First Look: Gables McKinney Ave & Whole Foods Uptown

The wait is almost over: Uptown's first grocer opens its doors on Wednesday and Bisnow got a behind-the-scenes tour of the 44k SF Whole Foods Market. We also took a hard-hat tour of Gables Residential's luxury Gables McKinney Ave apartments, which are just upstairs from Whole Foods, on the day the on-site leasing office opened. Come with us.

Whole Foods Market, at McKinney and Routh in Uptown, opens its doors at 7am on Wednesday. Shoppers can hop off the M-Line vintage trolley just across the street or use the underground parking, with an entrance off Fairmount. The elevators can accommodate three shopping carts (and their shoppers). With this location, Whole Foods is the only grocer in DFW in a mixed-use development with residences and the only Whole Foods in the Southwest in a residential development.

The Whole Foods has seven checkouts and an array of local and regional products from canned beer from Deep Ellum Brewing Co to a smoothie bar with locally grown produce. There’s an in-store smokehouse as well as butchers and fishmongers who will cut, season, steam, filet or portion items to order while you’re shopping. A yummy store feature that is exclusive to the Uptown Whole Foods location is the fill-your-own cupcakes. You can pick a base cake flavor of vanilla, chocolate or carrot cake. Then, your imagination can run wild with a variety of exotic fillings. Employees core out the inside and inject your cupcakes with flavors from chocolate ganache to berries soaked in raspberry simple syrup reduction.

Gables development director Katy Slade showed off the on-site Gables McKinney Ave leasing office, which just opened on Friday. Previously, the staff was working out of the Hotel Zaza. Pre-leasing is about 17%, which is on target, Katy tells us. The first residents move in later this month and deliveries are phased in over the next six months. The upscale apartments feature three floors of underground parking for the residents (separate from the Whole Foods parking). There are 222 apartment homes with 25 floor plans ranging from 545 SF to 1,459 SF, along with 17 townhomes featuring private garages and 2,200 SF. 

Katy tells us the project features an old meets new design. The apartment units include modern features like white quartz countertops, stainless steel appliances, Bluetooth-equipped speakers and a wine refrigerator. The look is offset by design features that soften the modern feel with exposed brick walls. Katy tells us about half of the project is in the historic district, so the townhomes are designed like Queen Anne Victorian brownstones. They’re ground-up new construction, but fitting with the neighborhood. Check out our slideshow for more behind-the-scenes photos and info by clicking here.