Dallas

[Sic'EmBears]

Chinese development group to bring mall project to US 380 corridor



Project Location

Frisco City Council approved to rezone 77 acres on Tuesday along US 380 for a multilevel shopping center project with additional retail, office, hotel and urban-living residential units.

The rezoning request was approved with the condition that the developer would begin construction on 100,000 square feet of office space plus the first phase of the mall and retail aspects before receiving a building permit for any residential building.

Lesso America, a subsidiary of building material manufacturer China Lesso Group Holdings Ltd., has owned the land for two years and plans to move its American headquarters to the development.

The development is planned to have three different districts:

a frontage district with a mixture of retail, hotel and office;
a lifestyle district that would contain most of the retail with one urban-living tower;
and a southern district that would contain mostly urban-living units as well as some office, hotel and retail space.

Ron Patterson, president of Frisco Economic Development Corp., said the project is valued at about $2 billion, which would bring in a lot of tax revenue.

[sgt. pepper]

I thought malls were dying?

[bluedogok]

I thought malls were dying?

No, "lifestyle centers" are the new mall. Then you have the big box malls.

[Sic'EmBears]

Dallas area lands two more huge Amazon shipping hubs



Project Location

Amazon is expanding its warehousing operations with two huge fulfillment centers — one in West Dallas and another on Interstate 45 in southern Dallas County.

This week the Dallas City Council voted to give the Seattle-based Internet retailer about $2 million in economic incentives to build a more than $100 million distribution center in West Dallas that is expected to create 1,500 new jobs.

The 100-acre ecommerce facility will be located at 1301 Chalk Hill Road near Davis Street south of Interstate 30. Developer Hillwood Properties is building the huge shipping hub which will have 855,000 square feet.

Amazon already has nine major distribution and sorting centers in the D-FW area.

The company is just opening a more than 1-million-square foot shipping hub in Wilmer south of Dallas.

[Sic'EmBears]

Windhaven Meadows Park: A look inside the plans for Plano’s future park



Project Location

[Sic'EmBears]

Airline launches its first DFW Airport to Florida route, prices start at $39

Sun Country Airlines is launching two Florida flights from Dallas Fort Worth Airport this week. It will mark the first time the airline has operated a scheduled flight to Florida that originated at DFW Airport.

The airline's new DFW-to-Fort Myers route begins Wednesday, and a DFW-to-Tampa flight will start Friday. Sun Country said flights to Fort Myers and Tampa are available for as little as $39 and $49, respectively.

It also flies to Cancun out of DFW and will start a DFW-to-Punta Cana, Dominican Republic route in November.

[Sic'EmBears]

Construction on phase 2 of Post Sierra at Frisco Bridges expected to last 22 months



Project Location

The second phase of Post Sierra at Frisco Bridges started construction in mid-July and is expected to last 22 months.

The multifamily community, located on the southwest corner of Rifle Gap Road and Warren Parkway, will have 348 units that include one- and two-bedroom lofts or one- and two-bedroom traditional apartment homes.

[Sic'EmBears]

2 hotels coming soon near Eldorado Parkway and US 75 in McKinney



Project Location

Two hotels are expected to open in December north of Eldorado Parkway along US 75.

Home2 Suites by Hilton, located at 2630 S. Central Expressway, McKinney, will offer 107 suites.

The second hotel, SpringHill Suites by Marriott, located at 2660 S. Central Expressway, McKinney, will offer 125 suites.

[Sic'EmBears]

Uptown Dallas' new Central Market store will anchor a high-rise mixed-use project



Project Location

The supermarket will be part of a high-rise development planned for the block at McKinney and Lemmon avenues that will include offices, shops and restaurants.

"We see this project as the unifier between Uptown and what's going on in Cityplace and the West Village," said KDC president Toby Grove.

Instead of just remodeling the existing building, Central Market will occupy the lower levels of a 19-story mixed-use project KDC plans for the high-profile Uptown block.

Dallas architect Omniplan and San Antonio design firm Lake|Flato are designing the development, which will take up most of the 4.8-acre block between McKinney and Oak Grove.

"It's going to be very well-connected with the DART rail station nearby and the street car that stops out front."

KDC plans to build a 2-acre public plaza on the roof of the Central Market that will have access to the office tower and shops and restaurants facing the elevated public space.

"Central Market shoppers will have parking on two levels of garage on top of the store," said KDC executive vice president Walt Mountford. "On top of that, the amenity deck will have great views of downtown.

"It's going to be a great experience for both the retail users and tenants in the office building."

"This will be largest store in Central Market's portfolio," Mountford said. "There will be a total of 150,000 square feet of retail in the entire project.

"This activates the entire street frontage, and it will be a great pedestrian experience."

The planned Uptown store will be Central Market's seventh location in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

KDC will seek zoning changes for the Uptown block to allow the construction of the development, including asking for an additional 85 feet in building height.

The 450,000-square-foot office tower is being made taller to allow for the plaza area on the south side.

The Office of James Burnett — the same firm that did downtown's Klyde Warren Park — is designing the plaza and street-side landscaping.

"This will be the longest storefront on McKinney Avenue," said KDC senior vice president Colin Fitzgibbons. "The pedestrian experience should be great and a vast improvement over what is there today."

Because of the complexity of the project and underground parking that will be excavated on most of the block, construction will take more than two years.

The planned Uptown Central Market will be the fourth new urban grocery store in central Dallas that is combined with a high-rise building.

[progressiveboy]

DFW lands another Fortune 500 Company. According to the Dallas Journal, they are moving from Southern California.

https://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/n...rth-texas.html

[Pete]

Here's another article:

https://www.businesswire.com/news/ho...rs-Las-Colinas

[Eric]

Uptown Dallas' new Central Market store will anchor a high-rise mixed-use project



Project Location

Used to go to Manny's quite a bit. This thing is going to have a massive footprint. Gonna have to be tall to make up for the land acquisition costs.

This area is blowing me away with how fast it is changing though.

Southeast on Blackburn
BlackburnAve.JPG

[bluedogok]

We went to Central Market in Austin much more often than Whole Foods. A south side WF location opened up only a couple of years before we moved to Denver.

[progressiveboy]

Another corporate relocation for the DFW area, specifically Frisco. DFW is red hot with corporate relocations especially from California and this one below from Palm Beach Florida


https://www.wfaa.com/article/sports/.../287-618991735

[Eric]

Another corporate relocation for the DFW area, specifically Frisco. DFW is red hot with corporate relocations especially from California and this one below from Palm Beach Florida


https://www.wfaa.com/article/sports/.../287-618991735

This seems like a big move in that it seems like Florida would literally be the center of the golfing universe. Next thing you know, NHL will be relocating to Plano from NYC.

[jedicurt]

This seems like a big move in that it seems like Florida would literally be the center of the golfing universe. Next thing you know, NHL will be relocating to Plano from NYC.

actually funny you mention this... because there was a group from DFW who put a proposal together back in 2016 when the NHL was looking for its next location after deciding to move from Rockefeller Center... they ended up deciding to go to Hudson Yards and stay in NY... but DFW tried. they are moving into their new offices sometime in 2019

[Plutonic Panda]

Cotton Belt line is starting construction soon and will be open by 2022. It’s a 26 mile light rail line that will stretch across north Dallas and include interchanges with other light rail lines. This will be nice and could help Dallas move towards a lettered system maybe one day instead of using colors(which I don’t like).

DART really needs to get on the ball with planning more lines however. After this, the light rail subway is the only rail project I’m aware being planned in the DFA area other than TexRail and that isn’t suitable for a region growing as fast as Dallas is. They need to have at least 50 miles of rail under study right now as anything proposed today would likely take over 5 years before it could even break ground.

https://www.trafficandtransit.com/da...belt-rail-line

[baralheia]

Cotton Belt line is starting construction soon and will be open by 2022. It’s a 26 mile light rail line that will stretch across north Dallas and include interchanges with other light rail lines. This will be nice and could help Dallas move towards a lettered system maybe one day instead of using colors(which I don’t like).

DART really needs to get on the ball with planning more lines however. After this, the light rail subway is the only rail project I’m aware being planned in the DFA area other than TexRail and that isn’t suitable for a region growing as fast as Dallas is. They need to have at least 50 miles of rail under study right now as anything proposed today would likely take over 5 years before it could even break ground.

https://www.trafficandtransit.com/da...belt-rail-line

Minor correction - the Cotton Belt line will be heavy / commuter rail, not light rail, due to a desire to share assets with TEXRail and a continuation of freight business along the line (both the Fort Worth & Western and the Dallas, Garland, & Northern currently operate freight over the Cotton Belt line). The last information I saw was that the current plan is for the passenger operation to use the Stadler FLIRT vehicles (or similar) like the TEXRail line is using.

[Plutonic Panda]

Are you sure? I could had sworn it was to be light rail. That’s a bit disappointing if true. I mean, there’s nothing wrong with commuter rail, but if Dallas want to be serious about its transit network, light rail is a must and even for Dallas heavy rail should be looked at for downtown as far as rapid transit goes.

The article I linked said it will have interchanges with existing light rail lines as well as Tex rail which i didn’t understand how that would work.

[baralheia]

Are you sure? I could had sworn it was to be light rail. That’s a bit disappointing if true. I mean, there’s nothing wrong with commuter rail, but if Dallas want to be serious about its transit network, light rail is a must and even for Dallas heavy rail should be looked at for downtown as far as rapid transit goes.

The article I linked said it will have interchanges with existing light rail lines as well as Tex rail which i didn’t understand how that would work.

Yep, positive. The plans, presentations, and studies are available here: https://www.dart.org/about/expansion/cottonbelt.asp

The western terminus of the line will be at the DFW Airport station built for TEXRail. Given that the intent appears to be to use vehicles like the Stadler FLIRT, and the entire stretch will be rebuilt with 2 main tracks very much like the existing DART light rail lines, I seriously don't foresee there being any issues. It'll operate and feel very much like light rail, except the vehicles will be self-powered DMUs instead of the electric SLRV's that DART employs elsewhere across their system.

By interchange, what they mean is that there will be co-located stops so that passengers can transfer from the Cotton Belt line to the Red or Green lines, as well as to the TEXRail line too.

[Plutonic Panda]

Yep, positive. The plans, presentations, and studies are available here: https://www.dart.org/about/expansion/cottonbelt.asp

The western terminus of the line will be at the DFW Airport station built for TEXRail. Given that the intent appears to be to use vehicles like the Stadler FLIRT, and the entire stretch will be rebuilt with 2 main tracks very much like the existing DART light rail lines, I seriously don't foresee there being any issues. It'll operate and feel very much like light rail, except the vehicles will be self-powered DMUs instead of the electric SLRV's that DART employs elsewhere across their system.

By interchange, what they mean is that there will be co-located stops so that passengers can transfer from the Cotton Belt line to the Red or Green lines, as well as to the TEXRail line too.

Just much slower acceleration and deceleration times and lower capacity.

I have nothing against commuter rail, just not the biggest fan of it being used for intercity travel as I think LRT would induce more demand and is capable of much higher frequencies.

That’s interesting though. It’s not like they can’t electrify it in the future if need be. More transit options are never bad! I know I’ll be using it whenever I take Amtrak to or from OKC.

[baralheia]

Just much slower acceleration and deceleration times and lower capacity.

I have nothing against commuter rail, just not the biggest fan of it being used for intercity travel as I think LRT would induce more demand and is capable of much higher frequencies.

That’s interesting though. It’s not like they can’t electrify it in the future if need be. More transit options are never bad! I know I’ll be using it whenever I take Amtrak to or from OKC.

Actually, not in this case. The 750VDC-powered Kinki Sharyo SLRV vehicles that DART employs in light rail service have 94 seats, with a max capacity of 274 passengers (seated and standing)^{[1] - page 35}, have a maximum speed of 70mph, and achieve a maximum acceleration rate of 2.3mph/s^[2]. The diesel-powered Stadler FLIRT3 vehicles that TEXRail is using (and DART will very likely use for the Cotton Belt line) contain a total of 229 seats, with a max capacity of 488 passengers (seated and standing)^[3], have a maximum speed of 79mph, and achieve a maximum acceleration rate of 2.7mph/s^[4]. Granted, the FLIRT3 is slightly more than double the length of the SLRV - 266 feet vs 124 feet - but still. The FLIRT3 vehicles provide light-rail performance in a commuter DMU package, and even look externally a lot like light rail vehicles.

That said, yes, they could electrify later if they wanted to; they appear to be engineering the roadbed for DART's part of the cotton belt line the same way they do for their light rail lines, just without the catenary poles or wire. The FLIRT3 vehicles are actually electric, but the ones TEXRail ordered (and presumably DART will as well) have a diesel powerpack inserted into the middle of the train that actually generates the needed electricity. To my knowledge, it's relatively simple to convert these to pure electrical use by installing the catenary assemblies.

[PaddyShack]

Cannot wait to see this stuff around OKC. I loved all of the transit option while in Austria, and in fact have come close to moving to a city with more transit options than just car.

[Plutonic Panda]

Actually, not in this case. The 750VDC-powered Kinki Sharyo SLRV vehicles that DART employs in light rail service have 94 seats, with a max capacity of 274 passengers (seated and standing)^{[1] - page 35}, have a maximum speed of 70mph, and achieve a maximum acceleration rate of 2.3mph/s^[2]. The diesel-powered Stadler FLIRT3 vehicles that TEXRail is using (and DART will very likely use for the Cotton Belt line) contain a total of 229 seats, with a max capacity of 488 passengers (seated and standing)^[3], have a maximum speed of 79mph, and achieve a maximum acceleration rate of 2.7mph/s^[4]. Granted, the FLIRT3 is slightly more than double the length of the SLRV - 266 feet vs 124 feet - but still. The FLIRT3 vehicles provide light-rail performance in a commuter DMU package, and even look externally a lot like light rail vehicles.

That said, yes, they could electrify later if they wanted to; they appear to be engineering the roadbed for DART's part of the cotton belt line the same way they do for their light rail lines, just without the catenary poles or wire. The FLIRT3 vehicles are actually electric, but the ones TEXRail ordered (and presumably DART will as well) have a diesel powerpack inserted into the middle of the train that actually generates the needed electricity. To my knowledge, it's relatively simple to convert these to pure electrical use by installing the catenary assemblies.

Damn dude! You know your stuff. Haha. Thanks for the correction. Maybe it’s just me, but the TRE rail feels like it takes off slower but maybe that’s due to how big it is?

I know Caltrain is planning electrifying portion of their route in the Bay Area. Presumably they will do the way you explained in your last paragraph.

[baralheia]

Damn dude! You know your stuff. Haha. Thanks for the correction. Maybe it’s just me, but the TRE rail feels like it takes off slower but maybe that’s due to how big it is?

I know Caltrain is planning electrifying portion of their route in the Bay Area. Presumably they will do the way you explained in your last paragraph.

What can I say? I'm a total nerd for this kind of stuff, haha. Though I'll admit I only knew some of this off-hand and had to search for most of the exact specifications to make that post.

But yeah, that's a big reason. Your commuter rail argument is apt when applied to the TRE. The TRE uses bi-level commuter cars built by Bombardier Transportation and a mix of F59PH and F59PHI locomotives. This equipment, while capable of carrying more passengers overall, are based on older Federal Railroad Administration rules and designs, and are much heavier as a result; an assembled TRE trainset (1 locomotive, 2 coaches, 1 cab car) works out to roughly 315.5 tons empty, where an assembled FLIRT3 trainset in the TEXRail configuration (2 cab cars, 2 coaches, and a power car) works out to roughly 144 tons empty. The additional mass of the TRE trainset means slower acceleration. The entire FLIRT series was specifically designed to be a "fast and light" regional/intercity vehicle.