Editor’s note: this article has been updated to clarify information regarding zoning permits, specifically with regards to specific use permits (SUP).
Two entrepreneurs have laid out a plan to turn the Northlake Medical Building into a ‘boutique’ country club geared towards local families with children.
Renderings courtesy of the country club.
Nick Clark and Dawson Williams, both East Dallas residents with young children, currently have the 3.65 acre property on Northwest Highway under contact. They have laid out a plan to transform the aging 42,000+ square foot space into childcare facilities, dining concepts and recreation area.
The club does not yet have a name.
In order to move forward with the project, the plan will require a zoning change from limited office to residential with a use permit for a private club or recreation center. There have been other past zoning applications for the property, including a proposed empty nester community.
According to a release, the club will place an “emphasis on nailing the experience for kids.” Dawson and Williams plan to achieve this through 18,000 square feet of dedicated kids’ space, specialized children’s programming and more than 5,000 square feet of outdoor space, not including the club’s planned resort-style pool.
“Lake Highlands is a family neighborhood, so our place within the community is kind of delivering on a family experience that has continuity,” Williams said. “There are great places in East Dallas already for you to bring your kids. It’s very hard, though, to have a continuous experience for several hours when you go to the little gym, or ASI Gymnastics, or some of these places in town that are good for one thing, and then you go try and figure out where’s good place to take my kids to dinner, where’s a good place for my kids to do homework.”
As currently planned, the club will dedicate the entire third floor as a “bigs” play area, meant for children aged 6-13. The first floor is expected to have a smaller play area and daycare space for younger children. Specialized children’s programming will be developed for their children’s programs, although the pair admits they will need some outside help on that front.
“We certainly want to connect with people who are doing this with excellence, and then touch base with the neighborhood,” Williams says. “But I think a lot of our programming will be focused on flourishing and not simply putting your kid in front of a movie for two hours.”
Williams and Clark, who sold their work club brand, Common Desk, for an undisclosed fee in 2022, say that they want parents to enjoy the club as well. The second floor will be made up of gym space, saunas, pilates and yoga classrooms, plunge pools and more. The fourth floor will have an adults-only dining space to compliment a family eatery on the first floor.
The pair say that they have not finalized plans for dining offerings, but expect to create “elevated” options with potential for collaboration with East Dallas restaurants like Birdie’s Eastside.
Membership is expected to cost $399-$450 a month with an initiation fee between $7,500 to $10,000. They say membership will be opened to those in the “neighborhood” first with a discount, but that the parameters for the discount have not been set.
At a community meeting at the Audelia Branch Library on Oct. 9, Clark and Williams delivered an informative presentation and fielded questions to what seemed to be a mostly-supportive, large audience.
Clark and Williams say they anticipate the community engagement portion of the process will continue throughout the next month, with the zoning case arriving before the zoning commission sometime in November or December.
They have connected both with D10 Councilmember Kathy Stewart and Zoning Commissioner Tipton Housewright in anticipation of the zoning process, they say.
Stewart, who says she supports the plan, wants to see a specific use permit or planned development district designation attached to any zoning change.
“I think it’s always important when we do a project to make sure that the neighbors have a voice,” Stewart said. “So if you know 10 years from now, something takes a wrong turn, and the neighbors are concerned about what’s happening on the property, or even five years from now, whatever that point could be, I don’t see that happening, but if that was to happen, I think it’s very important for neighbors to have a voice and to be able to say that something’s changed that they’re concerned about. So I think making sure that we have either SUP or the PD in place will give the neighbors that standing to you know it to express their concerns”
If the plan is approved, Williams and Clark have said they expect to open in late 2026.
“We believe that that’s going to create intimate experiences with our members, and it’s almost like a neighborhood church, as opposed to a mega church,” Clark said. “I’ve been a part of a few mega churches. Nothing wrong with them, but a neighborhood church, you know the entire congregation.”
