The trend toward loft living isn’t confined to projects in Deep Ellum and Downtown. This mode of urban renewal also has found its way into our neighborhood.
Ken Hughes (The Quadrangle, Highland Park Village, The Galleria) and his development venture, UC Urban, have joined loft developer Scott Hager and financial partner, the ARCHON Group, to transform the former Southwestern Bell telephone equipment factory (northeast corner of Central and Mockingbird adjacent to the Mockingbird Rail Station) into a mixed-use loft and retail development to be re-named Mockingbird Station.
Plans for the 50-year-old structure include transforming its first floor into specialty retail and restaurants and turning all other existing floors into 92 apartment loft units. Plans also include construction of additional floors to house an extra 120 lofts.
The amenities of the DART station next door and Southern Methodist University just across Central make the facility appealing for both residential and retail development, Hughes says.
Initial construction began last month with the demolition of a few satellite structures to clear out room around the building and to allow passersby to get a feel for the abundance of space in the rear of the property. Hughes says most people don’t realize the property extends to the Merrill Lynch building and the Premier Club.
“What we see is a great opportunity to serve the University community and a young East Dallas community,” Hughes says.
