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The northeast corner of the North Dallas Tollway and Arapaho Road is a parking-lot wasteland, thanks, in large part, to that abandoned OfficeMax. For going on two years, Rosebud Properties has been trying to redevelop the land; there was a proposal before the City Plan Commission in April 2008 that had it going mixed-use: 400 apartments, combined with 50,000 square feet of retail, office and commercial space, but the CPC denied the application in June '08. And, at one point, there had been talk of Best Buy taking over that intersection, till the economy stalled and the development tanked.
But when I saw it back on the plan commission's agenda for Thursday, I thought maybe Rosebud had a new plan in place. Not so much, says president and CEO Don Farris. The new proposal is more vague than its predecessor: "The applicant proposes to construct a mixed use development that only allow multifamily uses when the residential component is part of the overall mixed use development."
That, says Farris, is to he can "get the highest and best use out of the property and forge on when and if it can be developed." In other words, don't expect anything there for a long while; this is just housekeeping, and he hopes the plan commission OK's the latest proposal: "The highest and best use for the city is better than what's there now."
And, yes, the plan commission will also discuss the latest proposal to rename a street for César Chávez.
