Pepper Square, a shopping center in Far North Dallas, is at the heart of a brewing zoning battle.
Developer Henry S. Miller wants to redevelop the property, adding 1,550 luxury apartments along with new retail and restaurant space. More than half the proposed apartment units would be housed in a 12-story tower.
However, residents from nearby neighborhoods don’t want to see a single unit built. Others have suggested a complex of 400 or fewer units may be acceptable. It’s unclear if a compromise will be reached before a June 20 city Plan and Zoning Commission meeting.
The aging retail strip has an interesting history. It was developed as the area’s early neighborhoods took shape, long before D-FW’s explosive growth of the last several decades.
The parcel that is present-day Pepper Square belonged to Ben McCutchin’s family in the 1940s. He and his three brothers developed the shopping center in the 1970s, McCutchin told The Dallas Morning News.
McCutchin, 78, is an executive vice president at commercial real estate firm Younger Partners.
The McCutchin family home was a two-story colonial on 250 acres. The elder McCutchin moved to Dallas from East Texas a few years before Ben’s birth. His father was an oil man who drilled for tycoon H.L. Hunt during the boom years.
The McCutchins had horses and cattle on the property. They had pasture land and grew cotton, corn and wheat.
They set up a baseball field for the neighborhood kids. Ben remembers catching a ride on the farmer’s tractor. The famed Fields family lived to the south. The McCutchins gave the city the right away that would allow them to directly connect Belt Line Road. The old Belt Line Road became Alexis Drive, named in honor of Ben’s father Alex.
“There wasn’t anything around Pepper Square when we built it,” McCutchin said.
The Dallas Morning News’ archives offer a glimpse into the early days of Pepper Square.
The News reported in September 1975 that construction on Pepper Square, a “200,000 square-foot garden mall shopping center” would begin that fall. The McCutchin family owned the project, and the Henry S. Miller Company was to handle the development and leasing.
There were plans for Pepper Square to hold more than 80 tenants eventually. The first was grocer Tom Thumb, and the store opened in August 1977.
By October 1977, more stores were moving into Pepper Square. Direct Fashions held its grand opening sale. Dresses and pantsuits were 25% off. In March 1978, Tom and Tim Byrne were trying to get an ice cream franchise, Mom’s Ice Cream, off the ground. An oddly harsh winter was giving them fits.
A flood of newcomers continued, and construction began on the shopping center’s second phase in August 1978.
Some grandiose Pepper Square plans didn’t come to fruition. A small lake, for example, was ultimately never built, McCutchin said.
Flash forward, and Henry S. Miller Commercial would buy the first phase to Pepper Square in 1994. The company completed an eight-year, $10 million expansion in 2002, GlobeSt., a commercial real estate news source, reports.
The Henry S. Miller Co. sold a 49% stake to a private family trust of Dallas businessman Gerald Ford in 2015. Terms of the sale were not disclosed.
Plans for turning the shopping center into a mixed-use development with luxury apartments had been in the works for years as the first community meetings took place in 2022.