Arlington entertainment district could get more eateries, shops

Developers are eying a prominent gateway into Arlington’s entertainment district for a slew of new restaurants, bars and shops.

Greenway Investment of Dallas is planning a mixed-use development called Champions Park for the northeast corner of Collins Street and Interstate 30.

The first phase is expected to include about 83,000 square feet of restaurant and retail space, and a future second phase would feature either offices and more retail or perhaps a boutique hotel and movie theater with a parking garage and additional restaurants and shops.

“We think the project will work. We think the investment is worth it,” Jay Grogan, Greenway representative, recently told the Arlington Planning and Zoning Commission. “We think it’s a great gateway.”

The Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously recommended approval of Greenway’s planned development request for the 14-acre site earlier this month. The City Council is expected to review the proposal early next year.

Greenway began working with the city on the Champions Park project about a year ago. The heart of the project’s first phase is an outdoor festival area, which developers envision as a community gathering space for holiday activities, concerts and a weekend farmers market.

“You try to create a sense of place, not that people just come to on Cowboys or Rangers event days. They will come once or twice a week if you give them a reason to come,” Grogan said.

Initially, Greenway had sought to develop the second phase with all retail and restaurants as a “last resort” if it could not lure a hotel, offices or a movie theater within a reasonable time frame. However, that option was removed from the planned development after push back from city officials, who said they want to see more valuable uses for one of the last prime undeveloped pieces of entertainment district land.

The city is also in the process of purchasing land at the northwest corner of Interstate 30 from the Texas Department of Transportation and will eventually select a developer to build Class A office space to attract new employers to town.

“The city has been clear for quite a while when we did our entertainment district overlay, we see this [Greenway] property as well as the TXDOT property as signature properties that really need to support a mix of uses, primarily focused around office and entertainment and less on retail,” said Jim Parajon, Community Development and Planning director.

One thing city leaders have sought is new full-service hotels to serve the millions of tourists who come to the sports venues, theme parks and convention center each year.

“We feel very strongly that the entertainment district can support some high-quality hotel construction. We think this site has the potential to do that,” Parajon said. “The city would certainly like to see that happen. We feel there is a demand for that.”

Grogan said that the Greenway would seek a boutique hotel, but previous efforts to attract hotel and movie theater operators weren’t successful. Establishing shops and restaurants and a festival area with high-quality amenities first at Champions Park should help draw the types of businesses the city wants, he added.

“We got well down the road with two major national theater operations. We didn’t have everything next to them that they wanted,” Grogan said. “We talked to some hotel users. We didn’t have a package for them. The market was telling us you can’t do a one-off deal. You are going to have to do something different.”

This story was originally published December 27, 2014 at 4:50 PM with the headline "Arlington entertainment district could get more eateries, shops."