In the spring of 2006, Colorado-based real estate developer Archstone-Smith announced its intentions to raze and rebuild the nearly empty Plaza at Bachman Creek on Northwest Highway, just east of Lemmon Avenue. "We are going to try and create a European town square feeling," Archstone-Smith's Tom Scaling told The Dallas Morning News in April 2006, promising apartments and retail where before there'd been a Bennigan's, Ristorante Bugatti, an Embassy Suites, an office building and numerous empty storefronts. We were reminded of the time of the late, lamented European Crossroads just down the street.
Archstone-Smith said in April 2006 it would begin "moving dirt by this fall," but it took its sweet time getting around to developing the property, which is being rebranded as the Shops at Bluffview. Then the in-laws stayed at the Embassy Suites there this weekend, and we noticed that much of the Plaza's now a pile of rubble, save for Bugatti and the office building.
The Bennigan's has been leveled, and the parking lot's a maze of yellow tape and rock piles. Says here that Archstone-Smith broke ground on May 21 "after deciding on a redevelopment design, and after more than a year of planning," and that the company will "demolish approximately 25,000 square feet of the existing shopping center," making way for a 205,000-square foot development with 181 loft apartments overlooking Bachman Creek, which, yeah, looks like a creek if you squint real hard. Should be done in February 2008, when we can next afford to eat at the surprisingly not-cheap Bugatti.
Speaking of, over the weekend the Kimball High Class of '67 was having its 40th reunion at the Embassy Suites on Northwest Highway. And, man, do they still like to party. And only once at breakfast yesterday did we overhear someone say the name "Stephen Tobolowsky." He was class of '69, incidentally. But we didn't see Belita Moreno. Shame. --Robert Wilonsky
