EV News

Mega EV hub to charge up shoppers at Allen's Watters Creek Village

XCharge EV stations

Courtesy rendering

A masive new EV charging station is coming to Allen's Watters Creek Village, to provide an on-site amenity for shoppers who drive electric cars.

The hub will provide charging stations for more than 20 cars with ultra-fast chargers that can charge most EVs in 20-60 minutes, making it the largest fast-charging facility not owned by Tesla (which has many dedicated charging stations across DFW). The Allen station will be able to charge both Tesla and non-Telsa vehicles.

The facility is owned by XCharge North America, a charging company founded in Germany that is expanding its market in the U.S. According to a spokesperson, construction is anticipated to begin in July, and the hub is projected to open in August or September.

Each port will have a maximum capacity ranging from 200kW to 400kW — for comparison, the average home EV charger maxes out at 7kW.

In addition to charging electric vehicles, XCharge promises the hub will contribute to the neighborhood by returning surplus energy to the grid. It’s also designed to handle intense weather conditions that could threaten Texas’ power grid.

“This cutting-edge facility represents a noteworthy stride towards more sustainable and easily accessible electric vehicle infrastructure,” XCharge North America President Aatish Patel says in a statement.

The new hub will be the company’s second in Allen; the first was at MD7, a technology company in Allen, where a station was installed in 2023.

EV usage is growing in the region: The number of registered electric vehicles in North Texas increased by 63 percent between 2022 and 2023, according to data from the North Central Texas Council of Governments. Registered electric vehicles increased by 56 percent across the state overall.

As of February 6, there were more than 254,800 electric vehicles registered in Texas, according to DFW Clean Cities, an NCTCOG initiative. About 26,900 of those were registered in Dallas County, 25,781 in Collin County, and 17,800 in Tarrant County.

In January, LG Electronics opened its first factory in the U.S. for assembling electric vehicle charging stations in Fort Worth. The factory was built to support the growing EV charging infrastructure in the U.S.

sustainability

Coworking News

New coworking space to open in Dallas' Oak Lawn neighborhood

Office Evolution

A coworking space is opening in Dallas in a central location: Office Evolution, a Louisville-based coworking chain, will open what a release says is a "state-of-the-art coworking space" at 3500 Oak Lawn Ave. #360 in Dallas at the southeast corner of Lemmon Avenue.

No details on what makes it state-of-the-art, but construction is ongoing and an opening is anticipated in mid-October.

Office Evolution was founded in 2003 as a shared workspace-coworking environment, cultivated on the principles of "Ohana," the Hawaiian tradition that references family working toward a common goal. (The founder was from Hawaii.)

The company started out in Boulder, Colorado, then relocated its headquarters to Louisville. It's an affiliated brand of United Franchise Group, and is part of The Vast Coworking Group, which specializes in franchising within the coworking industry. All of their locations are franchised.

The Dallas location is owned by franchisee Michael Pickering, a Dallas native who runs a family-owned indoor soccer facility in Dallas. (There are two other Office Evolution locations in the DFW area in McKinney and Southlake, owned by different franchisees.)

They're describing the Dallas location at 3500 Oak Lawn Ave. as "Turtle Creek," although its location at Oak Lawn and Lemmon really puts it at the epicenter of Oak Lawn. (To further complicate matters, the building previously and incorrectly described its address as "Uptown.")

It's a seven-story building in which the majority of tenants are doctor and medical offices.

Office Evolution rates include a coworking day pass for $25, plus "flex" office options starting at $200 a month for 20 hours, up to $550 a month for 80 hours.

Amenities of the building that are also accessible to Office Evolution customers include a front desk; a 1,000-square-foot fitness center; covered parking; and on-site security six days a week.

According to a spokesperson, Pickering and his team put $1.2 million into the renovation to transform the space, which occupies most of the fourth floor where it will span 9,240 square feet of space with 41 total offices — one of which is earmarked as an "on-demand office" for the professional on the go.

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