The modified plan eliminates 12 residential units previously planned for the 24,000-square-foot Medical and Dental Arts Building, south of Keller Parkway and east of Country Brook Lane.
Insight Managing Partner Joe Petersen said increased demand for commercial uses at the site prompted the developer to remove the medical building's residential component. On the same site, Insight is developing 47 patio and townhomes.
On a separate 3.3-acre site bordered by Rufe Snow Road, Town Center Boulevard and Bear Creek Parkway, Insight is building 22 condominiums, 20 quad units, 12 townhomes and 21,000 square feet of retail space.
Insight's modified plans call for about 60 of the condominiums, townhomes and patio homes to feature a live/work design option, providing an office configuration beneath living quarters.
Live/work homes are configured to allow tenants such as computer technicians, Web designers or attorneys to operate their business at street level while living upstairs. The ground-level businesses will have retail signage and a storefront appearance.
Petersen said customer input gathered by the company via its Uptown Web site guided interior features and overall design of the live/work homes.
"Empty-nesters and commuters are looking for something other than large tracts of land and a three-bedroom house, which is mostly what they find around here," he said. "And more and more people are beginning to work from home."
Petersen said Insight has not yet established pricing for the homes, but the company has collected deposits, reserving all 101 units.
Changing lifestyles
Ted Wilson, a principal with Residential Strategies, said the rising prices of single-family detached homes and scarcity of developable land in the area also will drive potential buyers to developments like Uptown and the developing Arthouse project.
"The town is becoming much more mature, so much that you've got the densities to support the retail," Wilson said. "Along with that comes the desire for a little bit of a different lifestyle that is more affordable. And there's a certain segment of the population that doesn't want to make that big commute every day."
Meanwhile, Tenn.-based Southern Land Co. is preparing to add site utilities and pour foundations for the Arthouse at Keller Town Center, a 240,000-square-foot, mixed-use village.
Jim Cheney, Southern Land Co. spokesman, said the project will be completed in May of 2007.
Both projects will bring a total of 288 new residential units to the 368-acre Keller Town Center, which is known for its marriage of green space and neighborhood-oriented retail.
"Keller Town Center is evolving -- becoming the place neighbors go to meet neighbors," Petersen said. The Keller model, in that aspect, differs somewhat from other local retail-heavy town center developments like Southlake Town Square, he said.
Home Town North Richland Hills, a nearby, residentially charged new urbanist development, will have mixed retail/residential units on the ground soon.
"The residents of Home Town, the single-family detached residents, have been looking forward to this phase for a long time, as it sort of completes the picture of what we're trying to do," said Dan Quinto, manager of the Home Town project.
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