Residents Meet with Archie to Discuss Proposed Residence Inn by Marriott

Perceptions, parking and property values among key issues

At Los Caminos on March 18, Lakeside Crossing residents met with Realty Capital’s Jimmy Archie, master developer of Lakeside Village, to discuss his proposal to co-develop a Residence Inn on a site near their homes. The site has been zoned for a hotel since 2017. (Lakeside Crossing is a 10-acre mixed-use project adjacent to Lakeside Village, but not part of its zoning PD or its master property owners’ association.)

The town’s Planning & Zoning board had unanimously voted against the proposed hotel in February citing the public’s concern about extended-stay hotels in town. 

With the issue scheduled for town council on April 6, Archie wanted to take this occasion to listen to the perspectives of the neighboring residents and to share his thoughts with them. 

Extended-stay perceptions 

For some, extended-stay hotels conjure up scenes of dilapidated structures falling apart around down-on-their-luck individuals struggling to keep a roof over their heads. Or simply put, a disguise for an apartment building. Such images motivated many of the residents to voice their disapproval of the Residence Inn in Lakeside Crossing at the February P&Z hearing.

At Los Caminos, the assembled residents seemed to be struggling to reconcile that disturbing image with their love for Lakeside Village — and their appreciation for Archie’s role in building it. 

Residence Inn by Marriott is consistently rated at or near the top of the all-suites hotel brands, Archie explained. Room rates at the Lakeside Village Residence Inn are expected to hover around $190 per night, with an average stay projected to be three nights. That average daily rate ranks it among the most upscale Residence Inns in DFW (see table below).  

Residence Inns can be found in a variety of high-end locales around the country, including San Diego’s Bayfront, Midtown Manhattan, downtown Austin, downtown Chicago (River North), and West Oahu in Hawaii.

All-suite hotels like these do not destroy the communities where they are located. They reflect the quality of their surroundings. And by offering a reasonably priced option near an attractive community, they bring new customers to those communities on a daily basis.

Parking issues

The parking lot near the townhomes on Northwood Dr. was built to accommodate guests of the previously planned hotel. But in the absence of the hotel over the past few years, that lot has become a convenient place to park for apartment residents as well as customers and employees of Lakeside Village restaurants (mostly on Friday and Saturday nights). The Lakeside Crossing homeowners wondered where those people will park when it is reserved for hotel guests.

Archie acknowledged the residents’ concerns and that it required an explanation of the misconception that Lakeside Village does not have enough parking.

To gain a professional’s perspective, Archie recently called on a valet parking consultant to review the state of parking at Lakeside Village. The conclusion: the problem is not the number of spaces, but how those spaces are being utilized.

To demonstrate, Archie showed drone footage shot a few weeks earlier on a Friday night between 6:30 and 7:00 pm, when parking demand reaches its peak. While cars filled the angled parking spaces (marked “Retail”) along Lakeside Parkway, the video showed large swaths of empty spaces in the parking lots located behind the apartment buildings.

The video demonstrates that many residents in Avalon and Elora park in on-street spaces located as close to their unit as possible. Between FM 2499 and the northern roundabout, those spaces are marked, “Retail.”

As a result, when the public arrives en masse on a Friday night to shop and dine, the parking spaces on the street are often occupied. When they see an available space marked, “Residential,” they continue looking.

While parking spaces behind the apartment buildings sit empty, visitors search until they find spaces in lots like the one on Northwood.

“Due to the town’s decision not to enforce parking rules on the public streets, our parking is in a state of anarchy,” Archie suggested. “That hurts our customers, our businesses, the town, and us.”

With significant revenue at stake for all parties, Archie is pressing town officials to allow Lakeside Village to privately manage the parking issues that have long been ignored. Recent conversations indicate the town may be amenable to this arrangement.

“If everyone parks in their designated spaces,” Archie insists, “we won’t have parking issues. In fact, the pubic perception may change to viewing the project as having a surplus of parking.”

It goes without saying that Archie is determined to motivate people to follow the parking rules (even it takes a few citations or tow trucks to do so).

Property values

Nearly all of the Lakeside Crossing residents voiced affection for Lakeside Village. But they wondered aloud if the hotel might jeopardize the value of their investment. 

Their concern about the hotel, which Archie believes will support their mixed-use lifestyle, puzzled him. After all, they were attracted to living in a mixed-use community offering shops and restaurants within a short walk. Why would they think that a hotel would spoil that.

So, Archie urged the residents to consider that possibility the exact reason to support the proposed hotel.

While many Lakeside Village restaurants rank among the most popular in Flower Mound, none are fully optimizing their revenue potential. On weeknight visits, you’ll find most restaurants well below capacity. 

Add more customers on weeknights and that revenue will flow straight to the restaurants’ bottom line. Hundreds of new people staying near Lakeside Village every month would do more than make their profits jump. They would fill the sidewalks on weeknights and create the kind of vibrancy that makes Lakeside Village so attractive on Fridays and Saturdays.

This kind of vibrancy, Archie explained, will attract new and different businesses, making everyone’s property more desirable. And it will boost sales tax and ad valorem tax revenue to the town. 

“What hurts your property values,” Archie suggested, “is people working against the continued growth of the area. Meanwhile projects don’t get built that could add customers and vibrancy to Lakeside Village.”

Pulling in the same direction

Near the end of the gathering at Los Caminos, a homeowner asked about the ownership in the hotel. Archie revealed that, if approved, Realty Capital would own 50 percent in the Residence Inn project along with the operator, Superhost Hospitality.

“If you’re invested in it and invested in The Shops at Lakeside Village,” one homeowner said, “you are clearly motivated to make it a success. That eases my concerns.”

“I am pleading with you,” Archie concluded, “Help me make sure Lakeside Village is a fun place to walk to. Help our existing restaurants, which in turn helps me recruit new businesses to join them. Let the town council know that you support this Residence Inn.”  

“Help me help you!”