Developer Hillwood plans to bring an urban flavor to its AllianceTexas project in North Fort Worth.
The builder of Alliance Airport and Dallas’ Victory project plans to break ground later this year on a 130-acre mixed-use community on Interstate 35W. Called Monterra, the project will contain apartments, townhouses, shops and office space connected by pedestrian trails and parks.
“We are going to turn suburban sprawl into a little bit of an urban lifestyle,” said Mike Berry, president of Hillwood Properties. “We are now more than what people think about us as just a big industrial trade center.
“We have a demand that is building for more diverse, quality housing.”
Work will start on the first 288 apartments in the coming months. The apartments will rent for more than $1 per square foot a month.
“From a business standpoint, this is a diversification strategy for Hillwood,” Mr. Berry said. “It gets us into a new product line.
“We have zoning for 4,800 units [of multifamily housing] that runs throughout the whole Alliance development,” he said. “It’s important that we take advantage of that market opportunity.”
More than 1,000 homes are planned in Monterra, which is at North Tarrant Parkway and I-35W. The development will be near the planned HCA medical campus and the new Alliance Town Center shopping complex.
About half of the Monterra development will be set aside for nature trails, waterways, landscaped areas and fields for longhorn cattle and bison.
Almost 24,000 people work in the 17,000-acre AllianceTexas Development.
And while Hillwood has created neighborhoods for more than 5,000 single-family homes, this is the project’s first rental home community.