By ANDREA JARES
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
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KELLER -- The developers of Arthouse want to make a bold impression along with the artsy neighborhood's imposing four-story stretch into the Keller sky.
Tennessee-based Southern Land Co. plans a mix of apartments, stores, shops and restaurants that it hopes will be considered a hip, urbanesque destination. The plan is for a lifestyle reminiscent of an artists' colony.
"It's a living experience," said Jim Cheney, spokesman for Southern Land. "The experience is what we want you to feel."
The company hopes to create the right vibe on 5.6 acres in Keller Town Center, at the northeast corner of Bear Creek Parkway and Town Center Lane. The L-shaped wall of loft apartments borrows from the architecture of the SoHo neighborhood of New York. Inside, many have balconies and wall-to-floor windows.
A mix of restaurants and shops from national retailers, as well as locally grown enterprises, is planned for the ground floor. Although no leases have been signed, the company would like to see a tea room or a jewelry artisan take up residence. Executives also envision something like a bike shop or a sporting goods store that would cater to the outdoor lifestyles of residents using the nearby trails. They'd also like to see an upscale sandwich shop or a place where residents upstairs could make quick grocery purchases.
Scheduled to start opening in October and shielded by the bank of apartments, 17 artists' enclaves -- three-story detached homes with loft styling -- are taking shape. Ideally, they would be places where a painter or a potter could have a home and a studio.
"You don't have to be an artist, but how cool to live in a place that is an artists' place," said Melonee Hurt, marketing manager for Southern Land.
A mix of uses
This style of development is part of a trend visible all over North Texas. The resulting projects are known for mashing together distinct types of real estate, such as retail, office and residential, that once were relegated to separate zoning in cities.
Southern Land is simply offering a modern take on an old way of living. Before World War II, Americans lived, worked and shopped in downtowns across the country. That convenient style of living, which reduces traffic, commute times and pollution, is making a comeback, proponents of such dense development say.
"There is a feeling overall that this single-purpose zoning is a failed concept, and so mixed-use development is part of the new approach to development," said Michael Beyard, senior resident fellow for retail and entertainment development at the Urban Land Institute in Washington, D.C. "Most of our growth is going to be at the fringe, so we have to do a better job of making it more sustainable -- socially, environmentally, financially."
A number of North Texas rental developments have climbed on the mixed-use bandwagon. Hometown NRH in North Richland Hills is adding apartments on top of retail. Mockingbird Station in Dallas fuses loft-style apartments with national retailers and chain restaurants along a DART rail line.
Shoppers who visit mixed-use developments tend to stay longer and spend more than they do at other shopping venues, Beyard said. Because of this, these centers command higher rents.
Ben Loughry, managing partner at the Dallas-Fort Worth office of Integra Realty Resources, agreed, but said it's important to have the right mix of tenants. A strong mix of attractive retailers is key, he said, but the mix of uses shouldn't clash. For example, a developer would want to be conscious of buffering the noise in homes located near a bar that closes at 2 a.m.
"Every deal carries risk," Loughry said. "Some are very profitable and do quite well and others are not as profitable, either because it didn't get the right mix or didn't get the right rents for the construction costs."
Financing, leasing and construction expertise for such developments can be tough to find. It's not common to have people with expertise in each category at one development, said Loughry, whose company has worked as an adviser on projects such as Victory Park in Dallas and Southlake Town Square.
Centers of suburbia
People are responding to mixed-use developments by making them centers of suburbia. Part of that has to do with people wanting to reduce their commute or be environmentally conscious, Beyard said.
"There's probably a bigger draw: being where the action is," Loughry said.
Keller, an upscale bedroom community, has seen considerable apartment growth in recent years. Seventy percent of the city's apartment stock has been built in the past 18 months, said Bonnie Brown, senior consultant with ALN Systems, an apartment market analysis firm.
Arthouse apartment rents will range from $799 for a 573-square-foot studio to $2,161 for a 1,490-square-foot, 3-bedroom apartment. That would put it near the top of the price range in Keller, where apartment rents range from 68 cents a square foot to $1.68 a square foot, according to ALN Systems.
As of last week, at least 15 of the 177 apartments in Arthouse had been rented even though no model is available yet, Hurt said.
Arthouse is the first development project for Southern Land outside its native Tennessee. The company was attracted to Keller in part because the demographics were similar to those of the sites of its other successful developments, Cheney said.
Arthouse is a typical project for 20-year-old Southern Land, which tries to blend architecture and landscaping into a distinctive style.
The company mixed Victorian homes and Queen Anne cottages, along with hedgerows and rambling vines, for its Westhaven development outside of Franklin, Tenn. Homes there start at $300,000. In Laurelbrooke, it used the Old South look in the Nashville suburbs -- with swan lakes, stone walls and gracious verandas for homes priced at $1 million and more.
Southern Land is also developing Watters Creek in Allen and Tucker Hill in McKinney.
"It takes a lot of effort on the front end, but when you do, at the end of the day, you have something superior," Cheney said.