First apartment community is out of the ground in the 25-acre Trinity Mills Station.
A transit-oriented development that’s 20 years in the making this week celebrated the start of the first building in the Carrollton project.
The 25-acre Trinity Mills Station development is being built at the southeast corner of Bush Turnpike and Stemmons Freeway — adjacent to rail stations for DART and the Denton County Transportation Authority.
The building site is jointly owned by the city and DART, which started work two years ago on infrastructure for the mixed-use project.
Carrollton bought land on Dickerson Parkway in 2003 after DART opened its Green Line commuter station.
The city and the transit agency built a 3-acre esplanade park running through the property to the rail stations.
“This is the only site in the entire Metroplex that’s got two train stations and two highways,” Carrollton urban development director Ravi Shah said Friday at a groundbreaking for the first apartment community at Trinity Mills Station.
Atlanta-based Integral Group is developing the 436-unit Eviva Trinity Mills apartments just east of DART’s station. The five-story rental community is scheduled to open in November 2025.
Integral Group chairman Egbert Perry said the project is one of the few to get funded in the currently constrained financial environment. He said the project will change the landscape in Carrollton.
“The challenge is always creating the there, there,” Perry said. “That’s what we are doing. You can feel the energy taking place. That’s what transformation is about.”
Irving-based developer Koa Partners is seeking tenants for a 125,000-square-foot, six-story office building it plans to construct across the park from the new apartments.
“The office market is challenging but we are getting some good activity,” Koa CEO Harry Lake said. “All the successful projects have been curated around apartments.”
Carrollton hopes to build on the first phase of Trinity Mills Station and eventually grow the transit-oriented development district to include 300 acres.
“Trinity Mills Station is the largest publicly owned transit-oriented development site in North Texas and the most connected,” Carrollton mayor Steve Babick said. “It is truly a catalyst and transformational work in process.”
The area of Carrollton stretching south from Bush Turnpike to downtown just east of Interstate 35E includes stations for DART’s Green Line, the Denton commuter train and DART’s new Silver Line, which runs to DFW International Airport.
“Just as we were founded 100 years ago on our rail system, as we look to the future, we will see a similar interchange of these rail systems,” Babick said.