The heads up about a meeting this Tuesday concerning a design review of the Lake Highlands Town Center came last week from JAH Realty, landlord for Tom Thumb at Royal and Skillman. (To accommodate a potentially larger crowd than anticipated, the meeting has been moved from room City Hall 4CN #3 to the LI Auditorium off the LI parking garage level in the conference center closest to the green elevators.)

The initial heads up came in the form of an email from Trigate Capital, a company that matches capital funds with real estate projects, and copied on the email was Graham Irvine, whom we know as JAH Realty’s acquisitions director from previous conversations with him about retail projects in Far North Dallas. We were also familiar with JAH Realty through conversations last fall about Royal Highlands Plaza, which is anchored by a Tom Thumb.

When we responded to the email asking about the sender’s interest in the Town Center project, we were referred to Irvine, but he was tied up late last week and over the weekend, so he was unavailable for conversation. Though Trigate, he sent us the Concerned Lake Highlands Citizens presentation, and later sent the Town Center design review by city-hired consultant Street-Works, as well as the summary of Tuesday’s meeting.

We still didn’t know, however, about Irvine’s and JAH Realty’s involvement in the Town Center, other than assuming the company was concerned that if Tom Thumb opened a store at the Town Center, it could lead to the closure of Tom Thumb at JAH Realty’s Royal Highlands property. And we assumed, because the presentation sent to us was titled “Concerned Lake Highlands Citizens”, Lake Highlands neighbors were involved in the effort, so we wanted to talk with “Lake Highlands citizens” involved.

Irvine requested that we email him all questions, so here is the back-and-forth exchange of questions and answers, after the jump: (more…)

If you've ever held a seasonal job that required wearing a clown wig or a HazMat uniform, we want to hear from you.

Have you ever had a wacky, messy, scary, exciting or embarrassing summer job? Have you had a strange experience, encountered quirky characters or made life-altering decisions based on a summer job?

Maybe it was decades ago, or perhaps, due to tough economic times (or a midlife crisis), you’re spending this summer slaving (or possibly having the time of your life) at an out-of-the ordinary gig.

We want to hear your summer job stories for a possible feature in the Advocate.

Improve your chances for Advocate fame by sending photos or video. Please include your contact information with your zip code. Email editor@advocatemag.com with your stories or with questions.

We were thrilled to learn in March that Atomic Pie was opening its doors and filling our neighborhood with the enticing smell of crispy, delicious pies. We were equally as thrilled to hear from co-owner Chris Schwab last week that he and partners Tim Cole and Craig Allen intended to expand into the space next door (to the left if you’re facing AP).

I just spoke with Tim Cole who said that the city will not give AP a CO/permit for the parking for the space on the left, citing that there are not enough spots. (Now, if you have driven around that parking lot as often as I have in the past decade or so, you will note that one thing it is not lacking is parking, but I digress…)

Cole says the new plan is to forget about the space on the left and take the space on the right, turning it into an L-shaped dining area to seat 40-50 people. Blueprints are being drawn, and the men of Atomic Pie are hoping to knock down the wall between the current space and the new one in June for a completed dining area in early July. Stay tuned …

Trader Joe’s is moving into Texas. Central Market is opening a fifth DFW store at Preston-Royal. Timbercreek Crossing will open for business sometime this fall.

How, if at all, does this affect the Lake Highlands Town Center?

That’s what we discuss on this week’s podcast, including the retail philosophy behind the big-box, national retail-centered Timbercreek development (and potential security and traffic issues when Sam’s and Walmart open) and the as-of-now blank slate that is the Town Center. Will Prescott Realty go big or small with its grocer anchor? Does the clamor for the former Borders at Preston-Royal mean anything in terms of what might happen at Walnut Hill-Audelia? Is there any chance that a small grocer at the Town Center might lead the way for a dominance of smaller, more “neighborhood” boutiques at the mixed-use site?

We don’t know for certain, but we discuss the options and likelihoods (and our own hopes, with fingers crossed).

By the way, if you want to be among the first to know what’s happening at the Lake Highlands Town Center, make sure to sign up for our new enewsletter with Town Center updates, straight into your email inbox. If you sign up by May 15, you’ll be able to preview a story on the Town Center’s Watercrest Park before it is published in the June Advocate.

Listen to the Lake Highlands podcast by subscribing on iTunes, or stream the Lake Highlands podcast here.

Do you have feedback for the Lake Highlands podcast? Email us at lakehighlandspodcast@advocatemag.com.

When we published a February story about the future of retail in Dallas, real estate experts said it would be only a matter of time before Trader Joe’s entered the market. Now we know for certain that the eclectic grocer is moving to North Texas.

The question is: Where? The Lake Highlands Town Center, perhaps?

It’s not out of the question. Mike Geisler of Venture Commercial tells us he spoke to Jud Pankey and other Prescott Realty executives last week, and “there will be a grocer on that site … I think they have three or four choices now.”

“I think they’re just trying to figure out which grocer to go with,” Geisler says. “The question is: Do they get a big, big grocer [like a Tom Thumb?] or do they do something like a Trader Joe’s?” The type of grocery store will determine the trajectory of the development, so Prescott is trying to decide which grocer will be best, Geisler says.

Where else might Trader Joe’s be looking?

As of late last week, everyone I talked to in the real estate realm was telling me the former Preston-Royal Borders would be a prime space for Trader Joe’s. It would have to be broken up because Trader Joe’s typically uses only 8,000-12,000 square feet, and the former Borders store is 30,000 square feet.

Well, apparently Central Market thought highly of that space, too, because the gourmet grocer announced yesterday that it will be opening its fifth DFW store in the former Preston-Royal Borders. Even in the economic climate that has slowed down retail development in recent years, including the Town Center, it sounds as if Central Market had a hard time procuring the site.

“I have never had so much interest in any single space in my career,” said Terry Montesi, chairman and CEO of Trademark Property Company and owner of the shopping center. “We had several great merchants express serious interest in replacing Borders, but in the end I felt like Central Market, and what it would create for this neighborhood, would be the perfect long-term fit.”

But just because the Borders space is now spoken for doesn’t mean Trader Joe’s will pass on Preston Hollow.

“They’re going to look between Forest and Mockingbird on Preston — I think that’s a given,” says John Downs, an asset manager for Henry S. Miller Equity Partners. “They need to be in an upper-middle income level with higher than normal education — some college or higher — for people to understand the concept and to embrace it.”

Downs believes Trader Joe’s will look into at least three North Texas areas — Park Cities/Preston Hollow, the Preston corridor in West Plano and Southlake/Colleyville.

“I think you’ll see them do this in waves,” Geisler says of how Trader Joe’s will launch stores. “I think you’ll see three or four stores open within a year. I think they’ll definitely try to start in Dallas” instead of the suburbs.

Though Aldi is Trader Joe’s parent company, it’s not likely that Trader Joe’s will open as many stores as Aldi has, and the two look for different types of spaces.

“Aldi is strictly known as discount. They’re in the milk wars and that sort of thing,” says Ian Pierce of the The Weitzman Group. Trader Joe’s has an “emphasis on unique foods and organics, [and] specialty grocers like to fill in the specialty retail spaces.”

“Trader Joe’s is a bit of a destination; people will seek them out,” Geisler says. He believes that for Trader Joe’s, “income is a component that they’re going to look for, but education is probably more important” in a neighborhood’s demographics. That’s because Trader Joe’s is “not a full-line grocery store. It’s very limited items, but gourmet items that are hard to find,” making the “ psycho-graphic of a customer” most essential.

“They’re not real flashy stores; it’s just the product,” Geisler says.

A Trader Joe’s store will average around $1,700 a square foot in sales,” Downs says, an “enormous” amount considering that “$300-$400 would be typical. Remember — you’re dealing with a much smaller footprint. They don’t have the wide aisles, and normal grocers would have 70,000 to 80,000 SKUs, or items, whereas Trader Joe’s might have 4,000, so it’s a very edited mix overall.”

“They’re very selective [on sites] because they can afford to be,” Downs says. “Almost any developer I can think of would love to have them.”

Robert Wilonsky at the Observer has been suffering greatly in the last week from something that I don’t wish on any reporter: Having to deal with Trader Joe’s, the California specialty grocer famous for its Two Buck Chuck wine and legendary following.

Wilonsky has been trying to get a Trader Joe’s spokesman to say, one way or the other, when and where the company is coming to Dallas. Because, apparently, it is. We think.

His travails, as well as vague story behind the paywall by a good reporter who usually doesn’t write vague stories, Maria Halkias in Dallas’ Only Daily Newspaper, made me smile. I have been dealing with Trader Joe’s for more than a decade, and it is almost impossible to get a straight answer out of the company. I did a piece for a grocery store trade magazine once, and had some good quotes from a Trader Joe’s spokeswoman that were exactly about the story. The editor was so surprised to see them that he asked me if I made them up.

Is Trader Joe’s coming to Dallas? It seems like it. Unless the company changes its mind, which it has been known to do. When I talked to them in 2010 and asked if they were coming to Dallas, they said no. And I wouldn’t be surprised if they were in Austin and Houston long before they finally got here.

So how will we know when Trader Joe’s gets to Dallas? Probably only when the store actually opens.

This rendering shows the future JC Penney at TimberCreek Crossing, Northwest Highway and Skillman, which is scheduled to open fall 2011, according to developer Trammell Crow Company. (It’s a very tiny image because of its oblong shape; click the image for a larger view.)

The store will span 105,000 square feet, and JC Penney “has singled out the Dallas store for participation in the Department of Energy Net-Zero Energy Project, through which JC Penney’s design and construction teams will collaborate with two national laboratories to help achieve energy savings of 50 percent or more versus industry standards for similar new buildings.”

A two-story Sam’s Club/Walmart is also expected to open in the fall, according to Trammell Crow, and will comprise 320,000 square feet of the total 485,000 square foot retail center. Bank of America has also begun construction on a 4,500-square foot branch.

“Over the course of the next several months the center will really start to take shape, and by the end of the year we will have a significant portion of the retail space open and ready for business,” says Denton Walker, senior managing director with Trammell Crow Company. “This market has strong demographics, and we are confident the retail offerings at TimberCreek Crossing will cater to all types of shoppers.”

Advocate contributing editor Jeff Siegel has had a less optimistic view of this apartment complex-turned-shopping center (though he was wrong about the likelihood of the Medallion Target closing), and the TimberCreek project has also come under fire for clearing a number of mature trees. In addition, once the new Sam’s Club opens this year, Sam’s will close its current store at Greenville and Park Lane — though that’s not necessarily bad news.

The White Rock Local Market will now accept food stamps. It’s the first farmers market in Dallas to do so.

By embracing the SNAP Lone Star supplemental food assistance program, WRLM is broadening its customer base, market founders say, opening up a source for healthy, local foods to residents receiving SNAP assistance.

“The global economic downturn has had a dramatic effect on many households in our community, and that’s reflected in the big increase in SNAP roles,” says WRLM co-founder Sarah Perry. “We’re excited about the opportunity open up this market to our neighbors who participate in the SNAP program, and we’re proud to be the first farmers market in Dallas County to provide this opportunity.”

Supporting the decision, she notes that “more than 58,000 households in Dallas County receive food stamps, a figure that represents a dramatic 29 percent national growth in SNAP roles last year, according to recent Census and USDA data,” adding that farmers markets accepting food stamps has grown rapidly.

Great move—once I interviewed a doctor at Healing Hands Ministry in Lake Highlands who told me the biggest health risk in the lower-socioeconomic/uninsured groups is obesity—education coupled with the increased availability of healthy options can make a big difference when it comes to public health. It’s good for the farmers and vendors because they can sell more.

According to its founders, the White Rock Local Market has enjoyed great success in our neighborhood and is popular among regional farmers and producers too.

“On an average day the market has from 30 to 50 vendors and 2,000 visitors. The market is a community asset, and the Lone Star SNAP project will have a positive impact on the health and economic challenges facing our society.”

It runs the second and fourth Saturdays of the month outside Green Spot on Buckner. Here’s a recent Advocate interview with the founders.