ARCO/Murray, a leading design-builder specializing in national rollouts across a wide spectrum of industries, recently took part in Bisnow’s Future of Uptown and Deep Ellum event in Dallas, Texas. During the event, which explored emerging trends, new developments and the role of entertainment in Dallas’ core, the principal of ARCO/Murray’s entertainment division, Bill Krol, moderated a panel looking at the Deep Ellum neighbourhood and how entertainment venues impact its community.
Over the course of the event, a recurring topic was that of 18-hour cities and live-work-play (LWP) communities.
Live-work-play communities
LWP communities are areas with housing options, career opportunities, and recreational offerings, such as restaurants, bars, and entertainment, all located close to one another. Historically, larger cities with busy downtowns, like New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, were some of the only live-work-play communities.
This type of community is characterised by easy access to everything that residents might need or want on a day-to-day basis, via walking, cycling or public transport. The benefits include a sense of closeness with neighbours, a strong economy and a healthier lifestyle.
Deep Ellum, where the event was hosted, has a long history of culture, art, music, diversity, and industry, and has always had at least one or two components of an LWP community.
The area served as a hub for the cotton gin and automotive industries in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Live music was the main draw during the area’s heyday as an entertainment district, which lasted from the 1920s to the 1950s and then again from the 1980s to the present. Deep Ellum continues to succeed in the “play” part of a live-work-play community and now has over 30 live music venues.
An emerging trend
During the panel discussion, Gene Ball, CEO of Electric Shuffle, talked about the play opportunities in the area and explained the choice of Deep Ellum for the first Electric Shuffle in the US, a project which ARCO/Murray worked on as design/builder:
“What attracted us to Deep Ellum and ultimately influenced us to put our first location here was the ability to access hospitality, food & beverage, design, music, arts all within five minutes of each other. You can get barbecue, go salsa dancing, listen to live music, go play bar games, and just have a good bite to eat all within a five-minute walk.”
Zach Shor, co-founder of the early-stage venture capital firm Lagniappe Capital Partners (LCP), also spoke about why his group chose Deep Ellum as the landing spot for a new concept:
“I think Deep Ellum is a great representation of the city of Dallas’ diversity, inclusivity, culture, and soul. The project we’re about to start working on is around surfing which is one of the most diverse and inclusive sports in the world. For our project, there is nowhere else in North Texas that we’d want to put it.”
In addition, Jon Hetzel, partner at Madison Partners and president of the Deep Ellum Foundation, discussed how the community is expanding beyond just being an entertainment district:
“Our pitches also included a component of us transitioning from just being an entertainment district to being more of an 18-hour day district. And that is due to the office and multifamily developments and adaptive reuse projects that have happened in the neighbourhood.”
Stephanie Hudiburg of the Deep Ellum Foundation explained that the office and retail sectors of Deep Ellum have grown over 1.7M SF and 130K SF respectively.
ARCO/Murray helps to enhance LWP communities
Building best-in-class, game-changing entertainment concepts is the goal of ARCO/Murray, which was recently named one of ENR’s Top 5 Entertainment General Contractors. In recent years, the LWP communities in urban areas have become frequent construction sites for the ARCO entertainment team, which has built for clients like Topgolf, Puttshack, and iFly around the country.
One example is Atlanta’s West Midtown neighbourhood, which is still expanding as a live-work-play hub with urban lofts, eateries, art galleries, music venues, and a significant number of young professionals. A Topgolf opened in the region in 2015, followed by a Puttshack in 2020, a Beat The Bomb in 2022. ARCO/Murray built all of these, and is currently working to add a Flight Club in the near future.
Electric Shuffle recently unveiled its second location in Texas, in Austin’s Rainey Street Historic District. This area is a hub for entertainment for the larger LWP community of downtown Austin. According to the State of Downtown Report 2022, there are now 11 office buildings and over 2.1 million square feet under construction in Austin, which continues to prosper as an 18-hour city.
The MidCity District of Huntsville, Alabama, is another less well-known LWP region that is flourishing. With nearly 350,000 square feet of retail space, 400,000 square feet of office space, and 1,600 residential units, MidCity is growing steadily. In 2017, ARCO/Murray added to the enjoyment by constructing a 52,000+ square foot Topgolf.
Top image: from left to right Gene Ball (Electric Shuffle), Zach Shor (Lagniappe Capital Partners), Zac Mowery (ZMOWERY Architecture), Jon Hetzel (Madison Partners), Bill Krol (ARCO/Murray)
