Nation’s biggest developer pursues mixed-use centers

Three years ago, Trammell Crow, the Dallas-based company that calls itself America’s largest commercial developer, organized a wholly owned subsidiary, High Street Residential, with the aim of pursuing mixed-use projects, transit-oriented development (TOD), urban infill, adaptive reuse, and in general a new urban form of community-building. The potential for this kind of development “is huge,” declares Art Lomenick, president of High Street Residential and a managing director of the parent company. “It’s still in its infancy.” Lomenick, a member of the CNU board for the past six years, says High Street Residential has “about $400 million of mixed-use development under way.” Residential makes up a large proportion of the work, but also included are retail, new uses for historic buildings (such as the Columbia Hospital for Women, in Washington, DC), and civic and cultural offerings, as in Shirlington Village in Arlington, Virginia, where a library and a performing arts center are part of the package. “The market for human-scale, walkable developments with engaging environments has not remotely been met,” Lomenick says. High Street’s TOD projects include two developments at MARTA stations in Atlanta and two at transit stations in Denver. A big company like Trammell Crow has the advantage of being able to work with a variety of capital sources and municipalities, Lomenick says. He notes that because such projects take so much time and require many elements before they can be successful, local governments have to take the lead in getting the projects going. In particular, he says, municipalities must plan “high-quality public spaces,” including “the fine grain of streets, wider sidewalks, street trees, street furniture, pocket parks, underground utilities, and maintenance.” This necessitates “a huge shift in how municipal budgets are crafted,” Lomenick says, but “some municipalities have absolutely done it, and they are the ones that will win.”