This is ludicrous on so many levels . . . I remember this developer sucking mucho wind back in the early '90s RE dump in Dallas. They never learn . . .
Condos north of LBJ: The suburban high life
04:02 PM CST on Friday, December 2, 2005
By STEVE BROWN / The Dallas Morning News
The Amalfi condominium tower will have a luxury spa, library and clubroom. But don’t expect a postcard view of downtown Dallas.
Silver Tree Partners
The Tuscany residential high-rise on Arapaho Road.
The residential high-rise isn’t going to be built in Uptown or Oak Lawn but in Addison. It’s one of a small number of condo towers in the works north of LBJ Freeway in Dallas’ suburbs.
“The people we have taken purchase reservations from are all North Dallas people,” said builder Mickey Munir. “They do not want to move to Turtle Creek.”
The 11-story Amalfi building will be on Montfort Drive next to the Village on the Parkway shopping center. Custom builder Sharif-Munir has teamed with developer Redwood Residential Properties LLC to do the 80-unit high-rise.
The developers hope to have a marketing center ready by early next year and are already sending out mailings and contacting potential buyers.
“A lot of them are country club seniors and people who have multiple homes,” said Mr. Munir. “They have a place in Colorado and a house here in Bent Tree.
“They don’t want to maintain a yard and pool and all that stuff.”
Prices start above $600,000. Developers plan to let buyers pick their interiors.
“This is going to be more like building a custom home,” said Mr. Munir, whose company has a track record building high-end Dallas-area houses. “The developer is providing the infrastructure and the common areas, and you are buying a home site in the sky.”
If presales go as expected, construction on the Amalfi would start next fall aiming toward a completion date in late 2007.
“There is a market for these projects up here,” said Ted Wilson with Dallas housing analyst Residential Strategies.
“A lot of the people who live up here just don’t go as far south as downtown very often.”
There are three high-rise condo buildings planned for the northern suburbs. And like most residential projects, they will have to appeal to buyer demands.
“It boils down to project execution and if they can hit the right price point,” Mr. Wilson said. “Being close to the tollway is also an important aspect - we call them tollway huggers.”
The only large high-rise right now in Far North Dallas is the 16-story Bonaventure Tower on Keller Springs Road east of the Dallas North Tollway. It was built in the 1980s with 356 units.
Most of today’s condo buyers in that neighborhood will be empty nesters, Mr. Wilson said.
“A lot of people who bought houses in Addison and Far North Dallas purchased in the early 1980s,” he said. “We are at a point now where a lot of those people are hitting their mid-60s.
“There is genuine demand from that market.”
Different competition
High-rise condo buyers in Uptown are sometimes looking for a new lifestyle, but buildings in the suburbs have to compete with existing homes, said analyst Mike Puls.
“The number of households that could qualify for these units is huge, but the product has to woo them out of their current house,” Mr. Puls said. “And their current nest is pretty warm and fuzzy.”
Developer Silver Tree Partners says it plans to start work next year on a condo tower overlooking the Prestonwood Country Club. The Tuscany, a 134-unit condo tower, will be on Arapaho Road at Prestonwood Boulevard.
“We think that there is a void in the marketplace that we can fill,” said Silver Tree’s Brett Williams. “Of the 134 units, we have 119 names on a list I have met with personally. At least 60 or 70 0f them are legitimate buyers.”
Tuscany condos will start at about $450,000 and are aimed at nearby residents.
“The Preston Trails and Bent Tree buyers don’t want to relocate downtown,” Mr. Williams said.
Looking for space
North Dallas buyers also want bigger units than the ones in a standard Uptown condo tower, he said.
“A million-dollar house in this area is 6,000 square feet,” Mr. Williams said. “You are not going to get those people to downsize to 1,800 square feet.”
The biggest high-rise condo project on the drawing board for Far North Dallas is the Mockingbird Building Group’s 20-story Galleria North tower.
The 126-unit project will be built on Noel Road just north of the Galleria shopping mall. Units are priced from between $375,000 to more than $3 million.
Mockingbird Building Group built an elaborate marketing center for its project and says it hopes to start construction early next year.
Land costs north of LBJ Freeway are less than half what they are in Uptown, Mockingbird Building Group president Mitchell Vexler said, and his firm’s project is in the heart of one of the region’s largest shopping districts.
“You can’t say that about downtown and Uptown,” he said.
And unlike in the city center, high-rise builders up north are not covered up in competition.
“There are only three deals up here compared to 20 or 25 deals” in Uptown and downtown, Mr. Williams said. “How deep the market is, I don’t think anybody knows.
“The people who build out here and have the premier sites will be successful.” |
