Henderson Avenue, Advocate Photo.
As part of the ongoing renaissance on Henderson Avenue, last month a familiar California-based development company applied for a zoning change that would bring a mix of retail and office options to a vacant 5.75-acre site between Glencoe Street and McMillan Avenue.
Unlike much of Henderson, which offers some of the best nightlife in the city, this new development is cutting out bars in favor of boutiques. “The applicant proposed conditions specifically [to] prohibit alcoholic beverage establishments… The square footage of individual retail stores is capped to encourage development of boutique, unique, community-serving retail stores [that have] become a distinguishing characteristic for Henderson Avenue in recent developments,” the application states. Above the retail spaces, the developer plans to build “creative office space.” The proposal includes a mix of one- two and three-stories buildings with a maximum height of 48-feet.
The applicant, the Hollywood-based Henderson Residential Lands Inc., purchased a large section of Henderson from East Dallas’ Andres family in 2012, and has been involved with the city’s Compete Streets Project to develop the area in a way that makes it feel more like a neighborhood and less like Bourbon Street. The city has promised $1.3 million in redevelopment funds to overhaul the 1.3-mile stretch of Henderson between Ross and Central.
During a Complete Streets meeting in May, neighbors identified better walkways and for traffic and parking to be better addressed. Henderson Residential Lands Inc. has suggested building an underground parking structure for the development to address some of those concerns.
