Month: July 2016

Southern Land Co. has provided some new renderings of their project in the Knox neighborhood scheduled to begin construction at any time.  Demolition has been completed for several weeks and the construction fence is up.  Zoning changes were approved about a year ago and GDA Architects has designed the building.

This 18 story luxury apartment building will feature approximately 300 units with larger floor plans averaging around 1100 sq feet.  The building will also feature standard amenities like a pool deck, fitness facility, community lounges and dog friendly facilities.  One unique feature of this property is the green space that it will create in the place of a parking lot fronting McKinney Ave, a welcome change.

This building is especially interesting because of its large scale.  I think the neighborhood would be well served by a wall of high-rise buildings facing the expressway.  Southern Land Co. is headquartered in Tennessee, but they have set up a local office right here in the neighborhood on the 8th floor of the Highland Park Place tower.  I’d like to think it comes from a genuine interest in knowing the neighborhood and being present to oversee the construction.

http://southernland.com/portfolio/knox/

The space formerly occupied by Chili’s (and before that the Knox Street Pub) is being subdivided for restaurant and retail space.  A close look at this building shows the potential for smaller shops to open in this space.  Most exciting is the oyster bar concept to open next May.   The people who developed the highly successful, le Bilboquet, are planning this more casual oyster bar concept, and I expect it will quickly become a neighborhood favorite.

I expect that the remaining two spaces created will house apparel retailers, but they are yet to be announced.  Although Chili’s served the neighborhood well, I think that the change was the right move as Sarofim continues to upgrade the retail mix of the area.  In the history of Knox Street, Chili’s wasn’t the preferred tenant for that space, but it was added to help attract Pottery Barn to lease space.  Anyway, we are very excited to see the space be transformed and to see the Knox Street retail mix continue to evolve.