Town Hall Meeting About New Town Center

The Town Hall meeting last night at the Freshman Center about the new Town Center project at Skillman and Walnut Hill was SRO, and the enthusiasm among Wildcat residents was palpable. Vance Detwiler of Prescott Realty (the 7th developer for this on-again, off-again project) made the presentation about this exciting development that could literally supercharge the Lake Highlands community. When asked repeatedly if there was any chance that they might pull out (like the 6 developers before them), Detwiler assured the audience that they are scheduled to close on buying the properties where four apartment complexes currently reside in late April or early May and that, if the deal should fall apart, Prescott would lose a substantial amount of money. So it sounds like the real deal. One particularly nice touch to this mixed-use development that will provide retail, office, and residential space, along with park land and a DART station - there will be a clock tower that will turn red with every LHHS victory or success - a la the University of Texas tower turning orange! The next milestone will be when the wrecking ball actually starts swinging. Super kudos to Bill Blaydes for persevering on the single-most important project to happen in Lake Highlands in many years.

Comments

[Rick Wamre]

I want to believe in this project as much as anyone, because it will be great for the neighborhood and great for small businesses like ours. But does it seem possible, as the developers are saying, that this $300 million project will be started by 2008 and completed — completely done and built out — by 2010? That just seems like an incredibly quick timeline to me, particularly if there really is no anchor tenant (or even non-anchor tenant). Again, I want to believe, but...

[Keri Mitchell]

We'll be following this closely over the next few, well, years, both on our blog and in our magazine. (In fact, our April cover story focuses on future development in Lake Highlands, and it was finished and ready for publication when we got wind of the town meeting. Needless to say, some tweaking took place.) I've been promised some of Tuesday night's renderings that I plan to post on the blog, so be watching for them to appear.