The handsome gentlemen held his hand out, smiling, trying to coax his nervous wife to take the shortcut across the small creek. All it would take is two quick steps across sand colored stones that poked out of the water. Children can make the crossing. She wanted nothing to do with it.

Keeping herself in the shade of a 20-foot tree, she refused to budge, until a dragonfly with an iridescent blue body and huge eyes buzzed by her. With a screech and a hop she was across the tiny stream, grabbing her husband’s hand and dragging him up the path that followed the meandering little body of water.

Running across a small two-lane road they followed the scent of Mexican food and made their way into a restaurant for dinner, the young wife looking over her shoulder certain the dragonfly had followed them.

Kids who had been playing on the village green nearby laughed and shouted “a dragonfly is good luck!” as they headed off to meet their parents who were walking out of a coffee shop and headed to the bookstore.

Welcome to Watters Creek at Montgomery Farm.

The City of Allen is home to one of the most innovative lifestyle centers in Texas, created on what was once part of the farmstead of the late Frances Williams, a highly respected conservationist in Collin County. The finished project will have retail space, restaurants, office space, luxury apartments and Market Street Grocery Store. It’s part of a development that also includes Montgomery Farm subdivision and Angel Field Center office suites, just to the west. All three developments will cover more than 1200 acres. Keep in mind that each of those projects has a different corporation building it and they’re each following the environmentally responsible lead of Frances Williams’ family.

Urban life heads north

Cars rolled slowly down the narrow road that runs through Watters Creek. Wide sidewalks dotted with trees gave folks plenty of room to get from one shop to another, enjoying Texas temperatures that finally dipped below their scorching summer highs. Newly minted realtors Kerry and Joanie Downs sat on a wooden bench just outside of the Starbucks listening to soothing music that played in the background. Nestled under the canopy of a mature shade tree they looked across the creek at apartments set to open in November. They glanced to their right as a group of shoppers walked by laughing, arms loaded with shopping bags.

“We’ve traveled a lot, been all over the country, Europe, and it’s really incredible what they’ve done here in Allen,” Kerry said. “It has a European feel to it, it is welcoming, it draws you in and makes you want to come back,” Joanie said of the Watters Creek development. “What I’ve noticed is when people are here, they start to stroll, they don’t walk fast like they would in a mall.”

That’s exactly what the developer, Trademark Property out of Fort Worth, was shooting for. “We’ve created what we’re calling a retail resort,” said Harold Dull, Watters Creek General Manager. “People who shop here have told me they feel like they’re on vacation when they’re here.”

That “vacation” feeling is the result of a number of things, starting with an all day brain storming session at the old Montgomery Farm farmhouse with 20 women. “ We asked them, ‘tell us about the places you really like to go to, tell us about the experiences you like to have, tell us what you like to see.’ We’ve taken a lot of that information and incorporated it into this development,” Dull said.

Dull took them for a tour when some of the shops opened up. ‘We asked, ‘Did we meet your expectations?’ By far and away they said we absolutely did.”

Apparently, getting this kind of consumer input for a retail center is highly unusual, so much so that Watters Creek has drawn national attention. “You would think other developers would latch on to that, but apparently that’s not the case,” Dull said. “This was so different we were written up in the New York Times and Womens Wear Daily. Women influence 80 percent of all buying decisions in a household so it’s smart to talk to them.”

The stores, around 30 currently, with dozens more on the way, are upscale, providing a shopping experience you won’t get at a mall. The eclectic mix includes Vera Bradley, Joseph A Banks and the Celebrity Bakery. One unique destination is, believe it or not, Borders.

This isn’t your run of the mill bookstore. It’s a 26,000-square-foot concept store, the only one in Texas, and one of 14 in the nation. Despite the fact that the company has tightened it’s spending (Borders recently shed its stores outside of the United States), it was still willing to make a high dollar investment in Allen.

“It’s different shopping experience,” said Borders’ Bill Christensen. “There’s a digital center to download music, a center where we will help you publish your own book, a kiosk in the cooking section where you can download and print recipes for free, things you won’t find in any other bookstore.”

Cutting edge ideas will be tried at the concept stores then rolled out to nearly a thousand other Borders’ affiliates. Folks in and around Allen will influence what the rest of the nation will get to experience. This store is designed to make customers feel at ease. They want folks to come in, have a cup of joe in the coffee shop, listen to music, browse the books.

Christensen said the fact that Watters Creek is so unusual, with its combination of shops, apartments, restaurants and a respect for nature, was a strong draw for Borders. “We think we’re a good fit here,” he said. “A center like this is not ordinary. Look at the care the developers took in saving trees. No question that makes for a far better atmosphere for customers.”

Watters Creek General Manager Harold Dull said recognizing the heritage of the land was extremely important for Trademark. “Many developers go into a site and level it. They put up buildings and pour thousands of yards of concrete or asphalt. We didn’t do that,” he said. “This was part of Montgomery farm. It was important to respect the land. We built with the topography and we think that is what makes it so engaging.”

Efforts, such as leaving a natural slope to the land or building around a 150-year-old pecan tree instead of tearing it out of the ground have given the retail center a calming feeling you won’t find at a strip mall. Trademark has also gone to great lengths to be environmentally responsible, following the Williams family example. The center gets 35 percent of its power from renewable resources. The roofs are painted white to reflect sunlight, using less energy to keep things cool. Restrooms are equipped with low flow toilets and urinals, using less water. These things, both obvious and not so obvious, make for a retail, office and living space unique in this state.

Folks having a laugh at a sidewalk table agree. “This is an oasis on the highway…it’s a refreshing place,” said retired doctor Joe Fawcett. “We love sitting out here looking at the beautiful creek, the beautiful skyline. We’re seriously considering moving into the apartments. We live in downtown Plano but this is perfect. You’ve got Market Street for all your grocery needs, you’ve got shopping, you’ve got all the restaurants with more to come.”

The apartments, The Lofts at Watters Creek, are scheduled to start renting in November. When construction wraps up, there will be 301 luxury apartments according to Dull. The builder, Southern Land Company out of Tennessee, is also trying to be socially aware, putting in windows with higher efficiency ratings, using energy efficient appliances, starting a recycling program before their first tenant has even moved in. Keeping in step with the upscale feel of the center, the lofts have ten-foot ceilings, granite counter tops and hardwood flooring, among other amenities.

“It would be a thousand times easier to slap up garden apartments and we’d be done and on to the next project,” said Southern Land’s Jim Cheney. “But this is our first mark in Allen and we want people to walk away with a true sense of what we’re about.”

The Watters Creek project is being built in three phases, the second currently underway providing more shops and apartments. According to Dull, the third phase will be anchored by an upscale hotel, “high-energy” restaurants, and what he describes as “unique entertainment venues”.

Office space within Watters Creek is scheduled to lease before the end of the year with the prime footage located directly over the shops on the avenue they’re calling Market Street.

When construction wraps up, Allen will have a 54-acre mixed-use development that comes in at just over one million square feet; roughly 300,000 square feet of residential, 100,000 square feet of office space and 600,000 square feet of retail. Total investment made strictly in this development is expected to reach eight hundred million dollars.

This will be the first LEED certified development of its type in Texas. LEED certification is granted by the United States Green Building Council to projects that follow rigid environmentally protective guidelines. Going beyond becoming environmentally responsible as well as financially profitable, the center will also focus on art.

A family of brass ducks waddles across the village green. A ten-foot long reclining Brahma bull will join them soon. A brass pig sits by an outdoor fireplace in the courtyard; two brass foals will graze under the 150-year-old pecan tree that is recognized by the City of Allen as a historic tree. Murals will dot the entire complex. This fall entertainers will stroll the area and a free concert series will begin. “ We want you to bring your family out and enjoy the open air setting,” Dull said. “This Christmas we’re going to introduce things we hope will become traditions, things never done before in Allen and you can’t see anyplace else.”

Allen Mayor Steve Terrell, who, among many others, has played an integral part in the development of this project, is impressed with how things have gone from architectural renderings to bricks, mortar and meandering creek.

“You’re in there, you sit back and say, ‘Is this really happening in Allen,’” the mayor said. “You feel comfortable, safe, it’s a great place to be. Ask people where they’re from and they’ll tell you McKinney, Plano, Parker. It’s becoming a magnet. If you take your time, study and plan, this is what you create.” Time taken—sixty years

Watters Creek. Montgomery Farm subdivision and Angel Field Center can all trace their roots to one man—Philip O’Bryan Montgomery. An engineer who served under then Colonel Dwight D. Eisenhower, he and his wife, Frances, bought hundreds of acres of property in Allen in the 1940’s—old cotton farms that had gone bust.

“He was reclaiming cotton farms that at the time were dust bowl examples,” said his namesake grandson and developer, Philip Williams. “My grandfather assembled them into a comprehensive area that allowed him control over the water, Rowlett Creek, which comes through the property.”

Williams remembers sitting at the dinner table as a child for hours with his mother Frances (named for her mother), his father Bryan and five siblings, discussing the farm’s future.

“We talked about three things; land planning, estate planning because we had Montgomery Farm and my grandfather had looked forward how it would effect three generations, and we talked about taxation. Some families talked sports, some families talked religion, we talked about the future,” he said.

The Williams children spent as much time as they could on the farm, exploring the woods, learning about native Texas plants and wildlife. As the years passed, their mother Frances, a conservationist and political activist, established one of the state’s first land trusts, forming the Connemara Conservancy, with 72 acres of the family farm. She wanted others to experience some of the open spaces she and her family had enjoyed. Her love for the farm, for protecting the environment, was passed along to Philip and his sister Amy. They’re the driving forces behind the Montgomery Farm project.

One of the fist things they did was assemble a team that included everyone from a nationally recognized expert on landscape design that preserves the ecology of the land, to an internationally known artist who built Montgomery Farm’s signature windmill on Bethany. The entire project is massive. In addition to the 54-acre mixed use Watters Creek, there is also Angel Field Center. It will be 160,000 square feet of Platinum LEED certified luxury office space—one of the few such facilities in the country that merits the highest rating from the U.S. Green Building Council. The cut stone and glass building will overlook Rowlett Creek and have water features and expanses of native grasses.

A little further west on a softly winding stretch of Bethany is the Montgomery Farm subdivision. As with all other pieces of this project, respect for the land and preservation of natural spaces is paramount.

“Based on city codes, we’re building fifty percent of what is allowed,” Williams said. “There are small lots, but a lot of green space with native grasses and mature trees.”

The houses, like the Watters Creek development and Angel Field Center, are upscale. According to Williams they include some of the first million dollar homes in Allen.

Homeowner and former Allen City Council member Melissa Owen has been familiar with this project since it began in the 90s. “It’s a different concept. We have so many nice subdivisions in Allen,” she said. “But to sit here in my living room and look out and see trees from the original farm, to be able to walk and see the wildflowers… it’s amazing.”

That setting gives the neighborhoods a feeling more reminiscent of Andy Griffith’s Mayberry then the Metroplex.

John and Roma Waidner spent a lot of time looking for the right place to settle. They found it at Montgomery Farms.

“When you have a front porch, you can see your neighbors and you say hello and get to know them. There’s just something special about having a front porch,” John said.

He also said there are lots of kids in the neighborhood, a rarity in some subdivisions. “My son has friends he can walk to see, like when I was a kid.”

His wife, Roma, shared his sentiments. “This takes you back to a slower, simpler time, like when we were kids and went to the woods on our bikes.”

Wending streets, mature native trees and green spaces, give that country feel, but it actually greets you before you pull into a neighborhood.

“Bethany is a joy to drive. It’s a little pocket of serenity within the busy metroplex,” Owens said of the road that leads to Montgomery Farm. “You just don’t see another road like that. They way it curves, the landscaping. You’ll see pockets of 10 to 12 feet of grassy, wooded areas.”

Originally intended to be a straight shot filled with stop lights like McDermott, the Williams family offered an alternative plan for the road which would cut through one of the more heavily wooded parts of their property. They gathered a group of artists who were involved with the Connemara Conservancy along with civil engineers and came up with an alternative design.

“It was a road with no intersections, which meant no idling cars and less air pollution; we adopted International Dark Sky requirements to reduce light pollution and we kept the signage to a minimum,” Williams said.

It took some convincing to get the City of Allen to think outside the box and provide a variance, but, after many discussions and Montgomery Farm agreeing to pay thirty percent of construction costs for Bethany, it was built.

“The road is a lighter footprint on the environment,” Williams said, going back to the mindset that has been at the center of his family’s actions for decades. “Man is part of nature. It’s the nature of man to alter it for his benefit. We’re trying to do that in a way that protects and preserves the environment.”

Whether it’s keeping a pecan tree that was around when Texas was barely a state or designing a road that will cut down on pollution and add to the city’s beauty, these developments are exciting examples that prove being “green” and being profitable are not mutually exclusive.

Allen is on the cutting edge and it can give a nod of thanks to Philip O’Bryan Montgomery for laying the groundwork more than a half century ago.