Architect’s illustration of Crescent Deep Ellum. Image courtesy of Crescent Communities.

In August, TOWERS briefly mentioned a multifamily project in Deep Ellum that involved a collaboration between developers Crescent Communities and 42 Real Estate. Since then, Crescent has reported it will be knocking down an entire block of industrial buildings in the 2900 block of Canton Street between South Malcolm X Boulevard and South Walton Street.

Crescent Communities obtained demolition and building permits October 30 to clear the area and begin site work before the year’s end on a seven-story mixed-use development, according to city records. Andres Construction Services, the contractor, recorded permits totaling more than $27.5 million.

Crescent closed on the land acquisition, buying the site from 42 Real Estate the first week of December, and obtained barricade permits just before Christmas. The planned buildings, to be known as Crescent Deep Ellum, will eventually include 230 apartment units, a parking garage and 10,000 square feet of retail space at the corner of Canton Street and Malcolm X Boulevard.

Crescent Communities has begun clearing a block in Deep Ellum for a mixed-use residential complex. On the northeast edge of the nearby Baylor Medical District, Green Brick Partners Inc. is seeking approval for a four-story midrise. And Denver-based Punch Bowl Social plans to open its Dallas location next to the future Epic development. Illustration with graphic courtesy of Google Maps and Adolfo Pesquera.

The architect, Hord Coplan Macht of Baltimore, Maryland, described the scope of work as a multifamily apartment building with retail and common amenity spaces over an underground parking garage.

“The project will consist of two separate buildings. The first building will be of Type 1A non-combustible construction and consists of an enclosed one-story underground parking garage with one story of retail and residential apartments, including amenity spaces, at grade with an additional level of parking above,” Hord Coplan Macht designer Brian Gobell said in a statement to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. “The five-story residential building atop the podium will be of Type IIIA (wood) construction. Both buildings are interconnected in multiple locations and will function as one building.”

The building’s sections have footprints of about 26,781 square feet and 14,859 square feet, respectively, and total 149,862 square feet, according to building permit descriptions. Even though Deep Ellum will lose the existing block of industrial buildings, the architect went to the trouble of mimicking their austere, early 20^th century feel. Crescent Communities’ Texas managing director Michael Blackwell told the Dallas Morning News that Hord Coplan Macht borrowed architectural styles from the Continental Gin and Henry Ford Model T plant buildings a block away.

Resident amenities will include a rooftop pool and lounge. Crescent Deep Ellum is scheduled for completion in September 2019.

As 2017 draws to a close, there is also recent news that Deep Ellum will soon be home to a new location of Punch Bowl Social, a Denver, Colorado-based chain restaurant and entertainment venue.

Punch Bowl Social has leased a building at the Main Street and Good-Latimer Expressway gateway to Deep Ellum for its Dallas location. Image courtesy of Google Maps.

The business plans to occupy 23,000 square feet in an existing one-story historic building at 2600 Main Street, which is located at the main gateway intersection to Deep Ellum from downtown. That also puts it within one block of developer Westdale’s The Epic, a 26-story high rise that will be paired with a 10-story office building and boutique hotel in the block northeast of the Good-Latimer Expressway and Elm Street intersection.

In order to open the “eater-tainment” venue, the Denver chain plans to invest $5 million in renovations. The company has had Dallas on its list of destination cities for some time, with this location expected to open by late summer 2018.  In addition to a restaurant with craft brews on tap, Punch Bowl Social offers activities intended to keep the party going; these include bowling, karaoke, virtual reality parlors and a bocce court.

Not too far north, at the edge of the Baylor University Medical Center region, Plano-based developer Green Brick Partners Inc. has proposed a four-story, 28-unit multifamily project at the northeast corner of North Haskell Avenue and Worth Street.

About ten blocks northeast of Crescent’s Deep Ellum project, Green Brick Partners CEO James Brickman introduced the new apartment project just before Christmas. At a December 14 City Plan Commission meeting, Brickman made a zoning request to increase the maximum height for new construction to 42 feet.

This project is traveling under the ownership name of GRBK Edgewood LLC. At the request of Commissioner Mark Rieves, the public hearing was left open and the case held under advisement until the January 18 City Plan Commission meeting. This action occurred after several neighboring residents spoke against the project, mainly out of concern over increased traffic and a lack of information as to what the building will look like; Brickman has not met with them and provided no concept design at this time.

The concept site plan for a Green Brick Partners four-story multifamily building at Haskell Avenue and Worth Street. Image courtesy of Green Brick Partners.

Rhonda Grimes, president of the Josephine Court Homeowners’ Association Inc., led the opposition and represented a row of two-story townhomes that are adjacent to the project site, which is currently a parking lot used by Dallas Independent School District employees. The DISD administrative office building would share the Haskell Avenue side of the block with the new development. Staff at the Development Services Department approved Brickman’s request, noting that existing site development standards would allow construction up to 115 feet with 80 percent lot coverage. Brickman is proposing 70 percent lot coverage.

Brickman is best known for infill residential projects in bedroom communities such as Plano, Carrollton, Allen and Flower Mound — so a project this close to downtown may be a bit out of the developer’s comfort zone. The proposed four-story building would include a mix of different roof structures and styles, “which will add fresh housing stock and support redevelopment efforts in the area,” city staff noted in its recommendation.