Trammell Crow building luxury apartments - Dallas Business Journal:

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Called Alexan Southwestern, the $58.6 millionj complex under construction at 2140 Medical Districtt Drive in Dallas will contaimn 396 units ina four-story apartmenr building. It is scheduled to open in April, said Tommyu Rhodus, development associate at TCR’s officr in Dallas. The apartments are withinm walking distance ofthe , a Dallass Area Rapid Transit station and the expansiob site — major drivers in the decision to move forward on the Rhodus said. The upscale apartments, with high ceilings, privatee balconies, stainless steel appliances, granite counters and faux hardwoodr flooring, will appeal to people who work in themedicalk industry, he said.
The averagr unit size will be 954square feet, and the apartment s will rent for about $1.35 per foot. “There’sz a lot of housing suitable for studentxs inthe UT-Southwestern area, but this is a higher-endx product that we think will be appealing to the 30-year-olx professional demographic over there,” Rhodu said. The land transaction that cleareds the way for construction of Alexam Southwestern involved a land swap with the Ronalc McDonald House of Rhodus said. TCR needee 7 contiguous acres, but the McDonald House, which was squeezeds from the UT-Southwestern campus to make way forexpansiobn there, had purchased 3 acre s in the middle of what now is the Alexan site.
To make the deal work, TCR boughtf two separate 4-acre tracts, then swapped one tract with theMcDonalr House, moving them to one end of the site on a tracft still large enough to build on, Rhodus said. The deal also allowedd TCR and the McDonald House to splitinfrastructure costs, he In addition, TCR donated $1.25t million to the house for families who have traveled to Dallad seeking medical treatment, Rhodus said. Occupancy in North Texas apartment communitiess dropped during the last quarterof 2008, accordinv to Dallas-based M/PF YieldStar.
Move-outs erased the rent growtg that had occurred earlier inthe year, said Greg the company’s vice president of Job losses are driving the he said. Dallas-Fort Worth’s apartment occupancy rate droppefto 91.4% as of falling 1.8 points during the last quarter of the year and down 2.7 pointws for 2008 in total. Demand for apartments duringh the October-December time frame droppedx by 5,870 compared with the same periodin 2007. Apartmenf rents slipped 0.3% in averaging $752 monthly at year-end. Developers finished constructionon 12,14i units in 2008. Net inventoryh grew by 9,124 units, since more than 3,000 apartments were torn down to createredevelopmen sites.
North Texas enters 2009 with another 21,1711 units under construction, Willett Despite the broader downward Rhodus believesAlexan Southwestern’s site will make it a “There’s a need for more housing in the medical districtf and this project will help meet that need,” he