Untitled by rlopez2011, on Flickr

Untitled by rlopez2011, on Flickr

Untitled by rlopez2011, on Flickr

Untitled by rlopez2011, on Flickr

Untitled by rlopez2011, on Flickr

Untitled by rlopez2011, on Flickr

Untitled by rlopez2011, on Flickr

Untitled by rlopez2011, on Flickr

Untitled by rlopez2011, on Flickr

Untitled by rlopez2011, on Flickr

Untitled by rlopez2011, on Flickr

Untitled by rlopez2011, on Flickr

Untitled by rlopez2011, on Flickr

The billboard that won't die.

It's a pretty nice building but I wish they would have used more of the dark brick from the building's base in place of the stucco on the tower's upper portion.

I thought that was white...ish brick?

You're correct; the white is brick. The grey portions though are stucco, which IMO makes those parts of the tower look cheap.