Map from The Hill submission to the Urban Peer Review Panel

Site of The Hill development

As we mentioned a while back, one of Lake Highlands diners’ favorite destinations, Crossroads, with its deliciously sticky hot buns, kitschy decor and charismatic personalities, closes its doors this week and moves up north to Preston and Campbell. The diner was forced out by increased rent by new developers Cypress Equities, its chef and founder Tom Fleming has said. Cypress Equities not to be confused with Cypress Real Estate, developers of the Lake Highlands Town Center, though the two developments almost beg to be compared. This project is exactly 2.4 miles west of the Lake Highlands Town Center development. Both are DART-centered transit oriented developments.

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Cypress Equities purchased the land at Walnut Hill and Central Expressway more than a year ago and began plans for a 236,050 square-foot mixed-use retail center and transit oriented development called The Hill.

Because Cypress Equities is seeking Tax Increment Financing, it is subject to review by Dallas’ Urban Design Peer Review Panel. You may recall that at one time Lake Highlands Town Center Developers were facing the same, as we explained in this analysis. (When gaining approval from the required panels proved too difficult, you might remember, the Town Center’s developers opted to relinquish TIF funds, $30 million of it, in order to move forward.)

Anyway, The Hill developers submitted its plans to the panel last Friday. The Dallas Morning News’ Robert Wilonsky posted the proposal here.

Located across from Presbyterian Hospital at Walnut Hill east of Central, The Hill will be “the first phase of development for the overall project site. Phase I will focus on retrofitting an existing, auto oriented shopping center in an effort to transform the existing and proposed buildings into a more walkable series of shops and restaurants arranged around a landscaped and amenitized central common space.

“TIF reimbursement is currently being considered to augment costs related specifically to public realm improvements around and throughout the site, improvements to the alley ROW located along the northern edge of the project, and potential trail connection opportunities to link up various existing trail systems located in proximity to the development site,” the introduction continues.

It also appears residential mixed-use development will be considered on this or future phases of the project. “The northeast corner of the site, nearest the DART station, should be considered as an opportunity to introduce a denser project type to take full advantage of the adjacent DART station and leverage the opportunity to establish the site as a true transit oriented development in this phase or future phases,” the first page reads. The balance of land currently existing as surface parking should be considered for opportunities for denser, residential mixed use product types …”

You can peruse the whole thing here.