Monday, March 31, 2014

What Makes GreenVUE Transit-Oriented?

San Antonio development firm Embrey Partners Ltd. has started work on a luxury, transit-oriented multifamily development on Greenville Avenue in Richardson near the DART rail line.
What makes the GreenVUE apartments under construction at Greenville Ave. and Collins Blvd. transit-oriented development? Beats me. Other than maybe because it's somewhat near a DART station. More likely, just because the developer uses the description when plugging it.

After the jump, the GreenVUE impostor.



The gushing story in DBJ talks about residential development (luxury flats with granite counter tops and an 8,500-square-foot clubhouse) but it doesn't talk about commercial development at all. Both are necessary. GreenVUE appears to be a standard 1980s apartment complex with some space that the developer can claim to be retail-ready.

The DBJ story says the development is within walking distance of a DART station, but it doesn't talk about how it's integrated with that DART station. Because it isn't.

Just like the last time we checked in on this GreenVUE development, "transit-oriented" means something different to developers than to people who actually want to live and work in true transit-oriented neighborhoods. Just like developers have a habit of giving developments names like "GreenVUE" even though there is no greenery or view anywhere around, they have a habit of calling any old 1980s apartment complex "transit-oriented" if it's within a half mile of a light rail line.

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