Developers Eyeing Dallas’ 50-Mile Trails Loop For Uptown-Like Opportunities

The Katy Trail borders some of Dallas’ premier real estate, but a new project aims to bring that prestige to areas outside of Uptown.

The popularity of the trail, a 3.5-mile hike-and-bike path that runs through the heart of Uptown Dallas, has driven property values in the area through the roof over the past 25 years. Local nonprofit The Loop Dallas is spearheading 11 miles of new paths that will connect existing trails to form a 50-mile continuous circuit throughout the city.

Developers like Trammell Crow Co. are already building huge projects along the trail and watching The Loop development for future opportunities. 

“The city just becomes stronger, healthier, better because of these amenities that we’re adding,” Trammell Crow DFW Market Leader Joel Behrens said. “And that’s what excites me about The Loop … that will attract development, growth and be a major draw for residents and tourism.”

Barrett Linburg, co-CEO of Dallas-based multifamily firm Savoy Cos., said he believes The Loop will bring higher demand for existing space, increased property values and new development to other parts of the metro. That’s what happened in Atlanta along its Beltline trails loop, where Class-A office rents are 75% higher than the rest of the metro.

The walkability of the Katy Trail and The Loop project is an outlier for a metro like Dallas-Fort Worth that was built around traveling by car, Linburg said. 

“We’re still going to be a car-centric city, but these features help give a walkable feel to certain parts of the city because of this new stuff that we’re adding,” he said. “There becomes a premium to the real estate that’s near it, and you start to see more development near that.”

Planning For Development

Dallas approved $16M in funding in May for The Loop project, which will connect the Katy Trail, Skyline Trail, Trinity Forest Spine Trail and more into a triangular circuit that will allow direct access from Uptown to South Dallas to White Rock Lake. The nonprofit overseeing the project has spent more than $86M over the past several years to help create the trail connections.

As more residents move near the interconnected loop, Linburg predicted that developers will follow with projects like Trammell Crow’s $1B Knox Street mixed-use development. 

The 1M SF project from Trammell Crow, BDT & MSD Partners, The Retail Connection and Gillon Property Group in the Knox Street district is being built adjacent to the Katy Trail. It will feature more than 100K SF of street-level retail and restaurants, a 27-story luxury multifamily building, 150K SF of Class-A office space and the market debut of an Auberge Resorts Collection hotel.

Behrens said there were already many tailwinds in the Knox Street neighborhood when Trammell Crow bought the property, and those winds have only increased over time.

“We wouldn’t have done that anywhere along the trail,” Behrens said of the Knox Street project. “We did it there because it was already very, very successful.”

In addition to mixed-use, Linburg said anything that involves density will work along the trail system, including hotels, retail, apartments and single-family residential.

However, that kind of development isn’t going to happen overnight in areas along The Loop. 

“Many people are bad at … thinking in weeks and months rather than in decades,” Linburg said of development along The Loop. “This is the kind of project that makes a difference over decades.”

Growth Along Trails

An economic impact analysis of the Atlanta Beltline project found that it has driven $14.2B in private investment and attracted around 26,000 residents over the last 15 years. The analysis also reported that the Atlanta Beltline generated $23B in economic output for the city last year.

Linburg said that’s what could happen along The Loop in Dallas. 

The nonprofit Friends of the Katy Trail estimated the Katy Trail’s economic impact on the city at more than $2B over the last decade. 

Property values of projects old and new along the Katy Trail have steadily increased for years, according to data from the Dallas Central Appraisal District. 

The value of the West Village mixed-use development on the trail has grown by nearly 55% over the last 20 years, while the Marriott Dallas Uptown hotel’s value jumped more than 76% since it was delivered in 2021.

These paths for pedestrians and cyclists have become big business throughout the metro, as developers increasingly look for opportunities to add trail connections to their projects. Developments ranging from Hillwood‘s Lantern master-planned community in Pilot Point to VanTrust Real Estate’s new industrial park in McKinney have touted their projects’ trail connections this year. 

Trails have played a significant role in landscape architect TBG Partners‘ work with developers on master-planned community projects like the under-development Ramble with Hillwood. 

The firm also helped design and develop the Loop Plaza pedestrian and bicycle bridge in the Victory Park neighborhood. Loop Plaza will connect the Katy Trail to the new Hi Line Connector that will be part of the eventual 50-mile loop. 

“We believe trails are more than connections,” TBG Partners Managing Principal Seth Atwell told Bisnow. “Projects like the Loop Plaza exemplify our commitment to creating regional connectivity and high-impact spaces that will serve our communities for generations.” 

Trammell Crow also has a history of projects with direct connections to trails and parks. 

Its residential arm developed the 900K SF Park District mixed-use development next to Klyde Warren Park, and the firm is working on a multifamily addition to the Mockingbird Station transit-oriented development near Southern Methodist University that will be along The Loop.

Behrens wouldn’t say whether Trammell Crow is actively seeking property along The Loop project, but didn’t rule it out. 

“We’re going to continue to look for great real estate,” he said. “A lot of that’s going to be trail-adjacent, park-adjacent, and The Loop itself makes that even more important.”