PHASE I OF 1.15 MILLION SF WATTERS CREEK
DEVELOPMENT COMPLETE; WILL BE FIRST LARGE MIXED-USE PROJECT IN TEXAS
TO BE LEED-CERTIFIED
Developers designed
Watters Creek at Montgomery Farm in Allen, Texas, according to “What
Women Want;”
Project includes
specialty retail, office space, outdoor dining, a hotel, residential
units, green space, public art, outdoor plazas and
water features
ALLEN, Texas,
October 27, 2008
– Phase 1 of Watters Creek at Montgomery Farm, a 1.15
million-square-foot mixed-use development located 30 minutes north
of Dallas in Allen, Texas, is complete and open-to-the-public.
Watters Creek serves as the town center for the 500-acre
master-planned Montgomery Farm residential community, currently
under construction. The 52-acre project is pursuing Leadership in
Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification, and, once
awarded, will be the largest LEED-certified mixed-use development in
Texas.
Currently, it encompasses 620,000 square feet, including 230 urban
multifamily residential units, 90,000 square feet of office space,
and 300,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, 10 of which
have outdoor seating with views of the project’s natural landscape.
Future phases of the mixed-use development will include
additional residential, retail, restaurant, office space and a
lifestyle hotel.
Targeting upscale women ages 25-55, Watters Creek developer
Trademark Property Company conducted female focus groups prior to
developing the center to find out “what women want” in a shopping
experience. In the end, Trademark executives realized that instead
of looking at buildings and facades, women shoppers wanted to be
“revitalized and inspired, with something that would also invoke a
sense of discovery and whimsy,” said Terry Montesi, Trademark’s CEO.
“They said, ‘Transport us to somewhere else.’” The project team
listened, and designed Watters Creek accordingly, in large part by
taking full advantage of the existing topography and native
landscape.
For
example, TBG Partners, the project’s site planner and landscape
architect, integrated and leveraged an adjacent flood plain into the
design and amenities of Watters Creek, leading to the addition of a
nature walk, bike trail connections and a sandstone-lined
pond/creek/pedestrian green corridor, which serves as the
development’s central focus. A town green and natural amphitheatre
sits below an overlook at the creek’s edge, and across the creek
from the stage is the “village green,” a large sloping lawn area
that serves as both a place for people to sit while watching
performances and also as a community gathering area for the entire
Montgomery Farm community. Large native rocks and boulders sit in
the lawn and creek’s edge for people to sit on.
TBG also
designed a central plaza that runs parallel to the village green and
across from a tall, overflowing pot fountain, which further
emphasizes pedestrian connectivity. Existing large trees were
preserved and anchor both the village green area and an upper pond
environment, which is surrounded by a series of restaurant patios.
The development also incorporated natural and built shaded areas to
increase the comfort of visitors and reduce the energy required to
cool the buildings during hot Texas weather. Further, more than 600
native trees as well as native wildflowers and grasses planted along
the development’s streets beautify the landscape, conserve water and
require reduced maintenance.
In
addition to incorporating native landscape into the Watters Creek
design, other sustainable or “green” elements that contribute to the
project’s LEED certification include increased insulation in walls
and ceilings, reflective rooftop systems, the use of recycled and
local building materials, and a recycling program for construction
and tenants both during and after construction.
Fort
Worth-based Trademark Property Company is developing the property as
a joint venture with Coventry Real Estate Advisors, Developers
Diversified Reality Corporation and Southern Land. Other project
team members include Meacham & Apel Architects as the architect of
record; TBG Partners and DDG as the landscape and planning
architects; Field Paoli as the design architect; Bury + Partners as
the civil engineer; and Linbeck as the general contractor.
About TBG
As Texas’ largest landscape architecture
and planning firm, TBG designs mixed-use and residential
communities, corporate campuses, civic buildings, hotels, resorts,
healthcare and educational facilities, city parks and historic
sites. With 29 LEED Accredited Professionals on staff, TBG works to
incorporate sustainable design principles into each project.
Established in 1987, TBG is now staffed by more than 130
professionals in Austin, Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston and San
Antonio. For more information, please visit
www.tbg-inc.com.
About Watters Creek at Montgomery Farm
Watters Creek will serve as the town
center for the 500-acre master-planned Montgomery Farm community,
currently under construction. Located at the southwest corner of
US-75 (Central Expressway) and Bethany Drive in Allen, Texas, the
development has one half mile of frontage along US-75 and is visible
to more than 180,000 cars per day. To learn more about Montgomery
Farm, visit
www.montgomeryfarm.com.
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