I will tell you this: Joel Behrens of Trammell Crow seems like a nice, earnest young man of 34 who was sweating up a storm last night as he was the anointed. Anointed, that is, to present Trammell Crow’s case for a super-size Sam’s Wholesale Club to the venerable Oak Lawn Committee, the original protectors of the Oak Lawn PD 193, which guides and watchdogs Oak Lawn development. The OLD fosters rows of trees, small streets, maintains the personality of Oak Lawn. The OLC is likely one of the reasons why Oak lawn is still one of the hottest neighborhoods and tax revenue producing areas in Dallas. The proposed Sam’s Club is to be located across Central, next to Cityplace, and not in Oak Lawn.
As someone mused last night: does the Cityplace neighborhood, christened East Village, have an Oak Lawn Committee? Sadly, no.
Joel, who is from Wisconsin, and raised on a farm, was about as earnest as a young man could be. If he was my son, I would be very proud of the way he presented. He was there, he said, for PR because Trammell Crow had been blindsided by the negative reaction they received to the proposed big box warehouse store. They had been totally transparent, he said, in everything from meetings with Pauline Medrano, then City Councilwoman, to the proposal plan. There were two voluntary public meetings in 2013. He explained that this was the Trammell Crow company that had been purchased by and was a wholly owned subsidiary of CBRE, but was the Trammell Crow that had been a fixture of Dallas since 1948.
“I’m 34,” said Joel, “and I plan to work in Dallas for a long time.”
He said the feedback initially was that people liked the Sam’s Club plan. But then, it blew up.
“This wasn’t pre-meditated, we were very transparent,” said Joel. “That’s the only way to get deals done in this town.”
But ever since Steve Brown’s press release first report on the coming Sam’s Club May 19, Trammell Crow Company has been accused of bait and switch and called liars, he said. There has been tons of speculation.
“We’re clean: we were honest and we shared the plan,” said Joel. “We are NOT looking to deviate from it.”
Trammell Crow is planning some landscape etc. to alleviate concerns, and they are open to talk about — well, talk about the project, I guess, but:
“We’re not going to fight in the press,” said Joel.
At the suggestion of Councilman Medrano (Adam), Trammell Crow has had a community meeting or two within the last few days to which about 50 people showed up, most supportive of the new Sam’s Club. Someone on the TLC asked for a list of names.
Then the committee got to ask questions. I’m so glad someone asked if they could switch it to a Costco instead of a Sam’s Club. (Costco, are you listening?) Costco wouldn’t pay up. Sigh. Guess it takes money to pay their (more highly paid than Sam’s Club, allegedly) employees. Frank Stich said he welcomed the club and thought it would do well. I’ve heard this from others who believe it will be highly utilized by small business owners in the area. Word is this could be one of the most profitable Sam’s Clubs in the country. The NEARBY Sam’s at Medallion Center is packed. And it is perfectly walkable.
“If people want to walk to Sam’s, they can walk,” said Frank.
(Envisioning the new super expandable backpack Sam’s Club can market so walkers can balance a ten pack of TP, paper towels and a giant Tide detergent jug in one trip. Oh and a slice of pizza.)
Brenda Marks started to zero in on the traffic study, ingress and egress. She is concerned that northbound traffic has to take Capitol to Carroll to Haskell to get onto Central, and that was going to put a lot of extra cars in a residential neighborhood, not to mention huge delivery trucks.
(Having a thought about what the ruckus would be if this was taking place Behind the Pink Wall instead of in East Dallas. Oh man, mental earmuffs!)
Then someone from Trammell Crow said the traffic study was waived, but I’m not sure about that. Sure it was said, not sure of the context. Will follow up on that, for sure.
It was a short meeting, very civil, and everyone who was not behind the club agreed to disagree and be nice. Demolition on the site begins today. But I got the definite feeling this was a done deal, that Trammell Crow was surprised by the backlash, but they are willing to go to the drawing board and make landscaping/visual/aesthetic changes to please.
To be continued…
