DALLAS FORT WORTH | Urban + Suburban P & C

[JoninATX]

Impressive..

[Texan]

These are exciting times for Dallas. I am considering moving back to downtown when my lease is up next year here in Las Colinas!!

[skys the limit]

.
Elm Place, a 1.3 million sf, 52 story skyscraper in Downtown Dallas
being renovated into a mixed-use tower with completion in 2014







Elm Place, formerly First National Bank Tower, is located at 1401 Elm Street in the Main Street District of Downtown Dallas. The skyscraper is 625 feet and 52 stories tall and has 1.3 million square feet of space. It has been vacant since January 2010 when the building was closed due to low occupancy rates.

Now, the 52 story tower will spring back to life as a mixed use tower with its primary focus as residential but with some office and retail on the lower floors (the third image above shows the allocation between uses in the renovated tower).

A Turkish investor has purchased the building and will be spending a minimum of $125 million on its renovation.

A condition for the investor to move forward was receiving $30 million in Tax Increment Financing (TIF) incentives from the City of Dallas, which was approved unanimously by the Dallas City Council on 08-11-11.

Interior demolition work begins in October 2011 with completion of the project in 2014. Upon its completion Elm Place will become the tallest residential tower in Dallas, eclipsing in feet Republic Center Tower II's 53 stories and the under construction Museum Tower's 42 stories.

The skyscraper was designed by architect George Dahl and remains a highly regarded mid-century architectural gem. It was under construction from 1961 to 1965.

At the time of its opening in 1965, it was the tallest building west of the Mississippi River, until surpassed by 555 California Street in San Francisco in 1969. It was the tallest in Texas until 1971, when One Shell Plaza in Houston took the title. In 1974, Renaissance Tower became the tallest in Dallas at that time. Today the 72 story, 921 foot tall Bank of America Tower is the City's current tallest.

The exterior, featuring a dark and light contrasting theme, was clad in more than 8 acres of dark gray glass and white marble imported from Greece.

The skyscraper is immediately adjacent to DART's Akard Street Station, a major Downtown rail transit center for DART.

The investor was quoted as saying ""I think the fact that [Dallas] is pro-business, pro-development, and everyone is eager to create jobs."

He is apparently eying other deals around town -- including the nine-story office building at 411 Akard.

Here is a more in-depth article published in the Dallas Observer on 08-11-11 discussing this incredible coup for the City of Dallas:

http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfa...elm_street.php

And here is a document that provides detailed specifics concerning the renovation plans:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/62109197/1...-Redevelopment
.

[skys the limit]

Joule Hotel expanding in Downtown Dallas
August 10, 2011


The Joule, a Luxury Collection Hotel by chrisjonesfoto, on Flickr


Joule Penthouse by the urban fabric, on Flickr


Joule Pool by the urban fabric, on Flickr


The Joule Hotel is a 21 story, five-star, 129-room boutique hotel in Downtown Dallas developed by Headington Hotels.

Located at 1530 Main Street, between Akard Street and Ervay Street, the building was constructed in 1927 as the Dallas National Bank Building, and was known later as the SPG Building.

Positioned at the end of Stone Street Plaza, it is centralized in the Main Street District of Downtown Dallas and is one of two Gothic high-rises in the city, along with the Kirby Building. The Dallas National Bank completed construction of the office building in 1927.

It has garnered notoriety for its 10th floor pool that cantilevers eight feet over the easement below. The architect of the project was ARCHITEXAS (Architecture, Planning and Historic Preservation, Inc.) in Dallas.

The hotel interior was developed by world renowned designer, Adam Tihany, and the lobby level is home to the highly acclaimed Charlie Palmer restaurant.

The Joule Hotel has been a major reason Main Street in Downtown Dallas has made a BIG comeback.

The city and the Joule's developer have planned to expand the project for sometime, helping further redevelop areas of Main and Commerce streets, and the expansion work is now underway.

The Dallas City Council has just approved $3 million in additional tax-increment financing money to help the project expand even further.

The developer plans to boost his investment from $76,500,000 to $98,000,000.

Here's what's being added.

- 1503 Commerce Street - Construction of a new 9,221 square foot building
adjacent to 1505 Commerce
- Space will house a sales office for additional employees
- The sales office will focus on event sales for the hotel
Acquisition of 1608 Main Street.
Retail Promenade (Main Street Alley located between 1604 and 1608 Main
Street)
- Transformation of the pedestrian alley into a retail promenade
- The retail space in 1608 and 1604 Main Street will open onto the
promenade

Commerce Streetscape Improvement
- The Joule black granite sidewalk, lighting and landscape treatments will
be extended off-site to the Neiman Marcus Café
- A designated valet zone will be created
- Public Utility Improvement
- Abandonment of City of Dallas sewer main currently crossing
development property requiring revisions to Neiman Marcus waste lines
- Enlargement and structural restoration of Oncor Vault in the right of
way at 1604 Main


This fantastic Downtown Dallas hotel project takes additional older and empty commercial buildings off the market and is now turning them into very high quality hotel use as well.

This is now the fourth hotel construction project currently underway in Downtown Dallas (the Omni Dallas, the NYLO Hotel, Homewood Suites by Hilton Hotel and The Joule).


An article from 08-10-11 in the Dallas Morning News describing the project in more detail:

http://cityhallblog.dallasnews.com/a...expanded.html#

[jowens]

Love what's happening with the iconic 60's towers in Dallas. The Republic Center and now Elm St. Tower. Hopefully the old lighting scheme will come back for the Elm.

[skys the limit]

Originally Posted by jowens

Love what's happening with the iconic 60's towers in Dallas. The Republic Center and now Elm St. Tower. Hopefully the old lighting scheme will come back for the Elm.

It is really exciting to see them being brought back to vibrant life and use. And both the Republic Center towers and Elm Place are re-born as residential instead of office which was their original purpose.

Have not heard yet whether the iconic vertical lighting stretching the length of the 52 story tower that was seen on Elm Place for decades will return or not.

[TTU Arch]

Originally Posted by skys the limit

It is really exciting to see them being brought back to vibrant life and use. And both the Republic Center towers and Elm Place are re-born as residential instead of office which was their original purpose.

Have not heard yet whether the iconic vertical lighting stretching the length of the 52 story tower that was seen on Elm Place for decades will return or not.

Only one of the Republic towers was converted to residential. The one with the spire. The taller tower is filled with office workers. Nonetheless.......

[skys the limit]

^^^^^^
Thanks for the information!

All this time I had thought that both of the Republic Center Towers, the 36 story Tower I and the 53 story Tower II, had been renovated into new residential that was called "Gables Republic Tower", or something like that.

But I did look it up and you are entirely correct - it is the 36 story Tower I, with the iconic rocket ship spire with revolving searchlight, that is residential and was renamed to "Gables Republic Tower".

The 53 story Tower II is an office tower. And there is actually a Tower III in the Republic Center complex of buildings, at 8 stories, that was also renovated and remains as office.

Thanks again, I appreciate it!

[JoninATX]

Methodist Health System Board of Directors Approves $135 Million Facility Expansion Plan

Methodist Dallas Medical Center will commit more than $108 million to expand its emergency, critical care, and surgery departments with a new six-story trauma and critical and surgical care tower. The 248,000-square-foot critical care tower will include
58 new emergency rooms, six trauma suites, eight surgical suites, a 36-bed critical care unit, and the ability to expand to 11 stories for future growth. Methodist Dallas expansion and improvements are scheduled to begin construction in early 2012 with completion in summer 2014.

Methodist Charlton Medical Center will invest $8.5 million to add 36 new patient care beds in the recently opened patient care tower, the project will increase the hospital’s overall operational bed capacity from 259 beds to 294 beds. Methodist Charlton will begin construction immediately with expected completion in fall 2012.

http://www.methodisthealthsystem.org...d=4195&fr=true

[skys the limit]

^^^^^^^
Methodist Dallas is located in far North Oak Cliff, immediately across the Trinity River, and faces Downtown Dallas.

Here is how the new $108 million dollar emergency and critical care expansion at the Methodist Dallas Hospital campus will look placed among the other current campus buildings:




And immediately below is a rendering from BOKAPowell Architects, the architectural firm handling Methodist Dallas' overall expansion plans, that shows the Methodist Dallas master plan.

The master plan shows the hospital jumping across Beckley Avenue to dramatically increase its campus size:


.

[Nagih12]

So let me get this straight. All of the buildings are getting renovated, or about to in the near future:

• Grand Ricchi
• Atmos complex
• Dallas grand hotel
• continental building
• elm place
• old post office
• homewood suites
• 211 North Ervay
• joule hotel expansion
• NYLO south-side
• 508 Park Ave(soon)
• old city hall for law school

That is very impressive to see. This will definitely put Dallas in a FAR better position and get closer to reach its ultimate goal of having a great downtown. Well, I'll go ahead and add this beauty to the mix:
Firm in talks to buy historic downtown school
By STEVE BROWN Real Estate Editor stevebrown@dallasnews.com
Published 24 August 2011 02:39 PM
http://www.dallasnews.com/business/c...wn-school.ece#

A developer who built one of Dallas' first major mixed-use projects is considering the purchase of a derelict downtown landmark.

Wynne/Jackson Inc. is negotiating to buy the historic Dallas High School building at Bryan and Pearl streets.

The 104-year-old building has been vacant for decades.

Wynne/Jackson — which in the 1970s built the four-building Plaza of the Americas across the street — is working on potential redevelopment of the school and surrounding vacant land.

“I can confirm we have it under contract,” said Michael Jackson, Wynne/Jackson vice president. “It's early and right now we don't have any completed plans for what we'll do with it.

“We have a lot of work in front of us.”

Earlier this year, a California investor, which has owned the building since the late 1990s, put it up for sale.

[skyscraperfan23]

Originally Posted by skys the limit

.
Elm Place, a 1.3 million sf, 52 story skyscraper in Downtown Dallas
being renovated into a mixed-use tower with completion in 2014







Elm Place, formerly First National Bank Tower, is located at 1401 Elm Street in the Main Street District of Downtown Dallas. The skyscraper is 625 feet and 52 stories tall and has 1.3 million square feet of space. It has been vacant since January 2010 when the building was closed due to low occupancy rates.

Now, the 52 story tower will spring back to life as a mixed use tower with its primary focus as residential but with some office and retail on the lower floors (the third image above shows the allocation between uses in the renovated tower).

A Turkish investor has purchased the building and will be spending a minimum of $125 million on its renovation.

A condition for the investor to move forward was receiving $30 million in Tax Increment Financing (TIF) incentives from the City of Dallas, which was approved unanimously by the Dallas City Council on 08-11-11.

Interior demolition work begins in October 2011 with completion of the project in 2014. Upon its completion Elm Place will become the tallest residential tower in Dallas, eclipsing in feet Republic Center Tower II's 53 stories and the under construction Museum Tower's 42 stories.

The skyscraper was designed by architect George Dahl and remains a highly regarded mid-century architectural gem. It was under construction from 1961 to 1965.

At the time of its opening in 1965, it was the tallest building west of the Mississippi River, until surpassed by 555 California Street in San Francisco in 1969. It was the tallest in Texas until 1971, when One Shell Plaza in Houston took the title. In 1974, Renaissance Tower became the tallest in Dallas at that time. Today the 72 story, 921 foot tall Bank of America Tower is the City's current tallest.

The exterior, featuring a dark and light contrasting theme, was clad in more than 8 acres of dark gray glass and white marble imported from Greece.

The skyscraper is immediately adjacent to DART's Akard Street Station, a major Downtown rail transit center for DART.

The investor was quoted as saying ""I think the fact that [Dallas] is pro-business, pro-development, and everyone is eager to create jobs."

He is apparently eying other deals around town -- including the nine-story office building at 411 Akard.

Here is a more in-depth article published in the Dallas Observer on 08-11-11 discussing this incredible coup for the City of Dallas:

http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfa...elm_street.php

And here is a document that provides detailed specifics concerning the renovation plans:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/62109197/1...-Redevelopment
.

This is the on the opening credits of dallas season 1 to 7.

[EAM]

Good times for Dallas!

[futuresooner]

Wow, that Elm Place conversion is going to be huge. Downtown Dallas seems to keep the good news coming this year, let it continue!

While never having been to Dallas outside of DFW, it looks like the core is truly hitting it's stride now that it has needed/wanted for many years.

[skys the limit]

Originally Posted by colemonkee

I saw Museum Tower in person for the first time yesterday, and I have to say I'm impressed. The quality of the glass is very high. The Perot Museum is coming along very nicely, and looks very impressive.

On another note, the Church being constructed on St. Paul looked pretty impressive. If any of the Dallas forumers can post pictures of it, that would be much appreciated. I didn't bring my camera and whisked by it pretty quickly in a car, but the structure looked pretty cool.

The First Baptist Dallas campus expansion is really a major undertaking on many levels.

First of all, they are investing $135 million dollars on a massive 1.5 million square foot development in Downtown Dallas.

Secondly, it is enhancing a multi-block area in Center City that once completed will elevate the whole look and feel of that area substantially. The area is already extremely nice and this project just takes it to another level of beauty.

The buildings being constructed in the campus are multi-level but not skyscraper height thus allowing the incredible cityscape that surrounds First Baptist to be seen unobstructed and with their new buildings in full sight as well.

The building complex being constructed is sort of a "Baptist Vatican", complete with grand fountains and dramatically-lit architecture.

If you have not seen this video animation of the grand fountain that will be a centerpiece element to the development, here goes (video is HD so click for full screen):

http://vimeo.com/16825514

While it is religious in nature, the fact that such a grand public fountain is being erected in the heart of Downtown Dallas is phenomenal.

And here is a second video from 08-21-11 with an excellent overview of the construction progress of the overall project. It is extremely well done and provides you with a glimpse of the beautiful Downtown Dallas cityscape vistas I mentioned above (video is HD so click for full screen):

http://www.firstdallas.org/article/n...ugust-21-2011/

And here is the webcam for the ongoing construction project:

http://ascendio.com/fbd/Webcam.aspx


Finally, this is an image of the construction work from 09-04-11:


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

All links above are public links provided by First Baptist Church of Dallas.
.

[skys the limit]

Work begins on Cityplace apartment and retail project
By Steve Brown, Dallas Morning News
Published 09-12-11, 9:41 AM



Inland American's Cityville Cityplace development will contain 356 apartments plus retail space on Haskell Avenue.

After more than two years of planning, construction has kicked off on a new apartment and retail project in Dallas' Cityplace development.

Inland American Communities Group has broken ground on the development on Haskell Avenue just east of North Central Expressway.

The combination shopping center and rental housing complex is ....

Full article behind paywall: http://www.dallasnews.com/business/c...ion=reregister

FYI: the Cityville Cityplace development is going in where a now defunct Loews 14 screen theater was located; Inland American is tearing down the AMC Loews Cityplace and redeveloping the tract into much higher density use with residential and ground floor retail. The $10,000,000 AMC Loews Cityplace 14 theater opened in 1996 and closed in January 2008. This tract is not part of Cityplace Development's last remaining six vacant development tracts located on the west side of Central Expressway.

[skys the limit]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^
"Cityville Cityplace"

The aerial below provides a good idea of where the new "Cityville Cityplace" apartment and retail complex will be located. The area outlined in yellow comprises the overall Cityplace development in Uptown.

The new "Cityville" complex will be just to the left of the tall skyscraper tower seen in the lower left hand corner, which is the 42 story Cityplace East Tower.

A DART rail subway line and station is located under the Cityplace East Tower. And the McKinney Avenue Trolley runs from the CBD through Uptown to the West Village. A trolley turntable and DART rail station portal is currently under construction across from Cityplace East on the west side of Central Expressway to enhance DART's and the trolley's ability to serve the area.

Two 43 story skyscrapers and four 20 story highrise towers are also scheduled for construction in this same area, with one of the 20 story towers starting construction in the very near future.

The labeled vacant tracts to the right of Cityplace East Tower in the image, on the west side of Central Expressway, are where the additional Cityplace skyscrapers and towers will go. The new DART station portal and trolley turntable is integral to the new skyscraper and tower construction to provide easier access to mass transit.

Note: the below image dates to January 2010 and two skyscrapers now under construction in Downtown Dallas had not started at that time and are not seen in the image - the 42 story Museum Tower and the 23 story 1400 Hi Line apartment tower.



Aerial image courtesy of Cityplace Development: http://www.cityplace.org/Files/image...calAerial.aspx

[Dale]

Keep the DFW news coming! One of my favorite places.

BTW, any news on Two Arts Plaza ? I hear there's even a Three Arts Plaza planned.

[eburress]

Originally Posted by skys the limit

^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Two 43 story skyscrapers and four 20 story towers are also scheduled for construction in this same area, with one of the 20 story towers starting construction in the very near future.

Which are the two 43 story skyscrapers you are speaking of? As far as I knew, there wasn't going to be anything nearly that tall built in the CityPlace area. I'd be delighted to learn otherwise, though!

[skys the limit]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Of the remaining vacant tracts in the Cityplace development, tracts 6C, 7A, 7B, and 8A are approved for 20 story towers at 240 feet tall respectively and tract 8A is at 270 feet tall.

8B and 8C are approved for 43 story towers at 546 feet tall, with a plaza located between the two.

Here is a Cityplace website link with renderings for some of the planned developments for some of these tracts:

http://www.cityplace.org/getdoc/80a0...enderings.aspx


Scroll down the pictures to the third image.

The third image is a rendering of Cityplace West, Gateway Plaza (which is tract 8A) that shows the DART station portal and the trolley turntable in the center of the development facing Central Expressway with one of the two taller 43 story towers also represented in this rendering, seen closest to Downtown Dallas.

The taller tower in the rendering would be tract 8C which also happens to be planned to be mixed use with office, residential and a hotel.


Cityplace is almost built out, except for these last few vacant tracts.

Cityplace executives have been quoted as saying they are saving these tracts for some very dense and signature types of development since there is no more land upon which to develop.

Cityplace has also said that they expect their last remaining tracts to be developed before the end of this decade. They have not indicated when the exact timetable is for the 43 story towers to be built but I'm sure demand will play a major role in the timing.

A verbatim quote from the Cityplace website concerning their remaining development tracts:

"More than 16 years ago, Cityplace Company began developing 130 acres of land just north of Downtown Dallas. Today, only slightly more than 10 acres remain vacant as the area has been transformed into a popular destination for shopping, dining, entertainment, and urban living.

Development plans are underway on three other currently vacant tracts that will see Cityplace’s first hotel and two other high rise towers. At the rapid development pace seen in that last three years, it is expected that Cityplace will be completely developed this decade."
.