Developer asking court to intervene on Grand Prairie industrial project

A Dallas industrial development partnership wants the city of Grand Prairie to set aside a state statute and approve a replat of the Great Southwest Golf Course so it can move forward with a 1 million-square-foot project at the site.

CH Realty VII, a fund of Dallas-based Crow Holdings, and Ascendant I Dallas 360 Global Logistics Park L.P., whose general manager is Steven D. Bradford with Ascendant Commercial, filed for a temporary restraining order in state district court in Tarrant County on Monday seeking to stop Grand Prairie and two top development officials from taking any action to delay or prevent the project.

A hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.

The developers, which bought the 164-acre golf course on March 27 from Chicago-based Walton Street Capital, has been working with Grand Prairie for two years to replat the property located east of Texas 360 between Avenue J and Avenue K. Four buildings are planned for the project, called GSW 360 Global Logistics Park. The land has been zoned for industrial use since 1965 and is surrounded by other industrial developments.

The 50-year-old private golf club had about 218 full-privilege members when it closed.

According to the suit, the developers filed their preliminary application in December. The Planning and Zoning Commission was scheduled to consider the plat at its Feb. 2 meeting, but it was pushed to March 3. At that meeting, the commission voted to postpone taking action.

Citing a state statute that addresses the redevelopment of golf courses, City Manager Tom Hart said Tuesday that the process was stopped because the city has asked the developer for additional information and to address requirements that are outside the normal platting process.

Among those, the city wants to know what impact the industrial development will have on traffic and property values, Hart said. He added that many citizens are concerned the development will hurt their neighborhoods.

“Our position has been communicated to the developer,” Hart said. “We are trying to make sure the proper procedures are followed. It’s better for us and for them.”

The developers argue in their pleading that they have met all the city’s ordinances and that the Zoning Commission was obligated to approve the plat. The state statute the city cites does not allow the city to condition the issuance of development permits, according to court filings.

“The code being cited by the city applies only if the land was a ‘subdivision golf course,’ with a common scheme of development for residential single-family homes,” said Arthur Anderson, the developer’s lawyer. “That was not the case and is not the case. To qualify under the law, the golf course would have been part of an overall residential development project, and that is not true in this situation. Most of the adjacent properties are used for industrial purposes.”

In an April 7 letter to Grand Prairie Mayor Ron Jensen, Bradford said the developers have already decreased the size of the buildings planned for the project and have offered about 90 acres to the city to be used as a public amenity, green space and expansion for sports fields, a chipping and putting green, and a dog and equestrian park. And the developers modified their flood plain study to create a pad site to accommodate a future fire station, the letter says.

Furthermore, the letter says, the developers are willing to convey a portion of the land to adjacent home owners to enhance their property values by creating landscape buffers that would separate them from the public areas and the commercial development.

“We have worked tirelessly to create a plan that answers the needs of all residential areas in close proximity to this property,” Bradford wrote. “Our group, with help from the city, has produced a plan that very well could be a model for other projects in Texas with similar geographic issues.”

This story was originally published April 14, 2015 at 5:51 PM with the headline "Developer asking court to intervene on Grand Prairie industrial project."