As rental prices soar some North Texas developers are thinking small, really small
The Bloc House rental project planned near Carroll and Columbia avenues east of Deep Ellum will feature 350 square foot ‘micro’ apartments in an effort to keep rent prices down.
Imagine living in a 350-square-foot pad just minutes away from downtown Dallas.
“Yeah, people get a little bit of sticker shock when they hear 350 square feet,” Alex Lowe said. Lowe works with the Dallas-based real estate company, Madison Partners.
Madison Partners recently purchased a 1.3-acre lot on the corner of Carroll Ave and Willow Street that will be home to the micro-unit community, The Bloc House.
"We have lots of wonderful partners that we're working with on the design to make sure that the space is well designed, that people can get as efficient as possible with how they're utilizing the space.”
The 70-plus unit property will offer two-bedroom options and some of the micro-studio units will be fully furnished with a wall bed.
“One of the key components of that design is our partnership with Ori Living, which is a modular furniture company out of New York," Lowe said. "Because of that, at first it sounds like 350 square feet, but more effectively, it's around 440 square feet with how to spot the spaces multifaceted."
Lowe and Jon Hetzel are thinking small to meet the demand following the wave of growth the City of Dallas has seen in the last few years.
“We're focused on what's called the missing middle, which is the space between single-family homes and large multifamily building,” Lowe said.
They received the green light from the City Plan Commission with a unanimous zoning approval in January.
