Dallas Fort Worth Urban Forum

Downtown Dallas building owners who are spending millions of dollars to construct new parking garages may be behind the times.

Employers are sardining hundreds more office workers into our 1980s skyscrapers, so owners are adding garages to accommodate all the cars.

In another generation, they may not need those new parking slots.

Some building owners are already talking about what to do with their garages when they are no longer full.

Some Dallas developers are already planning for change.

Craig Hall, who's building in the Arts District and at his Hall Park mixed-use project in Frisco, is designing new buildings with less parking in mind.

"It's a huge issue because parking is expensive, " Hall told an apartment development group meeting recently in North Dallas. "We are looking at plans to use the top of the parking garages when driverless cars come.

"We are going to build a garage with enough foundation to put apartments or a hotel at the top."

Dallas is ready to pay someone to find out if the city has enough downtown parking spaces
NOV 2015
Robert Wilonsky

...The city of Dallas has started looking for consultants to study downtown's parking needs and to come up with a plan. The request for qualifications, which is below, blames a lack of parking on some companies choosing to move to the suburbs rather than the city center ... City officials say the parking study is needed in the wake of the redo of Downtown Dallas Inc.'s Downtown Dallas 360 plan, which was adopted by the city council in 2011 and is already getting an overhaul...

DPatel304 wrote:We just need to find a new purpose for parking garages ... like RVs/mobile ... cool and popular... parking garages will simply be re-purposed as urban trailer parks.

you're not stuck to one location.

Tnexster wrote:I wonder if any of them can be converted to floor space. What was a garage may become loft style housing or pretty much whatever? The structure is there and they would need utilities run but I can't imagine it would be impossible to do that.

The bigger problem with garages becoming occupiable space though is the ramps. Many are mostly slanted concrete for at least 50% of the garage.

muncien wrote:This may be a stupid question... But, why isn't on-street parking in Uptown metered? Seems like a no-brainer. Parking is in high demand. Security/Services are in high demand. Use metered parking to pay for necessary security/services... ?

Metered parking is not unusual at all in cities with this kinda density. Similar could be done for areas of Oaklawn and Knox/Henderson as well.

dukemeredith wrote:Since moving downtown, I walk everywhere. Except to a grocer. I can't imagine driving from one end of downtown to another -- it would be a bigger waste of time than simply walking.

I think I agree with Muncien re: keeping a priority on attracting residents first. Amenities will follow residents (who walk and increase foot traffic).

But if downtown is looking to make itself a "destination" for shopping and entertainment, as Brian Bolke has mentioned repeatedly in recent articles about Forty Five Ten, there's an obvious tension between the needs of residents (walkability; no parking) and the needs of those traveling downtown (parking).

New York-based Fortis Property Group — which owns the 36-story Harwood Center office tower at Bryan and Harwood streets — is asking for city approval to build the garage to accommodate the new worldwide headquarters for Jacobs Engineering Group.

Jacobs is moving its main office from Pasadena, Calif., to downtown Dallas, adding about 100 new jobs.

Fortis plans to build the almost 500-vehicle garage on Federal Street adjacent to its office high-rise. The office tower at 1999 Bryan was built in 1982.

tamtagon wrote:The article doesn't mention it, but I wonder if Fortis would build this garage to accommodate additional floors.

A downtown Dallas skyscraper owner is weeks away from breaking ground on a major addition to the high-rise.

New York-based Fortis Property Group is building a 10 and a half story garage to serve its 36-story Harwood Center office tower at Bryan and Harwood streets.

The garage will be constructed to the west of the tower at St. Paul and Federal streets.

"We are finalizing our construction financing and soon we will be full steam ahead," said Fortis CEO Jonathan Landau. "Hopefully it will be done in less than 12 months."

Fortis recently got approvals from the City of Dallas to build the 500-space garage adjacent to the 35-year-old office tower.

...

"This is probably the highest end garage being built downtown," Landau said. "We are putting something that is going to look great and serve the downtown office market."

...

dfwcre8tive wrote:"This is probably the highest end garage being built downtown," Landau said.

tanzoak wrote:

dfwcre8tive wrote:"This is probably the highest end garage being built downtown," Landau said.

Lol is this real life.

CTroyMathis wrote:Haha, yes. That is a gem.

And, the new garage will be right by one of the crappiest* benches in Downtown Dallas. . .


https://twitter.com/CTroyMathis/status/ ... 4898787330

So, basically, 4 light rail lines and 1 trolley line (and, eventually the Streetcar Central Link line) aren't enough to serve the needs of getting to and from this building. And, the tenant it is being built (at least) partly for is an engineering firm whose umbrella of industry includes transportation projects. (e.g. DFW rail station)

lakewoodhobo wrote:"This is probably the highest-end garage being built downtown"

After seeing the Fountain Place garage, the Fortis guy clearly was stating an alternative fact.

muncien wrote:Wow... That is much better than I had expected and it will no doubt bring some life to the fountains. It's also interesting that they have that pedestrian corridor extending all the way through the adjacent lot to Perot... looking to tap into that future foot traffic no doubt. Perhaps that apartment tower to the north, and whatever Headington does to the south can take advantage of that corridor. That would be much more inviting than navigating Field street through here... at least for now.

tamtagon wrote:I hope it's one of the garages being built for upward expansion, easy conversion into habitable space or some other use.

Just like the tunnels, this recent crop of parking garages may solve a specific time-sensitive problem while setting off future dilemmas constrained by a single purpose.

willyk wrote:

muncien wrote:Wow... That is much better than I had expected and it will no doubt bring some life to the fountains. It's also interesting that they have that pedestrian corridor extending all the way through the adjacent lot to Perot... looking to tap into that future foot traffic no doubt. Perhaps that apartment tower to the north, and whatever Headington does to the south can take advantage of that corridor. That would be much more inviting than navigating Field street through here... at least for now.

That's a wow. This will really activate the Ross side of the property.

Tivo_Kenevil wrote:I don't see how this activates anything. It's simply a garage. Outside of 8 am and 5pm I would expect little use of the garage / cooridor area for the remainder of the day.

There's nothing that draws ppl to that area. Retail at the bottom would've help. This building will continue to be a dead zone.

Cabrio330 wrote:

Tivo_Kenevil wrote:I don't see how this activates anything. It's simply a garage. Outside of 8 am and 5pm I would expect little use of the garage / cooridor area for the remainder of the day.

There's nothing that draws ppl to that area. Retail at the bottom would've help. This building will continue to be a dead zone.

There is retail at the bottom, as clearly depicted in the second rendering above and on the site plan shown on the 4th page of the CBRE flyer linked to above.

Cbdallas wrote:I thought there was a developer readying a 40 story apartment tower in that area which should enliven this part of downtown.

Tivo_Kenevil wrote:

Cabrio330 wrote:

Tivo_Kenevil wrote:I don't see how this activates anything. It's simply a garage. Outside of 8 am and 5pm I would expect little use of the garage / cooridor area for the remainder of the day.

There's nothing that draws ppl to that area. Retail at the bottom would've help. This building will continue to be a dead zone.

There is retail at the bottom, as clearly depicted in the second rendering above and on the site plan shown on the 4th page of the CBRE flyer linked to above.

Ah.... Good eye.. I didn't read the description (doh!)..

Honestly it doesn't look like retail , at least to me, in the render lol

tamtagon wrote:

Cbdallas wrote:I thought there was a developer readying a 40 story apartment tower in that area which should enliven this part of downtown.

...on a different part of the block:

Blue: Most upscale garage
Red: 40 story apartment
Yellow: Shraman South Asian Museum and Learning Center, most beautiful, exotic residential tower included

Green: I don't remember, but I think didn't TCrow announce apartments here? I don't think this one belongs to Headington....

tamtagon wrote:

Cbdallas wrote:I thought there was a developer readying a 40 story apartment tower in that area which should enliven this part of downtown.

...on a different part of the block:

Blue: Most upscale garage
Red: 40 story apartment
Yellow: Shraman South Asian Museum and Learning Center, most beautiful, exotic residential tower included

Green: I don't remember, but I think didn't TCrow announce apartments here? I don't think this one belongs to Headington....

tamtagon wrote:

Cbdallas wrote:I thought there was a developer readying a 40 story apartment tower in that area which should enliven this part of downtown.

...on a different part of the block:

Blue: Most upscale garage
Red: 40 story apartment
Yellow: Shraman South Asian Museum and Learning Center, most beautiful, exotic residential tower included

Green: I don't remember, but I think didn't TCrow announce apartments here? I don't think this one belongs to Headington....

maconahey wrote:

Work started several months ago on the project, planned for completion later this year.

dukemeredith wrote:Wow, they really do get their news by looking at these forums... Published 21 hours ago. A good two hours after our own maconahey posted in this thread.


http://www.dallasnews.com/business/real ... own-dallas