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 the luxury Gables McKinney Ave apartments, which are just upstairs from Whole Foods. 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 coffee and smoothie bar will be open from 7am to 10pm daily featuring exotic coffees and smoothies prepared with locally grown fruits and veggies.
The Whole Foods has an array of local and regional products, including canned beer from Deep Ellum Brewery. 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.
A wide array of animal care products are available. All are vetted (pun intended) for all-natural ingredients.
There's more than 200 ready-to-eat options daily from sushi to pizza, sandwiches and tacos. There's a digital ordering kiosk, a deli, and a smokehouse bar featuring in-store smoked meats. There are also butchers and fishmongers who will cut, season, steam, filet or portion items to order while you’re shopping. There's also a sushi bar.
There's 24 taps in the Taproom featuring 19 local and craft beer taps, four wine taps and one local bourbon barrel-aged cold brew coffee tap. You can load up your growlers with beer or wine.
A fun feature in the Taproom is the Beer It Forward board. You can buy a brew for your buddy, write his info down on the board and he can claim his brewski when he comes in later. The bartenders will have the deets, but rumor is you can Instagram it to your pal, too.
There are seven checkout counters and, of course, reusable grocery bags you can buy.
The wood used throughout the store (including this patio furniture) is a combination of reclaimed trees from the construction site as well as reclaimed wood from throughout Central Texas. There are three TVs on the patio and three inside the bar. Pictured is the upstairs mezzanine level outdoor seating with a view of McKinney Avenue (with misting fans for these hot August days). There's also indoor seating upstairs, as well.
The street-level patio also has misting fans, as well as bike racks nearby.
There are multiple bike racks and a bike repair station as well as an electric car charging station. Plus, additional picnic tables around the entrance.
The Austin-based Whole Foods Market likes to give back to the community. The first five Wednesdays the Uptown store is open will be Community Giving Days with 1% of net sales going to local nonprofits, including McKinney Avenue Transit Authority (Aug. 12), Uptown Dallas Inc (Aug. 19), Alzheimer's Association (Aug. 26), Theater 3 (Sept. 2) and Pets Alive (Sept. 9).
The 239-unit apartment and townhome community offers three district outdoor amenity areas with a fire pit and outdoor kitchen, a rooftop deck and townhome courtyard, elevated infinity pool with pool deck and private cabanas (rendered here), dog park, dog run and dog grooming stations, complimentary coffee bar, game area, billiards rooms and movie lounge, fitness club, on-demand fitness classes, bike storage, a private conference room and dining area.
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.
About half of the project is located in the historic district, so the town homes are designed like Queen Anne Victorian brownstones. They’re ground up new construction, but fitting with the neighborhood. Each of the 17 town homes feature private garages and 2,200 SF. These residents will also have their own private outdoor entertainment space.
Even the smallest apartment units can have a dream view (minus the construction crane.)
Katy tells us the project features an old meets new design. The modern finishes are offset by design features that soften the modern feel with exposed brick walls.
A feature in all of the units is floor-to-ceiling glass walls. This corner unit's patio will include landscaping and an outdoor fire pit. 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.
Dogs are welcome at Gables McKinney Ave, which is owned, managed and developed by Gables Residential.
With its location above Whole Foods, Gables McKinney Ave earns a score of 92 out of 100 on the Walk Score scale for walkable places to live.
The project is next to a stop for the M-Line Trolley.
Just catty-corner from the project construction is underway on the $70M 20-story One Uptown project at McKinney Avenue and Routh Street. It's being developed by USA Infrastructure Investments and Stoneleigh Cos. The 198-unit luxury apartment project (with a 475-car underground garage and 18k SF of retail and restaurant space) should be ready by May ’16.
