Developer John Terrell and the Westlake-based Carillon Crown real estate development company posted a social media video to celebrate the first road poured and finished. During the first week of April, fire hydrants were installed along roads in the housing portion of the project. That marked the progress for a development that has seen five different owners and changes to the plan.
“It’s really been kind of top of mind for me to get this project done for the homeowners and residents in that neighborhood,” Southlake's Mayor-Elect Shawn McCaskill said.
The backstory
The scope of the project has changed since it was approved on Nov. 18, 2008. At the time, Hines, a development company, had 285 acres and planned to have more than 1 million square feet of retail and office space, and no more than 404 homes, according to city documents.
The project under construction has been pared down to 42.5 acres, but it will still offer restaurants, curated shopping, a hotel, residences and office spaces centered around a park area, Terrell said. He was on Southlake City Council when it was originally approved, serving from 2004-09, and then was mayor from 2009-15.
The estimated cost of the project is more than $400 million, and city officials expect it will include up to $450 million in taxable value for Southlake, according to city documents. Houses will range from $1.5 million to $2.5 million and will look similar to the other homes in the adjacent Carillon neighborhood. All 79 lots have been sold to five different homebuilders, Terrell said.
- 26.7 acres of public park land
- 15.8 acres of retail/housing
- 79 houses
- 1,200 projected jobs
- 50 condos
- 565,600 square feet of retail/office space
The Carillon Parc development has featured a number of changes since its inception.
- 2008: Council approves project owned by Hines Development
- 2009-15: Recession delays followed
- 2015: Project updates approved by council; land sold by Hines
- 2017: Property sale to Hunter Chase Development announced
- 2019: New project updated, approved by council
- 2022: Carillon Crown purchases property
- 2023: Groundbreaking for Carillon Parc held
- 2024: Phase I starts with housing, restaurants, streets, infrastructure installed
- 2024-25: Retail construction to start with Phase II
- 2025-26: Completion of 79 houses expected
- 2027: Hotel, office building construction to start with Phase III
- 2028: Expected completion of full Carillon Parc development
Terrell said focal points of this development will be the four chef-driven restaurants and water fountain.
He said there are ongoing meetings with various restaurants owners that have expressed interest in coming to the development.
“The programming of the restaurants is incredibly important,” Terrell said. “This is not a place for a first-time restaurant. These need to be places that are established with great chefs.”
Terrell said possible restaurant options include:
- A steakhouse
- Italian
- Mediterranean
- Sushi
“We intend to have the water feature programmed to truly become an experience in and of itself,” Terrell said. “People are going to want to [be] dining where they can see that.”
What else?
A new location for the Southlake Library was part of the development until 2022. City officials said there are no plans for moving the library, which has been in the basement of the city hall building since 2001.
“Most of your successful mixed-use developments have a public-private partnership in which there are also city facilities located there,” Terrell said.
In 2021, the Southlake Library Task Force allowed public comment, and 57% of the 296 respondents wanted the library in Carillon Parc.
Carillon Parc resident MaryLee Alford said she’s disappointed the library was pulled from the plan.
“They did a lot of research and came back with the recommendation that the library should be built there and then for some reason changed their mind,” Alford said.
Terrell said he would like for the city to reconsider moving the library there.
What’s next
Phase I of the development will include construction of two retail buildings, four restaurants, and a mixed-use structure with retail space and 50 condos above them, starting in late 2024, Terrell said.
“I’m thrilled, just thrilled it is happening,” Alford said. “It’s about time, and it’s way overdue.”
Terrell expects construction of the houses to start this summer and finish within 18 months. Later in 2024, retail construction will commence with a window to be done within two years.
Phase II, which includes a hotel and a chapel, could start after that.
“Having helped set a vision of what this site and the rest of the city would be like [and] having partners that can implement this vision that will last, it’s a generational-type legacy project,” Terrell said. “I think it will be a crown jewel of the city.”
