Sunrise Cuts New Path With Dallas Project

A spokesman for Sunrise Senior Living tells GlobeSt.com that a comparable project is planned for Fox Hill in Bethesda, MD as the operator makes a hard push to develop condos tailored to seniors. The "for sale" product for the 60-and-over crowd is aimed at breaking the industry's glass ceiling of lifestyle options. According to Sunrise's spokesman, the as-yet unnamed project will rise on 1.5 acres at 3511 N. Hall St.--setting up the first equity play in a seniors community in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex.

"Seniors today are seeking ways to build equity in real estate, but shed the burdens of maintaining a home," Paul Klaassen, Sunrise's chairman and CEO, says in a press release. The Turtle Creek condos will be one-, two- and three-bedroom designs with sale tags of $300,000 to $1 million, the spokesman says. The unit sizes are still being determined for a 23-story building, which is still on the drawing board of Perkins Eastman Architects of Pittsburgh. The cost of the project, which recently got a green light from Dallas City Council, will be determined when the design is done, he says.

In the coming weeks, a trailer will go onto the site as the marketing and sales center. The 350,000-sf project will break ground by year's end, with delivery penciled for 2008.

Sunrise's tract is nestled into one of the city's most prestigious pockets of entertainment, shopping and restaurants and high-end residential units. The Sunrise project will include fine and casual dining venues, fitness facility, indoor pool and spa services. Assisted living services will be available on a limited basis, the spokesman says.

Sunrise, which has two traditional seniors developments under way in the region, inherited a couple comparable infill assets in 2003 when it bought Marriott Senior Living Services. But, the spokesman says, "this will be one of the first to be developed and built by Sunrise."