DALLAS (Jun. 26, 2024) – If you build it, they will come — assuming “it” is equipped with the all the facilities, necessities and conveniences of 21st-century living.
As residents and consumers, it is remarkably easy to overlook the critical pieces of infrastructure that enable these necessities and conveniences. From the perspective of end users, these facilities and systems are not instrumental to the success of commercial and residential developments because they are taken for granted as minimal requirements for occupancy. Further, in many cases, the infrastructure is not visible to the naked eye.
Yet for developers, particularly those in high-growth regions like North Texas, infrastructure is anything but an afterthought.
“In the eyes of developers, infrastructure is a primary aspect of any project,” says Jack Turnage, development manager at Wildcatter Realty Partners, the developer behind The Greenbelt, a 325-acre mixed-use project in Hunt County. “Without that, the only way to navigate our site is on horseback.”
Located in Greenville on the northeastern outskirts of Dallas, The Greenbelt is one of numerous large-scale mixed-use projects sprouting up in the region. Plans call for close to 1,000 single-family and multifamily units; several hundred thousand square feet of commercial space; numerous restaurant pad sites; a hotel with a conference center; and an 18-hole disc golf course. In addition, the development will feature just over nine miles of hiking and biking trails that will provide connectivity throughout the development and to Greenville’s future sports park.
To jumpstart the project, Wildcatter sought and received approval from Greenville’s Planning & Zoning Committee to rezone a 20-acre parcel from agriculture to multifamily use. Freestone Development is now constructing a 300-unit apartment community, Freestone Greenville, on that site, with units scheduled to come on line next spring. In return, Wildcatter undertook major public roadway improvements at the site, and Turnage says there’s more to come.
“To service our development, we constructed a public roadway improvement project in which we widened and rebuilt a portion of Monty Stratton Parkway on the west side, from I-30 to the edge of our property,” he recalls. “We then began construction of Traders Road, another public thoroughfare for the City of Greenville. Construction of Phase I of the public improvements has been completed, and we’ll soon start Phase II, which will eventually connect where the roadway stops now to Wesley Street/Highway 34.”
“With the given economic challenges in today’s environment, we often find ourselves exploring the uses of public financing tools to expedite developments,” Turnage continues. “We definitely had to bring some offsites to our site, some of which were previously established water and sewer projects. We have an in-house construction company that handles utility work, installing water and sewer availability all over the site, and it’s a huge relief to have that infrastructure already in place.”
For developers looking to accommodate and capitalize on the phenomenal growth of North Texas, it’s never too early to start laying infrastructural groundwork. And the use of the word “phenomenal” is not hyperbole.
The North Texas Commission, a nonprofit organization based in Irving, identifies the region as a 9,000-square-mile area that spans 13 counties and 150 cities and is home to approximately 7.5 million people. The organization’s 2024 “profile report” states that the region’s population grows by one person every 3.3 minutes, which translates to 429 people per day, or 156,585 people per year.
That’s a lot of demand for developers to meet in terms of housing, necessity retail, leisure and entertainment and even workspaces and hotels. Each of those structures requires power, plumbing and Wi-Fi — to say nothing of the network of roadways, trails and open public spaces required to seamlessly connect them all into a cohesive community.
As such, much of the work these individuals and companies do before shovels hit the ground involves developing facilities to enable basic comfort and hygiene, remote work and ease of commute to local establishments. These processes can be incredibly costly and time-consuming, and developers must rely on partnerships with the municipalities they serve to deliver crucial nodes and pieces of infrastructure without going bankrupt.
To read the full article, visit https://rebusinessonline.com/mixed-use-developers-in-north-texas-prioritize-infrastructure/.
