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Hunter Chase Development and Construction closed on the property designated for Carillon Parc on Friday, beginning the process that will leave Southlake with a new center full of shopping and dining options as well as a park, library and some residential opportunities.
“This is a unique project as opposed to, like, Southlake Town Square,” Edward Chu, the senior managing director at Hunter Chase, says. “It’s very much experiential, it’s very much an incubator space, so we really anticipate having a lot of people who either have a concept that they’ve done previously or potentially a new concept.”
After closing on the property, Hunter Chase will now finalize construction documents and meet with engineers and architects.
“My guess is that we’ll probably break ground around July of next year,” John Terrell, former Southlake mayor and a developer of the project, says. “That’s probably for the initial infrastructure — which is going to be putting in all the utilities, doing the mass grading, doing the roadways — that’s probably going to take us probably about a year.”
Terrell says that it will probably be around three to four years of construction until Carillon Parc is completely finished. Despite the length of construction, Terrell says Southlake citizens are very excited about this project.
“Everyone’s excited,” Terrell says. “As a matter of fact, we haven’t heard from a single naysayer. Not one. And in my entire time over 19 years of serving in the city of Southlake, I have never seen a project that didn’t have anybody in opposition. So we’re thrilled that we’re able to bring something that is so supported by the community.”
Though it may seem like work is just beginning on this project, Terrell says they’ve been preparing for this project for the last two years.
“It’s not like we’re buying the property and then starting on all this investigation,” Terrell says. “We’ve already done pricing for the entire development through our contractors. We’ve got a lot of the architectural renderings done. We’ve got even marketing programs that we’ve been looking at.”
Terrell says there has been a lot going on in the last two years; they’ve just had to remain pretty quiet about it until they got the property locked down.
Part of the work they’ve done is creating a new concept plan for Carillon Parc which, while very similar to the 2018 concept plan, includes enhancements to elements of the property such as the office space, hotel and park.
“What we’ve done is some significant upgrades to the entire [property],” Terrell says. “That was actually one of the benefits to the delay is we’ve been able to refine the vision, do things that are even better than what we talked about before; [it] gave us the time to be creative and work with our other consultants and see some new things that we wanted to incorporate into the [property], so I think we’re going to have a better product at the end of the day due to the delay and time,which is great.”
Terrell says while the dollars Carillon Parc will bring to Southlake is significant, it will also help with tourism for the city.
“It will give a new awareness of the city of Southlake to people much further away than they are now and help increase tourism, spending in the community — not just at our site but in all the others,” Terrell says. “We think we’re going to be very complementary. When someone comes in to visit us, I seriously doubt they’d drive 150 miles and not also come into Town Square.”
Terrell says he thinks Carillon Parc will be a big draw of Southlake once it’s completed.
“We’re going to create an experience that even Town Square hasn’t provided previously,” Terrell says. “Town Square: I have nothing bad to say, it has been the lifeblood for the city for many, many years. And we want to be that next greatest thing that is going to attract and take advantage of the changing consumer mentality that currently exists.”
Carillon Parc will provide an experience for people, Terrell says.
“There are so many folks looking for the experience, not to just walk into a store and buy something. They’re looking for a lot more,” Terrell says. “And we want to provide that.”