An aerial view from showcase.com highlights the 2.03-acre piece of land where PSW Real Estate plans to build 30 single-family homes.
Eight years after developers floated the idea of a 25-story high-rise near the White Rock Lake shoreline, a 2-acre plot of land at 1000 Emerald Isle finally will be converted into a residential community. The tallest structures, however, will be three stories, not 25, and the project will consist of 30 single-family homes rather than 225 luxury condominiums.
Austin-based PSW Real Estate recently bought the property, which was listed at $3.3 million, and plans to build 14 detached 2-story “garden homes” and 16 attached 3-story townhomes, says DFW division president Adam Stetson. Stetson says PSW, which is both developing and building the project, is still working through the final stages of its land plan, and once that is finalized in the next month or so, work will begin on conceptual drawings of the homes.
The goal is to “capture the essence of the community and that location” and fit in with the surrounding architectural styles as well as the existing landscape, Stetson says, adding, “We feel like it’s a very tight-knit, active and involved community.”
PSW already has three high-density urban infill projects in Dallas, two of them in north Oak Cliff — 1600 Kings Highway just south of the Stevens Park Golf Course, and Bishop Heights bordering Kidd Springs Park. People can get a fairly good idea of what 1000 Emerald Isle will be like by taking a look at those projects, Stetson says. The other project in progress also is in our neighborhood at 6536 E. Lovers Lane.
The “coming soon” page on PSW’s website notes that the Emerald Isle homes will average 1,800 square feet and be priced “from the mid $300,000s to the high $400,000s.” Stetson says the lot sizes for the detached homes should range between 3,500 and 6,000 square feet, and the homes would have 3-4 bedrooms and 2.5-3 baths.
Stetson emphasizes that PSW is a sustainable developer; all of the Emerald Isle homes will have solar systems and spray-foam insulation, for example. Designing around mature trees will be another priority, he says, which gives a community a “good feel.” Buyers of urban homes are “not looking for a suburban product,” Stetson notes. “They’re looking for bigger canopies.” He also says the goal at this point is not to gate the residences but “leave it open, taking advantage of what’s around that community.”
It’s a pretty far cry from what was proposed on that land roughly eight years ago. Neighbors who have lived here in the meantime may remember that the 25-story high-rise project never made it past the City of Dallas Planning and Zoning Commission. Neither did a plan for 13 stories, or even five stories.
The proposal finally green-lit by the plan commission allows for up to 41 single-family homes on the site. That happened in March 2008, however, and the next few years were not the ideal time for development. The owner held onto the land throughout the downturn but ultimately wasn’t able to get the project off the ground, says Lane Kommer of Henry S. Miller, who brokered the deal. (Kommer also brokered the recent sale of 8.5 acres in Hollywood/Santa Monica where Megatel is building 59 single-family homes.)
Once the Emerald Isle property went back on the market this year, “there was a ton of interest,” Kommer says. PSW had the land under contract within a month of the listing, he says, and even though the property already sold, Kommer still receives calls about it.
“It’s an extremely rare develop-able piece of property with views of White Rock Lake.”
