Dallas Urban Core, Downtown & Uptown Real Estate Investment, Brokerage and Tenant News

Developer plans $55M redo of 500 S. Ervay Butler Brothers Building in Downtown Dallas

2012-01-22T12:25:00.000-08:00

A Texas-based investment partnership has big plans for the 101-year-old building adjacent to Dallas’ City Hall.

Alterra 500 South Ervay LLC, a limited liability company of Alterra International, led by Turkish investor Mike Sarimsakci, plans to spend $55 million turning the Butler Brothers Building into a multi-use property that would include a 220-room hotel, 250 apartments, and about 80,000 square feet of office and retail space.

The development group is looking for partners for its extended-stay hotel flag, retail and restaurant space and school, said Sarimsakci, who has been described by Turkish media as the “Turkish Trump.”

“We want the building to be more than a residential building and hotel. We want retail and restaurants to compliment the residential,” Sarimsaci said.

Sarimsakci is a partner for the Eastern Mediterranean investment group. He has been previously affiliated with the $135 million development called 1401 Elm St. in downtown Dallas. The 52-story 1.3 million-square-foot property was previously known as Elm Place. POSTED BY BOB VOELKER Dallas Business journal | JANUARY 21ST, 2012 AT 5:15 AM

Uptown, Dallas - New $225 Million Development Planned

2011-12-13T17:07:00.000-08:00

DALLAS (Dallas Morning News) – Pelli Clarke Pelli will design a mixed-use project in Uptown for Crescent Real Estate Holdings LLC.
The $225 million development will include an office tower, 60,000 sf of retail and restaurant space, and 50 luxury residential units. It will be at Cedar Springs Rd. and Olive St.
The firm's owner, Cesar Pelli has designed some of the world’s modern landmarks, including Petronas Towers in Malaysia.

North Texas Real Estate By The Numbers

2011-12-13T16:02:00.001-08:00

FORT WORTH (Fort Worth Star-Telegram) – According to the latest figures from McGraw-Hill Construction, commercial building contracts in the Metroplex totaled $166.9 million in October, down 38 percent from a year ago. Meanwhile, residential contracts totaled $544.5 million, up 28 percent.
Year to date, commercial contracts through October totaled $3 billion, down 2 percent compared with a year ago. Residential contracts totaled $4.4 billion for the first ten months, up 10 percent.
Statewide numbers for the year show commercial contracts down 13 percent at $11.5 billion and residential contracts remaining flat at $14.6 billion.

The area includes Collin, Dallas, Delta, Denton, Ellis, Hunt, Johnson, Kaufman, Parker, Rockwall, Tarrant and Wise Counties.

APARTMENTS 2012 TOP INVESTMENT

2011-12-13T15:56:00.001-08:00

HOUSTON (realtynewsreport.com) – Where will investors be putting their money next year? Multifamily properties, according to a recent 2012 outlook survey conducted by Jones Lang LaSalle.

Survey respondents said rising rental rates and declining home ownership rates suggest strong apartment investment activity in the coming year.

And take note, Dallas: When asked where in the United States they would be most likely to invest next year, respondents ranked Big D among the top five cities, beating out New York City and Washington, D.C.
On the flip side, they said Houston was one of the five cities in which they'd most likely sell properties.
The survey was completed by more than 150 private investors, real estate brokers, developers, REIT and institutional investors.

Housing market changes with economic and lifestyle shifts | Steve Brown Columns - Business News for Dallas, Texas - The Dallas Morning News

2011-11-25T14:55:00.000-08:00

Housing market changes with economic and lifestyle shifts | Steve Brown Columns - Business News for Dallas, Texas - The Dallas Morning News: "Housing market changes with economic and lifestyle shifts

Steve Brown stevebrown@dallasnews.com
Published: 24 November 2011 04:54 PM

The boom in the Dallas-Fort Worth apartment market demonstrates a shift in how North Texans are thinking about housing.
During the last few years, the local apartment market has grown by more than 40,000 net leases, while home purchases have continued to sag.
Of course the economy is a big part of it. Folks who are worried about their jobs or have already lost income aren’t likely to sign up for a 30-year loan.
The shakeout in the housing market has also pushed thousands of potential buyers into the rental market.
Surprisingly, landlords say that huge volumes of home foreclosures in the last few years have not sent as many new apartment renters their way."

Street Vendors May Return to Downtown Dallas

2011-11-16T15:06:00.000-08:00

Dallas considers relaxing rules that currently discourage downtown street vendors. Dallas considers relaxing rules that currently discourage downtown street vendors, with thoughts that flower, souvenir and food carts could make downtown more exciting.Promoting downtown street vendors is the goal of a plan in the works at Dallas City Hall.Downtown boosters have been after the city for some time to make changes to city codes that they say discourage street vendors from doing business."It wasn't convenient," said John Crawford with Downtown Dallas Inc. "We want these changes to be an improvement, not an impediment."Downtown Dallas officer workers on their lunch break Monday said they miss the hot dog vendor who used to be at the corner of Akard and Main."I think it would be good to give people more choices, more lunchtime food, and things of that nature," officer worker Cordell Hudson said.See: http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Dallas-Encourages-Downtown-Street-Vendors-133849493.html for complete article.
By Ken Kalthoff| Monday, Nov 14, 2011 | Updated 7:24 PM CST

Take Action on Congress Now!

2011-10-18T15:52:00.000-07:00

If you are a citizen of the United States you need to be aware of some very dangerous news: banks and financial institutions are trading in unregulated, over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives has reached unheard of levels - more than 600 trillion dollars in speculative value as of the end of last year 2010! That is an amount which is more than 40X of all the stocks traded on US exchanges.

And since the current administration has come into office, our national debt has escalated by an additional $4.5 trillion dollars. We all need to motivate Congress to aggressively and unilaterally cut all spending to save this country from itself.

Take action and expect the stock market to plunge 2000 or more points soon.

Where are the REOs ?

2011-10-17T06:48:00.000-07:00

For the last two years everyones been asking “Where are the REOs?”

There’s a whole lot of confusion swirling around that question. How many reasons have you heard ?? There’s probably a little truth in all of them as there seems not be one defining answer. Trying to whittle it down is like trying to get a sip from a fire hose as everybody and their brother has an opinion as to where the REO’s are hiding.

We don’t need to look far to read and hear the number of foreclosres across the country piling up somwhere in an ethereal REO office in the sky.

It's been almost 2 years now since the back-log started. The initial kibosh on liquidating REO's was put on by Obama in an attempt to save the world.

Obama unilaterally put a stop on all foreclosures.

After that didn’t work, in California Schwarzenager put a stop to all foreclosures.

After that didn’t work, the banks put a self imposed moratorium on foreclosures.

Now that all of these measures haven't accomplished a hill a' beans, we are where we are today - REO's piled up on asset managers desks in gray offices with no windows.

..So where are the REO’s ?

First we need to understand how foreclosure properties are held in numerous ways.

They are bundled and held by corporations, bundled and held by private investors, individually held by corporations, individually held by private investors, and directly held by banks. Every holder of these foreclosed properties has their own agenda as to why they are not putting them on the market.

A few the reasons I have heard on the street as to why the REO dam is plugged are: the properties can’t be released all at once lest it further drive down the supply & demand value, investors are waiting for a brighter day for the values to come back, in the case of several investors owning the same property, all involved need to be on the same page as to how and when they are released, robo-siging & unlawful foreclosure litigation ..and a whole slew of other reasons we may never know this side of eternity.

The take away is this; the investors are driving the bus. Personally, if I owned a dirt clod I couldn’t sell it fast enough, as my prognostication is that we have ugly times ahead that are not condusive to higher real estate prices. But the properties are not mine and I am merely a cog in the REO wheel. As to when the flow will start flowing is anyone’s guess. What is sure is that you can only build a house of cards for so long as the inevitable is inevitable. And as everything in life it to will have an end. Till then, fasten your REO seatbelts as there is turbulence in the foreclosure skies ahead.

by:

Ronny Santana

United Fidelity building to become Homewood Suites hotel

2011-08-09T13:52:00.000-07:00

An Irving hotel firm is transforming a vacant downtown Dallas office building into an all-suite hotel.

The former United Fidelity Life Insurance Building at 1025 Elm St. has been vacant for more than a decade.

Earlier this year, Lowen Hospitality Management bought the property out of foreclosure. It has begun work to convert it to a Homewood Suites by Hilton Hotel.

The first phase is to gut the old building and ready it for redevelopment, Lowen officer Sanjay Naik said Monday.

“It will definitely take the rest of this year to clean it out,” Naik said. “We don’t have an opening date scheduled yet.”

Built in 1918, the 10-story high-rise originally housed the offices of the Texas & Pacific Railroad.

In 1920, United Fidelity bought the Texas & Pacific Building located between Elm Street and Pacific Avenue and moved its office into the lower floors of the high-rise. Most of the building remained occupied by the railroad into the 1950s.

The insurance company in 1959 decided to modernize the classical-style high-rise with a glass and metal exterior.

That’s when an adjoining five-story parking garage was constructed facing Griffin Street.

The brown glass building for many years housed operations of First National Bank of Dallas and its successor companies.

Dallas architecture, engineering and design firm Aguirre Roden Inc. is handling the work on the renovation project.

“We are in the design phase of the renovation as well as performing some demolition work,” executive vice president Gary Roden said.

The Elm Street project is the third new hotel development under way downtown.

Construction will be completed later this year on the Omni Dallas convention hotel on Young Street. South of the convention center on Lamar Street, development has begun on a 76-room Nylo Hotel.

Dallas-area commercial foreclosures fall from last year

2011-08-09T13:43:00.000-07:00

By STEVE BROWN

During the first half of 2011, almost a half-billion dollars in Dallas-Fort Worth area commercial properties were sold by lenders on the courthouse steps.

The total sounds big, but the dollar volume and number of commercial property foreclosures in the area are down from the same period last year. And the expected flood of commercial real estate sales by lenders just hasn’t materialized.

“What we are seeing is just phenomenal compared to what it could have been,” said George Roddy, whose Foreclosure Listing Service tracks North Texas property foreclosure postings and sales. “We heard predictions of how much commercial property would be foreclosed on, and it hasn’t gotten there yet.”

In the first six months of the year, just over 300 commercial properties — including offices, retail buildings, apartments, warehouses and development land — were sold at auction by lenders, Roddy’s data shows. That’s about a 7 percent decline from the same period last year.

The dollar volume of the foreclosures is down even more — about 30 percent less than in 2010.

In number and dollar amount, the current downturn’s commercial foreclosures are nothing like what North Texas saw in the late 1980s and early 1990s real estate crash.

“We were running in Dallas County 300 to 400 sales a month back then,” Roddy said. “Compared to that, the last few years have been anemic.”

Not that North Texas hasn’t had plenty of commercial foreclosures so far in 2011.

The largest included an LBJ Freeway office complex — the Fenton Center in Farmers Branch — and theCrowne Plaza hotel in Addison.

Lenders also foreclosed on parts of a new shopping center on State Highway 121, the Lewisville Town Crossing. And big development sites in Irving and Frisco went into lender control.

Lost land

Development land accounted for the biggest share of commercial property foreclosures so far this year in the D-FW area. More than 100 tracts with more than $178 million in debt went into foreclosure.

Office buildings, with almost $85 million in debt, and apartments, with more than $80 million in mortgages, were also sold at foreclosure, according to Foreclosure Listing Service’s data.

So far, some lenders have been reluctant to take over failed commercial real estate deals.

That’s given the market time to sort out some of its problems, said Stuart Wernick, senior vice president of Grandbridge Real Estate Capital.

“A lot of the lenders have been able to work out the problems with their borrowers,” Wernick said. “They are being patient and working with their clients, who have acted honorably.

“There is also some new capital out there that has shown up to save the day,” he said. “Interest rates have remained low, and that’s helped, too.”

Train wrecks

Still, hundreds of North Texas commercial properties face debt issues in the year ahead, analysts say.

And billions in local property loans will come due over the next few years and must be refinanced.

“There are train wrecks waiting to happen, still working their way through the system,” said Tom Fink, managing director of Trepp LLC, a New York commercial mortgage information firm.

Trepp estimates that of the more than $19 billion in outstanding commercial mortgages in the D-FW area that have been sold as securities, about 11 percent are delinquent.

“You should see some time over the next 24 months another $1.3 billion hit the courthouse steps,” Fink said.

He estimates only about a third of the problem deals have been foreclosed on so far.

“The process has gone a lot slower than anyone ever thought it would,” he said.

Top foreclosures

Some of the most expensive of the commercial properties sold at foreclosure auction in the first half of 2011 and their original loan values:

Fenton Center office complex, Farmers Branch: $62 million

Crowne Plaza Hotel, Addison: $30 million

Parts of Lewisville Towne Crossing shopping center: $20 million

Frisco Main Street and tollway mixed-use land: $19.8 million

Irving land, 109 acres, State Highway 114 and Belt Line Road: $14.3 million

SOURCE: Foreclosure Listing Service

In bad times, big-ticket amenities in Dallas are booming

2011-08-09T08:31:00.000-07:00

In the teeth of the worst recession in eight decades, Dallas is undergoing a building boom.
Not in real estate, heaven knows, or in construction of high-rise office buildings, but in an area in which the city has always been judged weak — in projects devoted to the quality of life.
The opening of the AT&T Performing Arts Center in 2009 brought international attention, but it was only one of more than a dozen high-profile, big-ticket amenities that have opened in the past few years — or will come on line in a few years hence.
The projects include four downtown parks, a presidential library, a natural history museum , a nature center along the Trinity River and major expansions at existing institutions such as the Dallas Zoo and the Dallas Arboretum. The total cost of the list, which is only a partial one, comes to well over $1 billion.
Transportation projects, ordinarily the most mundane of civic projects, have been enlisted in the movement to improve urban life here. Millions in private funds were raised to turn the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge from what would have been a utilitarian structure into a city landmark. Meanwhile, the McKinney Avenue trolley will be expanded, and the Santa Fe Trail, a bicycle and pedestrian path, has opened in East Dallas.
The list does not include recent expansion of the DART rail, which some urban experts consider the most crucial amenity of all.
Darwin Payne, author of Big D, the best known of the city’s histories, said Dallas has experienced two similar periods — the decades near the turn of the century when cultural institutions such as the city library and art museum were founded, and the era of the Centennial Exposition in the mid-1930s.
But, in sheer variety and scale, the accomplishments of those eras pale compared with the current boom.
“If you total up everything that’s being done now, I don’t think I can come up with a period in Dallas history that has had anything like that,” Payne said.
No grand plan
What is striking is that the amenities boom was not the result of any grand blueprint.
While the performing arts center had its origin in urban renewal plans that originated 30 years ago, most of the projects were conceived and developed independently of one another. Indeed, the Trinity River Project, perhaps the most ambitious local example of grand planning, still largely sits on the launching pad.
Furthermore, the projects have progressed when the economic downturn has dampened construction of almost everything else.
In part, this is because nearly all were approved and funded before the downturn struck. They also draw from sources — such as bond issues, donations from wealthy individuals and tax increment funds — that are less sensitive to the downturn than are commercial real estate projects funded by the private sector.
“The things under construction now were started in better economic times,” said Veletta Forsythe Lill, director of the Arts District. “The feeling of the city fathers and mothers has been that the show must go on.”
There is no doubt the struggling economy has had an effect.
Although bad economic times may actually increase demand for free amenities such as the parks or the trolley, the effect on more expensive forms of entertainment has been significant.
The Dallas Symphony Orchestra and the Dallas Opera have announced cutbacks recently. Indeed, opera officials noted that the move from Fair Park to the Winspear Opera House raised their costs by $4 million per season.
‘Growing up’
Some urban experts and civic leaders said they thought local interest in quality-of-life projects increased after 2001, when Boeing officials cited a lack of amenities in Dallas when they chose Chicago as their new headquarters.
Bill Lively, who was raising funds for the planned Performing Arts Center at the time, finds that explanation overstated.
“People say Boeing was a catalyst. I don’t think it was,” Lively said. “But I do think it was remembered by a lot of thoughtful people who were looking at ways to raise the culture of the city to a level equal to those of other great cities.”
In many ways, he said, the dramatic activity is a reflection of the city’s current place in its history.
“I think Dallas is growing up, and now we are maturing culturally,” Lively said.
That explanation was echoed by other commentators, among them Aaron Renn, an urban analyst based in Chicago.
“I think that’s the history of most big cities. First, you want to become rich, then you want to become classy,” he said. “I think of Chicago; it was a filthy, gritty town for a long time. But once it got rich, businessmen started building amenities.”
On the other hand, cities such as New York had a long head start, Renn notes. Eastern cities, especially, have an urban density that will be hard for Sun Belt cities such as Dallas to re-create.
“Dallas is never going to be competitive for the kind of people who want that kind of environment,” he said. “It’s not Manhattan; it’s just not.”
Nature hasn’t been particularly helpful either — North Texas has no large natural bodies of water or nearby mountains.
“You have to make up for not having a waterfront by building parks,” advised Andy Kunz, director of New Urbanism, an Alexandria, Va., nonprofit that seeks to encourage livable downtowns.
Overcoming criticism
The most frequent criticism of the recent cultural building frenzy is that it reflects an erroneous belief that Dallas can simply spend its way into vibrancy.
Earlier this year, Blair Kamin, the Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic of the Chicago Tribune, walked around the AT&T Performing Arts Center and found its street life disappointing.
“Despite the architectural firepower, the Dallas Arts District can be an exceedingly dull place,” he wrote in his review. In a particularly stinging aside, he said some of its designers referred to it as “an architectural petting zoo.”
Although Kamin conceded later in the critique that people-friendly amenities such as the Woodall Rodgers deck park might change the equation, even Dallas supporters don’t completely deny his point. But they plead that a vibrant city does not happen overnight.
Karl Zavitkovsky, the economic development director for the city of Dallas, argues that the incremental nature of reurbanization of downtown often hides its progress. The announcement of a new museum gets lots of attention; the opening of a restaurant, much less so.
“There’s a lot of stuff going on right now under the radar, particularly with the adaptive reuse of old office buildings,” he said.
Defenders are surprisingly muted about justifying big-ticket amenities as a direct spur to future development. Invited to make that argument, Zavitkovsky went no further than to cite quality of life as “one of the issues that makes a location attractive to a business thinking of coming in.”
“Do big amenities alone assure you of success? No. But if you have the opportunity to do some significant things, then all that reinforces the basics needed for urban development,” he said.
Kunz said a city’s walkability has become a crucial factor in determining its quality of life, especially among young professionals. As a result, the construction of the DART system may be the most important element in the city’s future, Kunz said.
“Unfortunately the recession has put a lot of things on hold, but when it ends, you can bet that the developers will be coming in to be near the rail system,” he said.
Terry Nichols Clark, a professor of sociology at the University of Chicago, said that emerging cities worldwide, particularly in Asia, are pondering the same quality-of-life issues.
He recalled an incident in which Japanese businessmen were being courted by officials of Seoul, South Korea.
“The Seoul people asked, ‘How can we attract your businesses?’ And the reply they received was, ‘Make life pleasant for our wives.’”

After a breather, Dallas’ Uptown is ready to boom again

2011-08-09T08:07:00.001-07:00

With the building downturn, the construction cranes have flown the coop from Dallas’ Uptown district.
But don’t expect them to stay away for long.
Developers are already working on a handful of projects, and more are in the wings.
“I think the market in Uptown is going to bounce back a lot quicker than many people think,” said John Zogg, managing director of leasing with Crescent Real Estate. “We’ve caught our breath for a bit.
“And we have a lot more velocity than Las Colinas or, say, Richardson,” Zogg said. “Uptown has fared better in the downturn.”
Before the recession hit, the Uptown area was the fastest-growing Dallas real estate market. Developers put up billions of dollars in offices, residential high-rises, retail and hotel space.
Because the Uptown area didn’t get dramatically overbuilt — particularly for office space — commercial builders are betting the area will come roaring back over the next couple of years.
Crescent Real Estate — which owns the Crescent complex on Cedar Springs Road — is working on an office tower on vacant land it owns at McKinney Avenue and Olive Street.
“We think it’s the best building site in Uptown,” Zogg said. “This area is where all the energy is.”
Crescent’s proposed office project is one of three percolating in the same area.
The company’s three-building Crescent office complex — which celebrates its 25th birthday this year — is more than 90 percent leased.
Investment firm Highland Capital Management just inked a 45,000-square-foot lease to move its Dallas headquarters from the Galleria complex to the Crescent.
The Crescent’s owners are spending $6 million to upgrade the elevators and have invested more than $2 million in the buildings’ power systems.
“It still requires a lot of capital so we can keep the Crescent in the condition our clients demand,” Zogg said.
Just across the street from Crescent’s proposed office building, investor Spyglass Equities Co. has begun leasing a four-story office project that would be constructed on top of an existing parking garage at Olive and Cedar Springs.
Called Harwood Court, the 100,000-square-foot building could be ready in as little as 14 months.
Strong market
“Uptown is clearly the strongest office market in Dallas,” said real estate broker Jon Altschuler, who’s rounding up tenants for the deal. “Rents are increasing and space is tight.
“It’s the area where the big services firms and financial companies want to be,” he said.
Three of Dallas’ largest commercial real estate firms — CB Richard Ellis, Colliers International and Cushman & Wakefield — recently moved their regional offices to Uptown buildings.
Of the five office towers built in the area during the recent boom, only one still has significant vacant space.
“We’re just under 40 percent leased,” said Greg Fuller, chief operating officer of Granite Properties, which opened its 19-story 17Seventeen McKinney office tower last summer. “We’ve been able to lease about 25,000 square feet a quarter, which is about what we planned.”
With space in the area tightening up, Fuller said, quoted office rents are up by as much as 15 percent from a year ago.
“Rents are still off of their highs by as much as 10 percent, but that is a whole lot better than most markets,” he said. “There has definitely been an increase in momentum in the market.”
Joel Pustmueller of Peloton Commercial Real Estate agrees that Uptown is poised for a comeback.
“The Uptown is almost back to where it was two years ago, price-wise,” Pustmueller said. “Nearly all the new buildings constructed over there are full.
“We expect another building to be kicked off down there in the coming months.”
Harwood International’s new 26-story Saint Ann Court office tower at Olive Street and Harry Hines Boulevard is 75 percent leased. The 314,000-square-foot building has lead tenants including Amegy Bank, Boston Consulting Group and law firm McGuire, Craddock & Strother.
Developer Gabriel Barbier-Mueller is already working on his next Uptown office tower — this one near the entrance to the Dallas North Tollway.
“Hopefully, we’ll start construction this year,” Barbier-Mueller said. “If we get a signed tenant who is creditworthy, the money is available to start a project.
“Sometime between now and 2016, I think you’ll see at least two or three towers in the Uptown district, based on the demand we see,” he said. “I think by 2012 and 2013, you’ll start seeing the cranes here again.”
Along with the office tower, Harwood International’s proposed project near McKinnon and Wolf streets will contain retail space and an apartment tower.
“Our planned Harwood Village will have at least seven restaurants and a grocery store that will serve takeout food,” Barbier-Mueller said. “All of those buildings will have direct access to the Katy Trail, so if you want to bike to work, you can.”
With construction of the Woodall Rodgers Park connecting Uptown to the downtown Arts District, the central business district will be more closely linked.
“This area has really taken on an active life, and I think it’s becoming a real city,” Barbier-Mueller said.
Residential and retail
Residential and retail activity in Uptown is also rebounding.
Developer Gables Residential has broken ground on just under 300 units in its apartment project near the Katy Trail between Fairmount and Routh streets. Gables is already a major rental landlord in Uptown.
And in Cityplace on Blackburn Street, developer JLB Partners is about to begin construction on a 194-unit apartment project that will cost more than $30 million.
Inland American Communities is about 90 percent leased at its new 227-unit Cityville Katy Trail apartments on Lemmon Avenue and Cole Avenue.
“Overall, the apartment market down in Uptown is doing very well — even better than the downtown stuff,” said Greg Willett, vice president with apartment analyst MPF Research. “We are pretty optimistic about the urban core in the next few years.”
With occupancy over 95 percent, landlords are ratcheting up rents, Willett said.
“The big story for the Uptown market is the rent growth — up 9.5 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier,” he said.
And with fewer apartment deals in the development pipeline, there won’t be many units coming on the market this year.
“It is looking pretty sparse in terms of new product deliveries,” Willett said.
Of course, developers are working on that.
Cityplace Co. president Neal Sleeper said he’s already getting a lot of tire kickers for the building sites left in the area.
“I think the prospects are very good that we’ll get construction under way on another building in the next year,” Sleeper said. “It’s quite likely that the freeway building sites we have at Blackburn and Lemmon and North Central Expressway will end up being office projects.”
Cityplace space
Sleeper said retail space in Cityplace — including the popular West Village complex — is staying full.
“And for every space we empty, we have three deals working on it,” he said.
Cityplace is talking to a range of tenants from restaurants to offices about taking over the former Borders Books space at McKinney and Lemmon, he said.
“The only big hole in the West Village area is that Borders store,” said broker Jack Gosnell of UCR Urban. “Prices are holding up in the area, and the sales volumes are very steady.
“The market seems to be bouncing back real strong.”
UCR estimates almost 20,000 people live in Uptown and have an average income of more than $82,000.
Restaurant space in Uptown is doing particularly well, Gosnell said.
“Where we are really weak is for neighborhood services,” he said. “We need another strong grocery component in Uptown.”
The only large retail vacancies are in the Victory Park project, which has suffered retrenchment over the last few years. The future of the big mixed-use project on Uptown’s western edge is still up in the air.
Earlier this year, Cousins Properties took over management of Victory Park, and it is still working on repositioning the development.

Major real estate investor buys Fairmont Dallas for $69 million

2011-08-09T08:00:00.000-07:00

A major real estate trust said Tuesday it has purchased the Fairmont Dallas for $69 million, marking the second acquisition of a historic Dallas hotel in two weeks.
Inland American Lodging Group Inc., a Florida subsidiary of Illinois-based Inland American Real Estate Trust Inc., takes possession of a 42-year-old fixture on the Dallas skyline. The Fairmont Dallas opened in 1969 as one of the first luxury hotels in Texas. The hotel, with 545 guestrooms in two towers and 70,000 square feet of meeting space, received $14.9 million in renovations in the past four years.
The purchase, from California-based Pacific Coast Capital Partners and DiNapoli Capital Partners, also adds to Inland American’s presence downtown. Last October, Inland American acquired the 407-room Westin City Center downtown and rebranded it as a Marriott.
“The Fairmont Dallas fits all of our value and strategic investment criteria,” Marcel Verbaas, president and chief executive of an Inland American subsidiary, said in a prepared statement. “This transaction also extends our commitment to furthering the success of downtown Dallas and the Arts District.”
Most of the company’s Texas hotels fall into the “limited service” category with brands such as Courtyard and Residence Inn, which appeal largely to business travelers.
“Now we’re starting to get more into the full-service, luxury space,” said Dan Lombardo, senior investor relations manager for the REIT.
Dallas hotels have been especially attractive to investors of late. Last week, Rosewood Corp. and St. Louis-based Maritz, Wolff & Co. sold five Rosewood-branded hotels to Hong Kong investors. The properties included the Rosewood Crescent Hotel and the Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek.
Lombardo said his company was drawn to North Texas’ resilient economy, population growth and appeal as a convention destination.
“Texas is an area we’re looking at not only for lodging but also for other property types,” he said, noting that Inland American also owns industrial, office and multifamily buildings.

Perot’s Hillwood buying land for more development

2011-08-09T07:53:00.000-07:00

Ross Perot Jr.’s AllianceTexas project north of Fort Worth is already one of the country’s biggest developments.
But the project is about to grow even larger with additional land acquisitions and development along Interstate 35W.
“It’s hard to say for an 18,000-acre program we are running out of land,” Perot said Tuesday. “We are starting to look for land to grow our program north.”
Perot’s Hillwood Development Co. recently acquired a 158-acre tract from lenders at I-35W and FM 1171.
“It has very good commercial zoning ready to go,” said Perot, who met with reporters following media tours of the property.
And Hillwood is about to begin work on a 3,300-acre former ranch it owns on I-35W in Denton County.
“It’s mostly going to be residential and commercial,” Perot said. “It’s a wonderful piece of property; it’s in the path of growth.
“Our residential team is putting together plans and lining up homebuilders,” he said.
AllianceTexas — which the Perot family started back in the 1980s — is now about 40 percent developed. More than 28,000 people work in the 65-square-mile project, which is located in both Tarrant and Denton counties.
There are about 7,500 homes and apartments in the community.
And millions of square feet of warehouses, office and retail space have been built.
“A lot of our land has been developed,” Perot said. “We are actively pursing acquisitions.”
Hillwood has purchased residential community land in Austin and Las Vegas.
With the local real estate market recovering, Hillwood is first concentrating on further residential and retail development at AllianceTexas.
“We have a couple hundred apartments that are up, but we have 10,000 on the drawing boards,” Perot said. “We should be starting Phase 2 this fall.
“We are going to build as fast as the market lets us build.”
Perot is also scouting more land buys for his residential development firm, Hillwood Communities.
“Our residential guys are looking for property all over North Texas,” he said. “All of our communities are out of lots.”
AllianceTexas has been best known for the millions of square feet of industrial space, the commercial airport and the huge rail cargo facility.
But for the last couple of years, the warehouse building part of the operation has “been a little sluggish,” Hillwood Properties president Mike Berry said.
“We still have over 1 million square feet of corporate-driven construction under way,” Berry said. “We have a tremendous amount of future development in the pipeline we are going to do.
“There’s land left for 35 to 40 million square feet of industrial,” he said.
Hillwood also continues to be an owner of about 27 acres of land in the Victory Park project in Dallas’ Uptown district.
Perot said Hillwood is focusing on developing a vacant tract fronting Woodall Rodgers that’s next to the Perot Museum of Nature & Science, which is under construction.
“That’s the next development play,” he said. “We have zoning for more than 1 million square feet on that site.”

2011-08-07T16:50:00.000-07:00

You Know That Empty Lot in Front of Downtown Farmers Market? Town Homes!

By Robert Wilonsky

On and off in recent years there have been several attempts to fill that vacant lot across Marilla from the Dallas Farmers Market , and each plan has gone nowhere. Which is why I got interested when I saw this : This morning the Farmers Market TIF District Board of Directors met to discuss something called the Farmers Market Square project. I called the Office of Economic Development for more info, and Karl Stundins, area redevelopment manager, confirmed: Yup, this is supposed to go in that lot, fingers crossed.

Stundins says it's a 110-unit, 236,900-square-foot town-home project spearheaded by Houston developer Frank Liu of InTown Homes , who hopes to plant "moderately priced" for-sale properties on the lot -- which is more or less one of the centerpieces of theDowntown Dallas 360 plan .

"We worked with Brent Brown at the CityDesign Studio to look at the site plan and street elevations, and they did a lot of modifications to get to this point," says Stundins, who sent the conceptual renderings you see above and after the jump. "We also looked at Downtown Dallas 360 and looked at that site as more moderately priced. The land's expensive, which makes it harder to do for-sale at really, really inexpensive [prices]. But the units will be priced at the lower end of what's for sale downtown."

The reason it's on the Farmers Market TIF board agenda: Liu, who expects the development to run around $33 million, is seeking $3 million in TIF incentives, which the board suggests the city council approve after it returns from summer vacation. (It'll go in front of the Economic Development Committee before the whole council espies the project.) Stundins says of all the projects proposed for the cite, this one "seems like it's going to happen, and they're looking to the city for support from the TIF district. It's contingent upon that."

If Liu gets the TIF incentive, he would expect to begin building by the end of December, with completion date set for September 30, 2013.

But Stundins knows there will be objections; he's already heard from folks who want to know why the project doesn't contain a retail component, or at least a live-work piece on the ground floor. That was part of a previously planned project set to go on the site, but Stundins says it's much more difficult to demand that with a town-home development.

"The city overall has a larger concern with Farmers Market," he says. "The city wants to privatize it, but we only got one bid, and retail's difficult down there. You don't want to put in retail if nobody shops there. Marilla, because of City Hall Plaza, doesn't really go anywhere. Eventually we'll have to look at: Is there a better way to use our resources with Farmers Market and what's the appropriate amount of retail space. There's more work we have to do.

"And it's difficult, because if you look at the space, 20 percent is allocated to shopping and 80 percent to storage and trucks. The question is: For downtown land, is that the most efficient use?"

Harvard Companies, Inc. Brokers Downtown Dallas Farmers Market Site for Town Homes

2011-06-30T07:43:00.000-07:00

Categories: City Hall, Development

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Click to embiggen plans for the town homes on the lot across from Dallas Farmers Market

Why Now is the Time to Buy

2011-05-10T09:34:00.000-07:00

Considering how the economy has been over the past few years, many people view the optimistic predictions about the Austin real estate market cynically. However, what can't be denied is that economists are encouraging people to buy now and are predicting that we will see a strengthening economy by the end of 2011. Charles Plosser explains that “[c]onsumer spending continues to expand at a reasonably robust pace, and business investment, particularly on equipment and software, continues to support overall growth.” Furthermore, “the nonresidential real estate sector is likely to improve as the overall economy gains ground.”

So what does this mean? Simply put, you only have a few months left to buy at rock-bottom prices with low interest rates. If the idea that interest rates are low shocks you, you would be surprised to learn that, in reality, interest rates are the lowest they've been in the past 50 years. MoneySense Editor Heinz Bulos comments that “[a] good time to buy a [. . .] home is when interest rates are low, like this year. This will allow you to lock in a low, fixed rate for a 25-year mortgage.”

And if you're worried about those mortgage payments, look around and you'll notice that there's been a big drop in prices “on the order of 30% nationwide since 2006, and as much as 55% in the hardest hit markets,” as CNN informs us. But remember that part about how “you only have a few months left to buy at rock-bottom prices”? That's because these low prices are mainly because of the incredibly low demand in the real estate market right now. While you can currently buy a house at the fraction of the price you would have paid years ago, you should go ahead and buy now to make sure that you can get that low price before the market fully rebounds.

What you want to take away from this is that, after all of the anxiety of the past few years of economic rockiness, the public is regaining their faith in buying real estate. If you want to get the best deal you should beat the crowd and buy now. So get out there and grab it while you can!

James Kim writes for Austin Real Estate service Homecity.com. HomeCity combines powerful online Austin MLS search technology and other online tools with personalized real estate services to provide clients with the knowledge they need to make the right buying and selling decisions.

Schoolchildren go green for the Earth Day Dallas Festival in Arts District

2011-04-23T15:43:00.000-07:00

Thousands of Dallas schoolchildren swarmed the Arts District on Friday, eager to learn about the environment.

Downtown Dallas will turn “green” this weekend for the two-day Earth Day Dallas Festival, organized by a nonprofit agency headed up by Trammell S. Crow. Its aim is to inspire and educate residents to think environmentally friendly.

Dallas Morning News Link: http://www.dallasnews.com/news/education/headlines/20110422-schoolchildren-go-green-for-the-earth-day-dallas-festival-in-arts-district.ece

DMagazine’s RealPoints - new blog on North Texas Commercial Real Estate

2011-04-15T11:07:00.000-07:00

DMagazine has a great new blog on Commercial Real Estate activity in North Texas: DRealPoints.

New Residential Activity in Dallas

2011-04-15T10:59:00.000-07:00

Steve Brown: Flurry of “for sale” signs emerges

Sitting on my porch swing, I see signs of the spring housing market popping up along the street.Prudential, Virginia Cook, Keller Williams, Ebby Halliday, Remax — it seems like every week another company banner is unfurled.Seven houses on my block are no ... Read Full Story

BAYLOR CHARLES A. SAMMONS CANCER CENTER AT DALLAS COMPLETED

2011-03-15T13:06:00.000-07:00

DALLAS -- MEDCO Construction has recently completed the $128 million Baylor Charles A. Sammons Cancer Center at Dallas. The 10-story, 467,000-square-foot facility is the largest outpatient cancer center in North Texas, and it is expected to earn LEED Gold certification. Features include a two-story parking garage under the building; a dedicated central utility plant inside the building; and a radial connector bridge spanning two parking garages, the outpatient cancer center and Baylor's inpatient cancer hospital. Perkins+Will served as the project architect. The public grand opening is March 26.

Texas Apartment Rents

2011-03-01T14:41:00.001-08:00

Apartment occupancy and rents were up in January throughout the Texas markets covered by ALN Apartment Data.
Here is how eight Texas cities fared overall in January, according to ALN.

	Occupancy, January 2011	Change from January 2010	Effective Rent, January 2011	Change from January 2010
Austin	93.6%	up 5.1%	$838	up 6.5%
Dallas	90.4%	up 4.2%	$773	up 2.5%
Fort Worth	89.2%	up 3.6%	$675	up 2.2%
Houston	87.3%	up 2.9%	$747	up 0.3%
San Antonio	90.5%	up 3.4%	$704	up 2.7%
Lubbock	92.8%	up 3.1%	$623	up 2.2%
Amarillo	91.7%	up 3%	$596	up 1.4%
Abilene	92.8%	up 2.1%	$588	up 1.3%
Corpus Christi	91.6%	up 3%	$696	up 3.1%

Statler Hilton Hotel Downtown Dallas Sold

2011-02-28T14:56:00.000-08:00

Good news for downtown Dallas. The shuttered 710 room Statler Hilton Hotel in Commerce Street sold today to a developer who intend to redevelop the city block into housing and retail. - Randall Turner, Harvard Companies, Inc.

New Locations for Walmart & Sam's in Dallas, Texas

2011-02-28T12:58:00.000-08:00

DALLAS (Dallas Morning News) – Walmart has announced that it will invest $200 million to open more than a dozen new projects in North Texas.

Locations for six stores have been announced:

Supercenter at I-35 and Ledbetter Rd.
Neighborhood Market near South Buckner Blvd. and Scyene Rd.
Neighborhood Market near North Hampton Rd. and Fort Worth Ave.
Sam’s Club at Webb Chapel and West Northwest Hwy.
Supercenter near Webb Chapel and West Northwest Hwy.
Supercenter on North Central Expy. at Midpark Rd., north of LBJ Frwy.

The expansion will more than double the retailer's presence in the area and will create thousands of jobs in North Texas.

Economic Update Today

2011-02-28T12:47:00.000-08:00

Existing home sales rose 2.7% in January to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.36 million units from 5.28 million units in December. The inventory of unsold homes on the market declined 5.1% to 3.38 million, a 7.6-month supply at the current sales pace, down from an 8.2-month supply in December.

The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted composite index of mortgage applications for the week ending February 18 rose 13.2%. Refinancing applications increased 17.8%. Purchase volume rose 5.1%.

The consumer confidence index rose to 70.4 in February from an upwardly revised 64.8 in January. It was the highest level since February 2008. The index was benchmarked at 100 in 1985, a year chosen because it was neither a peak nor a trough in consumer confidence.

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller 20-city housing price index — on a non-seasonally adjusted basis — fell 1% in December after a 1% decrease in November. On a year-over-year basis, prices fell 2.4% compared with December 2009.

Initial claims for unemployment benefits fell by 22,000 to 391,000 for the week ending February 19. Continuing claims for the week ending February 12 fell by 145,000 to 3.79 million.

Orders for durable goods — items expected to last three or more years — rose 2.7% in January after a revised 0.4% decrease in December. Excluding volatile transportation-related goods, orders posted a monthly decrease of 3.6%.

New home sales fell 12.6% in January to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 284,000 units from a revised rate of 325,000 units in December. Economists had expected a pace of 310,000 units.

BANKRUPT BORDERS SHUTTERING TEN TEXAS STORES

2011-02-21T14:53:00.002-08:00

DALLAS (Dallas Business Journal) – Borders Group Inc. has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as part of its plan to restructure operations.
Borders will close about 200 stores nationwide, a 30 percent net reduction in its stores.
Seven stores in North Texas and three in the Austin area will close within the next few weeks. Those are the only stores of Texas' 28 Borders locations that will close at this time.

MINORITIES FUEL TEXAS' GROWTH SPURT

2011-02-21T14:53:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON, D.C. (U.S. Census Bureau, Texas Tribune) – Texas' population increased by 20.6 percent during the last decade, with minorities accounting for 89 percent of the growth.

According to data released yesterday by the U.S Census Bureau, the state's Hispanic population grew by 42 percent between 2000 and 2010. They made up 37.6 percent of the state's more than 25.1 million residents last year. The black population grew by 22 percent and accounted for 11.8 percent of last year's population.

The white population increased by 4.2 percent and accounted for 45.3 percent.

Asians made up 3.8 percent of the state's total population last year.

The following tables show population increases for certain Texas cities and counties.

City	2010 population	Percent Increase Since 2000
Houston	2,099,451	7.5
San Antonio	1,327,407	16
Dallas	1,197,816	.8
Austin	790,390	20.4
Fort Worth	741,206	38.6
El Paso	649,121	15.2
Arlington	365,438	9.8
Corpus Christi	305,215	10
Plano	259,841	17
Laredo	236,091	33.7

County	2010 Population	Percent Increase Since 2000
Harris	4,092,459	20.3
Dallas	2,368,139	6.7
Tarrant	1,809,034	25.1
Bexar	1,714,733	23.1
Travis	1,024,266	26.1
El Paso	800,647	17.8
Collin	782,341	59.1
Hidalgo	774,769	36.1
Denton	662,614	53
Fort Bend	585,375	65.1

JV COMMENCES $45 MILLION PROJECT NEAR SMU DALLAS

2011-02-08T16:58:00.000-08:00

DALLAS (GlobeSt) – A newly formed joint venture between Prescott Realty Group, Northwestern Mutual and AREA Property Partners has broken ground on a mixed-use development near Southern Methodist University (SMU).

The $45 million project on the old Shamburger Lumberyard site consists of 417 apartments and 9,100 sf of retail. It is within walking distance of the DART Mockingbird rail station and a quarter mile from SMU’s campus.

This development is the final phase in the revitalization of the University Crossing neighborhood.

The first phase was construction of a garage on the 6060 North Central Expy. site adjacent to the DART line. The second phase was construction of the Shelby, a 55-loft project with 3,500 sf of retail located on SMU Blvd.

Humphreys & Partners designed the final phase, which consists of two levels of podium parking with street-facing retail plus three four-story buildings on top of the podium. A mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom units will be available with an average unit size of 800 sf.

Recovery? Trouble Ahead in America

2011-02-04T10:56:00.000-08:00

Issue January 2009 January 2011 %Chg

Avg. retail price/gallon gas in U.S.	$1.83	$3.104	*69.6%*	¹
Crude oil, European Brent (barrel)	$43.48	$99.02	*127.7%*	²
Crude oil, West TX Inter. (barrel)	$38.74	$91.38	*135.9%*	²
Gold: London (per troy oz.)	$853.25	$1,369.50	*60.5%*	²
Corn, No.2 yellow, Central IL	$3.56	$6.33	*78.1%*	²
Soybeans, No. 1 yellow, IL	$9.66	$13.75	*42.3%*	²
Sugar, cane, raw, world, lb. fob	$13.37	$35.39	*164.7%*	²
Unemployment rate, non-farm, overall	7.6%	9.4%	*23.7%*	³
Unemployment rate, blacks	12.6%	15.8%	*25.4%*	³
Number of unemployed	11,616,000	14,485,000	*24.7%*	³
Number of fed. employees, ex. military (curr = 12/10 prelim)	2,779,000	2,840,000	*2.2%*	³
Real median household income (2008 v 2009)	$50,112	$49,777	*-0.7%*	⁴
Number of food stamp recipients (curr = 10/10)	31,983,716	43,200,878	*35.1%*	⁵
Number of unemployment benefit recipients (curr = 12/10)	7,526,598	9,193,838	*22.2%*	⁶
Number of long-term unemployed	2,600,000	6,400,000	*146.2%*	³
Poverty rate, individuals (2008 v 2009)	13.2%	14.3%	*8.3%*	⁴
People in poverty in U.S. (2008 v 2009)	39,800,000	43,600,000	*9.5%*	⁴
U.S. rank in Economic Freedom World Rankings	5	9	*n/a*	¹⁰
Present Situation Index (curr = 12/10)	29.9	23.5	*-21.4%*	¹¹
Failed banks (curr = 2010 + 2011 to date)	140	164	*17.1%*	¹²
U.S. dollar versus Japanese yen exchange rate	89.76	82.03	*-8.6%*	²
U.S. money supply, M1, in billions (curr = 12/10 prelim)	1,575.1	1,865.7	*18.4%*	¹³
U.S. money supply, M2, in billions (curr = 12/10 prelim)	8,310.9	8,852.3	*6.5%*	¹³
National debt, in trillions	$10.627	$14.052	*32.2%*	¹⁴

Just take this last item: In the last two years we have accumulated national debt at a rate more than 27 times as fast as during the rest of our entire nation's history.

(1) U.S. Energy Information Administration; (2) Wall Street Journal; (3) Bureau of Labor Statistics; (4) Census Bureau; (5) USDA; (6) U.S. Dept. of Labor; (7) FHFA; (8) Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller; (9) RealtyTrac; (10) Heritage Foundation and WSJ; (11) The Conference Board; (12) FDIC; (13) Federal Reserve; (14) U.S. Treasury

December 2010 Home Sales

2011-02-03T14:22:00.000-08:00

COLLEGE STATION (Real Estate Center) – Just over 15,740 existing homes were sold in Texas last month, according to newly released data from Texas Multiple Listing Services (MLS). That's a 3 percent drop from December 2009.
Meanwhile, the median price for an existing home increased by 4 percent last month to $150,500, and there was a 7.2-month inventory.
December 2010 MLS data for many Texas cities (current as of Jan. 27, 2011) are available on the Real Estate Center website. Here is a sampling:

	Sales	Change from Last Year	Median Price	Change from Last Year	Months' Inventory
Austin	1,575	up 5%	$192,100	up 2%	5.6
College Station- Bryan	130	down 2%	$153,300	down 2%	8.4
Dallas	3,175	down 7%	$163,000	up 9%	6.4
Fort Worth	591	down 6%	$121,600	up 9%	6.8
Galveston	77	up 48%	$183,300	up 47%	14.7
Houston	4,748	down 4%	$157,800	up 4%	7.4
Kerrville	34	up 3%	$155,000	up 16%	22
Laredo	64	down 32%	$128,900	up 10%	8
Nacogdoches	25	no change	$134,000	down 1%	7
Palestine	28	up 33%	$86,700	up 20%	12
Paris	29	up 45%	$102,500	up 28%	12.3
San Antonio	1,334	down 5%	$155,000	up 5%	7.6
San Marcos	24	up 50%	$130,000	down 7%	7
Sherman- Denison	75	down 10%	$93,300	up 7%	11
Victoria	54	up 10%	$134,300	up 4%	6.2
Texas	15,744	down 3%	$150,500	up 4%	7.2

Major Redevelopment Project Moves Forward Downtown

2011-01-30T07:20:00.000-08:00

400 North Ervay (Historic Post Office Building) Breaks Ground

Downtown Dallas, Inc. (DDI), together with Todd Interests, is thrilled to announce the commencement of a major adaptive reuse project in the heart of Downtown Dallas. The Historic United States Post Office and Courthouse, to be known as 400 North Ervay, will be converted into 78 classic apartments representing the finest in modern luxury living with over 6,000 square feet of interior amenity space and a 20,000sf roof top terrace. The first residences will be available for occupancy by late summer of this year.

Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert, a project proponent, commented, "Dallas is well known for the quality of its new architecture. That is why we've attracted Pritzker Prize winning architects for everything from performance halls and museums to our skyscrapers. Less known though are the great efforts made to rediscover and redevelop our historic past. The Historic Post Office will be a tremendous example of a restored landmark that adds retail, residents and jobs to our growing Downtown."

Built in 1930, 400 North Ervay served for the next forty years as the home to multiple Federal bureaus and agencies, two US District Courts and the U.S. Post Office. The restoration/re-development of the property is being spearheaded by Dallas based developer Todd Interests. At completion, 400 North Ervay will be transformed into a signature mixed use development.

Part of the mixed-use components within the development include "The Venue at 400 North Ervay" which offers prospective users the opportunity to rent the immaculately restored Historic courtroom with its ornate coffered ceilings and rich paneled walls for special events. The 20,000 square foot roof top terrace and garden is being designed by the acclaimed landscape architecture firm Talley Associates and will serve as a unique for rent feature as well. The project will also include another prime amenity, "The Market at 400 North Ervay", a 1,500 square foot Italian market & bakery with a coffee/expresso bar. It will serve the daily dining and grocery needs of the immediate residential and office clientele. 400 North Ervay is strategically positioned between The Main Street District and The Arts District, each only two blocks away. The main downtown DART Rail's Northern Line stops at the property.

Council Member Angela Hunt commented, "Shawn Todd's restoration of Dallas' old U.S. Post Office and Courthouse is a terrific example of historic preservation and adaptive reuse. His project is a win all the way around -- it restores a downtown landmark, it brings a tax-exempt property onto the tax rolls, and it helps create a vibrant downtown with a great mix of retail and residential."

400 North Ervay has been in the making for a number of years. Utilizing Historic Preservation Tax Credits and private investment, it is truly representative of the type of public-private partnerships that have rebuilt Dallas' city center. Said John Crawford, President & CEO of Downtown Dallas, Inc., "We have always believed in Shawn's vision for this property, set in the epicenter of Downtown. It is critical that the public and private sectors come together in this way to have our buildings preserved, restored and brought back to life in the new environment of Downtown."

"A tremendous amount of stewardship and responsibility goes with restoring such an architecturally significant and historical asset like 400 North Ervay," said Shawn Todd, President of Todd Interests. "The materials and craftsmanship that were utilized during the property's original construction could never be reproduced in cost or in skill."

"The old U.S. Post Office and Courthouse was on its way to becoming another vanishing historic government building. Today 400 North Ervay is not only a contributory member of Dallas' resurgent Downtown, it also demonstrates the power of re-using a historic asset for a new multi-use building," said Katherine Seale, Executive Director of Preservation Dallas. "By restoring its most significant spaces and features throughout the building, culminating in the historic Sarah T. Hughes courtroom, Todd Interests provides an enormous benefits to its tenants, visitors, and the public. The building is like no other in Downtown, and that kind of presence just cannot be re-created."

Gables Residential will manage the construction of the project. "The Post Office, with its signature architectural facade and interior elements, coupled with the building's rich Texas history, demanded an equally unique adaptive reuse of the building," said Doug Chesnut, Senior Vice President of Investments for Gables. "Todd Interests has done a masterful job of preserving the building's original design integrity. The iconic property could not be located in a better part of downtown Dallas!"

Finally, commenting on the path to the project's commencement, Todd said, "Without the help and encouragement of many critical partners, this project would not have come to fruition. Preservation Dallas has been key in facilitating moving the project down the path of restoration; Downtown Dallas, Inc. has served as a leader in telling the story that Downtown is happening, it's living and it's real; and the City along with the private development community have shown their faith in the area with significant investment over the last decade. In addition, Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson has been a key ally, a champion for the preservation of the property since the 1980's, as well as long time historical champion Neil Emmons, City Plan Commissioner. I am proud to move 400 North Ervay forward in the heart of Downtown Dallas."

RESIDENTIAL TOWER COMES TO DESIGN DISTRICT

2011-01-21T12:02:00.001-08:00

(Dallas Morning News) – Houston-based PM Realty Group is developing a 23-story apartment tower at 1400 Hi Line Dr. in the Dallas Design District across from Victory Park.
The 314-unit high rise with one-acre rooftop park will open in mid- to late 2012 and have 27,000 sf of retail. Partnering with the developer is The National Electric Benefit Fund, a retirement account for electrical contractors.
Gromatzky Dupree & Associates designed the tower and Rogers-O’Brien Construction is the general contractor for the project.
PM Realty also built the residential tower in Dallas’ Park Ln. complex across from NorthPark Center mall.

COMPUCOM CAMPUS SELLS IN DALLAS

2011-01-19T14:34:00.000-08:00

CompuCom headquarters in Dallas

DALLAS — The 255,378-square-foot CompuCom world headquarters campus, located at 7171 Forest Ln. in Dallas near the intersection of Forest Lane and Central Expressway, has changed hands. W.P. Carey & Co.'s (NYSE:WPC) non-traded REIT affiliates, CPA®:14 and CPA®:15 have sold the property to Optima Ventures for an undisclosed price. The office property is situated on nearly 20 acres and includes an eight-story, 162,138-square-foot office building and a three-story, 93,240-square-foot data center facility. Both buildings are fully leased on a triple net basis to CompuCom, an IT outsourcing company. Holliday Fenoglio Fowler (HFF) represented the seller.

Bankrupt Cities in 2011?

2011-01-03T15:37:00.000-08:00

I’m starting to see a few reports on this and the implications could be significant. States like California have been in big financial trouble for quite some time. However, some towns and cities are under massive financial strain as well.

Research analyst Meredith Whitney—who correctly predicted the credit crunch—was on 60 Minutes in December with a warning that between 50 and 100 American cities could go bankrupt in 2011, which would cost hundreds of billions of dollars. This would include billions in municipal bond defaults.

Apparently, there is no federal response plan in place if such a disaster happened (picture thousands on unemployment no longer receiving checks; government workers, with paychecks that can’t be cashed, walking away from their jobs—including positions like public school teachers, 9-1-1 operators, police, fire, city sanitation workers, etc.).

Whitney began warning about such issues as far back as September 2010, when she told Bloomberg Television in an interview that the federal government will face pressure to bail out failing states within the next 12 months.

Not a pretty picture. Sort of makes the issue of declining home values and rising foreclosures look minor, in comparison. Whitney, herself, said, “…next to housing this is the single most important issue in the U.S. and certainly the biggest threat to the U.S. economy.” - Short Sales Daily News

2010-12-10T15:07:00.000-08:00

Dallas Approves 24-Hour-a-Day Panhandling Ban

By GRANT STINCHFIELD and OMAR VILLAFRANCA

Updated 10:52 PM CST, Wed, Dec 8, 2010

BUZZ UP!

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Dallas has toughened its stance on panhandling.

The City Council passed an ordinance Wednesday that bans people from stopping others on the street and asking for money 24 hours a day in downtown, Victory Park, Deep Ellum and parts of Uptown.

Panhandlers can be fined $500 for panhandling in those areas once the ordinance takes effect Jan. 1.

"We think it's very important," said John Crawford of Downtown Dallas Inc., an advocate of downtown. "People like to feel safe and secure both from a reality and a perception point of view, and panhandling unfortunately makes them feel uncomfortable."

The ordinance expands a previous ban on panhandling between sunset and sunrise in downtown Dallas.

It's no coincidence that the enhancements came before the Super Bowl crowd descends on North Texas.

"We want them to have a good experience downtown, and we want them to leave and come back with that experience in mind," Crawford said.

But business owners in another part of Dallas say they would like to see the ban expanded even further.

"It's annoying, and it's been an ongoing issue, and it's something I don't want our customers and our walk-up customers that are visiting us for the first time to have to see," said Dave Richardson, who owns Skivvies in the Cedar Springs business district. "We keep it pretty well taken care of during the day, but in the evenings when we're not here, sometimes there are more of them that collect."

Richardson said panhandling isn't a big problem in the area but wants to do something about it before it becomes an issue.

Deputy Chief Malik Aziz said Dallas police works with businesses to keep panhandling to a minimum.

"We send out our officers, they take note of different locations that have chronic problems and they address them," he said.

The area covered by the Northwest Division, including Cedar Springs, has the largest homeless population other than the downtown Central Business District, Aziz said.

The Cedar Springs Merchants Association is actively trying to push panhandlers out of the area with a patrol of its own.

"We actually hired a person that will patrol the street up and down, the sidewalk," said Scott Whittall, association president and owner of Buli's Cafe. "He's not a security guard, he's not a policeman. He's just someone that shoos people away."

Whittall said the private patrol works well and makes customers feel safer.

He said area businesses depend on walk-up business, which is partly why the association decided to hire outside help.

"As an association, we've really seen the problem increase," Whittall said. "Our businesses are a lot of walk-up business. We need the business to come in and out all day long."

Meanwhile, some of those who live, work and visit downtown Dallas remain skeptical that the panhandling ban will have an impact there.

"It's not going to work," tourist Jay Hoffman said. "You can always figure out some way to beat the system."

Dallas said it hopes the ban will deter professional beggars who make a living from panhandling.

New Shopping Center NW Highway and Skillman

2010-12-02T13:37:00.000-08:00

Timber Creek is owned by Trammell Crow and located at Northwest Highway and Skillman. Construction has started on what will ultimately include Walmart, Sam's Club, JC Penneys, Bank of America, Whataburger, and Chick-fil-A. Whatever month they finish those food joints, we ask that they add the word "fest" to it and please invite us back. See you in ... Junetoberfest?

LoopNet shows Timber Creek Crossing (rendered above) has a 40k SF space available for a NNN lease at $44/SF and will be ready in June. The gross leasable area in the neighborhood center is 490k SF. CBRE's Jeff Kittleson and Scott Head are currently marketing the project, which still has a few retail pad sites available.

Parkland Hospital Break Ground in Dallas

2010-12-02T13:14:00.000-08:00

Dirt started moving last month on the new $1.27B Parkland Hospital campus project at the NEC of Harry Hines Boulevard and Medical District Drive.

The project includes an 862-bed hospital, outpatient clinics, and parking. The financing plan is a $747M combo of tax and revenue bonds—$350M from Parkland’s current and future cash reserves and $150M in philanthropic dollars raised by Parkland Foundation. To date, the foundation has raised more than $90M toward the project.

The 2.5M SF campus will open in 2014.

DART will complete Green Line and open 15 new stations December 6

2010-11-24T18:19:00.001-08:00

Completion of the 28-mile Green Line, the longest light rail construction project in North America, heralds a new era of choices for Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) passengers on Monday, December 6.

Completion of the Green Line from Buckner Boulevard and Elam Road in southeast Dallas to Frankford Road in Carrollton brings new opportunities and destinations, but also requires numerous bus and rail changes to avoid duplication of service. Details of the changes can be found in the service change brochures available on DART vehicles, inside transit centers, by visiting www.DART.org, or by calling 214-979-1111.

New stations open, rail schedules being adjusted

The debut of 15 new stations along the $1.8 billion, 28-mile Green Line is the most prominent part of the service change. The new stations on the southeast corridor in Dallas are Hatcher, Lawnview, Lake June, and Buckner stations. Market Center, Southwestern Medical District/Parkland, Inwood/Love Field, Burbank, Bachman, Walnut Hill/Denton, Royal Lane, Farmers Branch, Downtown Carrollton, Trinity Mills, and North Carrollton/Frankford stations open on the northwest corridor of the Green Line.

The Lake Highlands Station makes its debut between White Rock and LBJ/Skillman stations on the Blue Line. This is DART's first infill station.

Red, Blue, and Green line trains will run every 15 minutes during rush hours instead of every 10 minutes. Extra trains on the Red Line between Downtown Dallas and Parker Road, and on the Green Line between Bachman Station and Downtown Dallas, will produce a 7 1/2-minute frequency during the heaviest a.m. and p.m. ridership periods and new, through service between Bachman and Parker Road stations. Designated as Orange Line trains, they will be extended to Irving when Orange Line operations begin in 2012. Midday, evening, and weekend frequencies will remain unchanged, although specific departure and arrival times on all three lines may vary.

Look for bus schedule changes too

Major bus service changes on December 6 affect more than half of the 130 routes in the system. These changes are designed to complement the new rail network while eliminating costly duplication of service. Most routes in Pleasant Grove, the Stemmons Corridor, Medical District, and Northwest Dallas will see significant changes. Several northeast Dallas bus routes will be modified to reflect ridership patterns, while routes along the Jefferson Boulevard corridor through Oak Cliff and Cockrell Hill will undergo a major overhaul to streamline service.

Customers using buses along the Green Line will notice a number of changes as eighteen new routes will begin to support the new rail service while routes 8, 44, 185, 204, 247, 26, 37, 42, 50, 539, and 165 will be discontinued.

Other specific bus changes include:

Route 44 and Route 26 will no longer serve the Southwestern Medical District from downtown Dallas. This area will be connected to two Green Line stations (Southwestern Medical District/Parkland and Inwood/Love Field).
Bus routes connecting hospital facilities along Harry Hines to Southwestern Medical/District Parkland Station include 405, 408, 409, 453, and 544.
Bus routes connecting medical district facilities along Inwood to Inwood/Love Field Station include 526 and 527.
Children's Medical Center has bus service on routes 49, 525, and 822/823.
Route 165 connecting Pleasant Grove to downtown Dallas will no longer operate but downtown passengers will be able to access two new Green Line stations, Buckner and Lake June via new and revised bus routes 466, 467, 475, 591, 592, 594, 595, 597, and 842.
Bus route modifications in northeast Dallas will focus on reduction of costly route duplication, replacement of low-producing routes, and the opening of the Lake Highlands Station. Changes on several routes occur including the elimination of 519, rerouting of route 60, and the addition of route 467.
Changes are also coming to the busy Jefferson Corridor through Oak Cliff and Cockrell Hill. Changes include the elimination of routes 50, 76, and 510, along with the addition of alternative service on routes 376, 512, 311, and 521 and the extension of route 11 to Cockrell Hill.

TRE changes

Fares for the Trinity Railway Express (TRE) will not change. However the fare zone boundary is shifting from the Dallas/Tarrant County line to CentrePort/DFW Airport Station. The fare boundary will equalize fare options for both Dallas and Tarrant County customers and makes it possible from customers from either side of the region to travel to the airport for the same fare. More information on the TRE is available at www.trinityrailwayexpress.org.

KROENKE TAKES HOLD OF WALNUT HILL

2010-11-24T17:41:00.001-08:00

(Dallas Morning News) – Kroenke Holdings has formed a partnership to acquire a 42-acre vacant Walnut Hill property that has been for sale since plans fell through for a mixed-use development.
Provident Realty Advisors Inc. foreclosed on the property in October 2009 before construction began after Wachovia Bank had lent more than $40 million on the project.
Wells Fargo Bank took over the property from Wachovia and hired Holliday Fenoglio Fowler LP to find a buyer for the tract.
The property at the corner of North Central Expressway and Walnut Hill Lane was previously zoned for a $300 million complex of shopping, apartments and senior housing. However, Dallas-area retail brokers say it would be a challenge to rezone the land for another use after the amount of time put in to obtain the mixed-use qualification.
The DART rail station is two blocks from the site, which is also just north of NorthPark Center in Dallas.
Kroenke Holdings is owned by the billionaire sports team owner E. Stanley Kroenke, who owns the Denver Nuggets basketball team, the St. Louis Rams football club and the Colorado Avalanche hockey team.

Start-up developer Lang Partners building apartments in North Oak Cliff, plans more in Fort Worth

2010-11-24T17:35:00.000-08:00

By STEVE BROWN / The Dallas Morning News

stevebrown@dallasnews.com

A start-up Dallas apartment developer has two new projects – one in North Oak Cliff and one in Fort Worth.

Lang Partners has broken ground on a $30 million, urban-style rental community on Zang Boulevard near Colorado Boulevard and Lake Cliff Park.

The 260-unit, five-story apartment complex is being built on a vacant tract and will include commercial and retail space on the ground floor.

Dallas-based JHP Architecture designed the project.

Units in the project, which will open next summer, will average just over $1,000 a month in rent, Lang Partners vice president John Ausburn said Tuesday.

http://www.dentonrc.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/DN-lang_22bus.ART.State.Edition1.3ee22dd.html

Kroenke says it doesn't have plans in place yet for Walnut Hill site

2010-11-24T17:25:00.000-08:00

The new owners of a prime North Dallas development site say they aren't in a hurry to do anything with the land.

A partnership set up by Missouri-based Kroenke Holdings bought 42 acres at the northwest corner of Walnut Hill Lane and North Central Expressway on Nov. 12 from lenders who had foreclosed on the property.

The vacant land is zoned for a combination of retail, commercial, apartments and residential space.

Representatives of new owner E. Stanley Kroenke said in an announcement that they plan to "improve and develop the property over the coming years."

By Steve Brown/Dallas Morning News

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/112310dnbusWalnutHill.255bfdfbb.html