If you haven’t driven on Fitzhugh Avenue for a few years, you’ll be stunned by how much real estate development is going on there now. In fact, in the 26 years that I’ve been in Dallas, I’ve never seen this much construction on the east side of Central, from Downtown all the way north to LBJ.
Ross and Live Oak are literally littered with new townhome projects, and the same thing is being built around CityPlace and all the way up to Fitzhugh. Then, of course, there’s the massive Whole Foods/office project across from NorthPark, and the extensive apartment teardown/office-residential redevelopment project going on north of Presbyterian along Central. By the time everything is completed, there will be so many new places to live on this side of Central, I would think that the retail and office environment will be booming then, too.
Steve Brown’s report in today’s News talks about the development, and quotes David McQuaid with Performance Properties: "We started buying properties in this area in the late 1990s. We felt the development would inevitably move this direction. Now it’s like a wildfire."
Also inevitable, of course, is the sure-to-happen overbuilding crisis, when everyone will be running around moaning about how much money they’re losing because there are too many townhomes/lofts etc. on the ground and no one can afford to pay $2,000 for a 1,200 square foot place. But we’ll save that story for later. Aas for now, it’s great to see this much activity on our side of Central.
In the long run, there will be plenty of benefits from new construction and new residents and new businesses and jobs made possible by all of the new economic activity.
