Downtown News

Dallas City Council approves major subsidy for new West End Lofts

805 Elm St. in the West End.

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The Dallas City Council approved a $49 million incentive package for the development of the West End Lofts Project, a proposed mixed-use, mixed-income, and transit-oriented development project.

The project would take up three parcels within the historic West End: 805 Elm St., 711 Elm St., and 211 N. Austin St., directly south of the West End DART light rail station and directly north of El Centro (Dallas College).

Led by Sycamore Strategies, LLC, the estimated $103.2 million project will include 154 mixed-income apartments comprised of 56 efficiencies, 25 one-bedroom, 69 two-bedroom, and 4 three-bedroom units to be constructed within the historic 805 Elm Street building and in a new 6-story building to be constructed on the existing adjacent surface parking lot.

Of the 154 apartments, 63 (41 percent) will be income-restricted and leased solely to households earning at or below median income.

The project will include residential amenities, ground floor retail/commercial space, the creation of an approximately 25,751-square-foot plaza and promenade, and approximately 140 parking spaces in the historic 711 Elm Street parking garage.

The project’s funding includes $54,224,085 in non-City sources, including equity in the form of low income housing tax credits and historic rehabilitation tax credits.

The City’s incentive package includes an amount not to exceed $28,275,676 in City Center TIF District funding as well as up to $20,724,324 from other economic development funding sources administered by the City’s Office of Economic Development, including general obligation bond proceeds from the economic development/housing propositions in the City’s 2012 and 2024 bond programs.

In a statement, Interim City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert said that the project will provide affordable housing and ground floor activation within downtown’s West End Historic District.

Prior to the City Council's December 11 approval of a subsidy for the project, it got a thumbs up from the City Center TIF District Board of Directors, with the added condition that best efforts be made to provide a minimum of two square feet per residential unit for pet relief facilities.

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Haggard Farm news

Massive retail village with restaurant and event barn to debut in Plano

Rendering courtesy of Haggard Farm

A rendering of Almanac restaurant at Haggard Farm.

A 180,000-square-foot “retail village” is about to be born in Plano.

The village will debut this fall at the more than $750 million Haggard Farm mixed-use development, along with 350 apartments, 188 townhomes, and a three-acre park. Haggard Farm sits at Spring Creek Parkway and Parkwood Boulevard in Plano.

A farm-to-table restaurant and an event barn will anchor the village, being developed by Stillwater Capital in partnership with The Retail Connection and WoodHouse.

WoodHouse will introduce two original concepts: a farm-to-table restaurant called Almanac and an event space called Haggard Hall. Stillwater says the 17,500-square-foot event barn, made of mass timber, is “inspired by the role Texas dance halls once played as community gathering places.”

Haggard Hall will accommodate more than 600 guests across the main hall, private dining rooms, and event lawns.

“Our history as music venue, club, and restaurant operators has made us keenly aware of the collective chemistry that transforms a neighborhood into a destination,” W. Brandt Wood, partner and director of experience at WoodHouse, says in a release. “Haggard Farm will greet its visitors with immersive, authentic, and interconnected experiences throughout the district.”

Stillwater Capital says more tenants will be revealed soon. Over half of the spaces at the retail village are already leased.

The retail village will offer “a distinctive mix of dining, wellness, hospitality, apparel, and home furnishing operators,” the developer says.

The entire development will span 142 acres. Aside from the retail and residential components, Haggard Farm will feature a boutique hotel and up to 600,000 square feet of office space.

Clay Roby, managing director of Stillwater Capital, says Haggard Farm’s lawns, gardens, and water features will complement farmers markets, seasonal festivals, and community concerts.

“Haggard Farm is one of DFW’s most exciting projects — a curated collection of shopping, dining, hospitality, and residential components inspired by the unique character of this land and delivered as a single cohesive environment,” Roby says in the release.

farms haggard mixed use development plano