Planning and Zoning voted 7-0 against the development called Grapevine Village, which would’ve been located near Grapevine Mills mall. Council followed with a 7-0 denial as well.
The background
Managing Director Joel Behrens with Trammell Crow Company presented a plan that would feature a Sandman Signature Hotel, which would feature a Chop Steakhouse and Bar restaurant and 296 multifamily units. There were three total lots, one with a hotel, one with multifamily housing and a third lot that wasn’t presented but plans would be for a second hotel, according to the presentation.
The total land sits on 28.7 acres along Grapevine Mills Boulevard and Grapevine Mills Parkway, along with additional frontage on East Grapevine Mills Circle and Stars and Stripes Way.
“This is the last real commercial tract we have,” Mayor William D. Tate said. “What you are proposing is going to produce very, very little sales tax. The hotel, I could vote for that but I can’t see me voting for anything else. Especially with 150 ugly townhomes to sacrifice all that commercial tract. We need the sales tax in the future.”
The details
The hotel was proposed with six stories high and featured 249 rooms. The restaurant would be 9,451 square feet and seat 222 customers, according to the presentation. There are current Sandman Signature Hotels in Plano and Fort Worth.
In addition, the proposed hotel would have a warming kitchen, banquet space, exercise room and indoor pool.
Explained
Council member Chris Coy quizzed Behrens on the property and if the company looked at other uses on the non-hotel portion of the property.
Behrens said the lot has sat vacant for many years and there is a large demand for housing in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and Grapevine.
Behrens said, if approved, the hotel and townhomes would be constructed at the same time. There was pushback from both council and planning and zoning about both parts of the project.
“Multifamily can have a bad stigma but the demographic to pay this rent on a townhome is about $3,000 a month,” Behrens said. “It is not an inexpensive product.”
Parking concerns for the hotel were brought up since there was no garage parking option. The multifamily portion offered 592 parking spaces, but that included counting garages attached to units.
The housing would vary from two-story to four-story units with roofs similar to nearby multifamily units nearby, Behrens said.
What they're saying
“I have a little different feeling than my colleagues and I will share I’m not anti-multifamily,” Council member Duff O’Dell said. “I think there is certainly a need. Not everyone can afford a home and not everyone wants a house. ... I do think the hotel is key. People want to live close to full-service restaurants and amenities. We don’t want more stand-alone apartments that don’t have something else to enhance the project.”
