Dallas Fort Worth Urban Forum

New Dallas tower on Knox Street is fully leased on opening day
The $155 million high-rise includes deluxe offices, restaurants and a new Weir’s Furniture store.

https://www.dallasnews.com/business/rea ... ening-day/

Such a nice development; it's no wonder they're fully leased up. I can't wait to see this intersection once the development across Travis is complete.

Weir’s Plaza’s offices rented at some of the highest prices ever in the Dallas area – more than $50 per square foot, according to real estate brokers.

I assumed this one was another residential tower. Glad to hear they were extremely successful with this project, and it sounds like they were also charging top dollar for it as well.

It's in a fantastic area and the building looks great, so I'm certainly not surprised.

Seems like really well thought out, quality product seem to do well and get top dollar. That might say something.

This will definitely spur more development like this in the area.

100% leased. That's wild. Some high quality restaurant concepts going in there too (seafood spot form Beverly's guy, new concept from The Charles / Sister group, Village Bakery, etc.).

I know this isn't the right thread for this question, but the fact that this baby is 100% leased again prompts the question, where are all the groundbreakings? I've been on this forum for long enough to know that a presser or DMN article mentioning a new development isn't worth much, but has anything notable broken ground recently? Last thing to have broken ground is the JW Marriott right? I know we're wrapping up several decent projects, but with the amount of announced pipeline, even probability adjusted, shouldn't we have a few more underway? I mean there must be 30-40 high rises "announced" in the last ~2 years. Was it ALL fluff? Is it permitting delays? Supply chain issues? Labor shortages? All the above? I'm just confused when we see high quality new office supply 100% leased (but I believe originally built on spec), apartment rents soaring, and housing shortages with people continuing to flock to the metro area. Should we expect a rash of groundbreakings this year barring any further shocks and/or Covid waves? Any guesses?

^^ This project is quite unique. Just refer to the occupancy stats Tucy frequently posts to see why there aren't more groundbreakings in central Dallas.

Those are office stats not residential right? Also, interested to see what % of those office vacancies are legacy product vs. "modern" builds (+ amenities). Late 2021 / early 2022 I recall seeing 3-4 mentions of those legacy offices planned for residential conversations. Should help on both fronts.

^Help but not change the real fact that banks lend on a big name leasing big blocks of office space. The demand so far just isnt there for Central Dallas for spec projects. Smaller-Medium sized tenants are not enough to get very big products off the ground. I would even go to say this project was very boutique so we were lucky it happened. The office ower that will replace Truluck's is probably the only thing actually happening and that's because CBRE signed on to lease there and wanted a fancy new place for their new HQ. Everything else is proposed cause banks are not sold on central Dallas leasing office product even if it is brand new. Honestly, I think all the issues you mentioned are to blame for a perceived slow down. I think the area just needs more attention to many efforts that arent really publicly noticeable before any sort of tipping point happens.

Was looking through the City Plan Commission's site and found this

REQUEST: An application for a Planned Development Subdistrict for LC
Light Commercial Subdistrict uses and multifamily, retail, and
lodging uses on property zoned an LC Light Commercial
Subdistrict within Planned Development District No. 193, the
Oak Lawn Special Purpose District

Page 514
https://dallascityhall.com/departments/ ... Docket.pdf



https://dallascityhall.com/departments/ ... t_Plan.pdf
https://dallascityhall.com/departments/ ... %20Map.pdf
https://dallascityhall.com/departments/ ... tudies.pdf

Great info. “The purpose of the request is to allow for modified development standards primarily related modified height, yard, and lot regulations, and proposes urban design standards such as increased sidewalk widths, pedestrian amenities, and publicly accessible open space.”

Can now see the site plan. The resi tower/hotel facing Travis (max 55 resi units) can be zoned up to 399’ tall if approved. This is a big jump from 240’ currently allowed. Also the other resi bldg (175 units) at the south end of dev at Armstrong and Buena Vista is proposed at 330’. I wonder what is actually planned. Loving that all parking is underground except for about 15 parallel spaces along Travis. 10’ sidewalks along both Knox and Travis.

Across the street Weirs new furniture store looks to be ready to open any day. Restaurants facing Knox in progress. YETI now open at new location. There remains a sliver of the old Jonathan Adler space facing McKinney being remodeled. Permit in window says……wait for it….furniture store!

A rumored development at McKinney & Oliver St (NE corner) from southbound NCX service road to McKinney Ave (taking out apts, townhomes, and a couple a old office bldgs) all the way north to Serena & Lily seems to have stalled in negotiations. There is still talk of another 20 story resi tower near Oliver at either Cole or Travis.

I'm really excited for this project to get going. All that newly cleared land is a temporary parking lot now, but hopefully not for long! It will be so cool, seeing this neighborhood in 5 years!

Is it a law that furniture stores be on Knox. It's tiring. And don't get me started in the mattress shops.

Those mattress shops are so lame.

I do worry a bit about the fact that so much of Knox is furniture stores…

I think the new development at Knox and Travis will have a lot of other types of stores.

Foxtrot opening in old Yeti space at 3130 Knox.

Exciting. I hope it does well. The neighborhood needs a bodega-like offering.

https://www.dallasnews.com/food/restaur ... utType=amp

interestedobserver wrote:Foxtrot opening in old Yeti space at 3130 Knox.

Exciting. I hope it does well. The neighborhood needs a bodega-like offering.

https://www.dallasnews.com/food/restaur ... utType=amp

This is gonna be great, especially since it’s right across from RH. Bodega-like offering needed 100%, and glad this is what’s filling that void.

Knox Street towers get planning okay for project north of downtown Dallas

https://www.dallasnews.com/business/rea ... wn-dallas/

City Planning Commission presentation @ 4:17:00

https://dallastx.swagit.com/play/04082022-566

I'm still in awe as to how quickly this area has transformed. I'm glad to see potentially some condos coming to the area, hopefully they are priced under $1 million!

Even if this does end up being in the same price range as Museum Tower and Blue Ciel, I could see this one faring better. At least, this is the one I'd be buying if I had that kind of money, but I'm not sure how much people (in this price range) care about walkability and such.

potatocoins wrote:I'm still in awe as to how quickly this area has transformed. I'm glad to see potentially some condos coming to the area, hopefully they are priced under $1 million!

Even if this does end up being in the same price range as Museum Tower and Blue Ciel, I could see this one faring better. At least, this is the one I'd be buying if I had that kind of money, but I'm not sure how much people (in this price range) care about walkability and such.

Comment on walkability. Overheard as I was walking down Knox St at Travis on Saturday, a father talking to his daughter who lived in apartments behind pottery barn- “So I guess you just walk to Trader Joes for your groceries?” “No I drive, everyone drives everywhere here.”

Is there any large sunbelt metro area where people walk everywhere and use transit for daily routine trips?

Cbdallas wrote:Is there any large sunbelt metro area where people walk everywhere and use transit for daily routine trips?

Los Angeles, San Francisco, plus maybe Miami & New Orleans.

I'll give you San Francisco only out of their density and expense but in the others I see cars everywhere just like here and tons of parking and the AC cranked. I think it stems more from a density land lock issue. People will use cars if it is easy cheap and fast until density changes that equation. Having said that I think Dallas has come along way since the 1980's with both density and transit we just have a lot longer to go. Knox Street used to feel like a small town 30 years ago with a single blinking yellow light at night and I love what it is turning into today and beyond. Fingers crossed someday the Knox Henderson DART station is a reality. Anyway this has turned into a transit discussion more than Knox Street area so I will just leave it there.

Cbdallas wrote:I'll give you San Francisco only out of their density and expense but in the others I see cars everywhere just like here and tons of parking and the AC cranked. I think it stems more from a density land lock issue. People will use cars if it is easy cheap and fast until density changes that equation. Having said that I think Dallas has come along way since the 1980's with both density and transit we just have a lot longer to go. Knox Street used to feel like a small town 30 years ago with a single blinking yellow light at night and I love what it is turning into today and beyond. Fingers crossed someday the Knox Henderson DART station is a reality. Anyway this has turned into a transit discussion more than Knox Street area so I will just leave it there.

Los Angeles and Miami's walkability are significantly underrated by outsiders.

In LA, the entire city has a walkable score of 69 and in Miami, the entire city has a walkable score of 77 (Dallas, in comparison, only has a score of 46).

https://www.walkscore.com/CA/Los_Angeles

https://www.walkscore.com/FL/Miami

Dallas' average score would improve quite a bit if we made our city limits as small as Miami's. Their urban-ish style of development is very similar to the type you see around here. LA is a different animal.

The first thing I would do is get rid of those useless grass strips between sidewalks and roads. This alone would double the width of most sidewalks in Dallas, dramatically improving walkability.

Dallas has become significantly more dense in the past 40 years but with the massive caveat that a lot of the density built in that time is still abysmal. Tons of inward-facing apartment buildings sprinkled across the city either wrapped by a gate or significantly off-set from the street, designed for getting residents quickly to the parking area rather than the sidewalk. They will have to be demolished and restarted if they ever want to be a cohesive element of a walkable area. I understand building for the reality we're in, but still I can't help feeling frustrated seeing those sorts of buildings pop up knowing they'll become a problem we'll have to deal with later on.

But anyways, chilled in the Knox area a couple weekends ago and while it's great how much it's grown,

Srayldtx wrote:Comment on walkability. Overheard as I was walking down Knox St at Travis on Saturday, a father talking to his daughter who lived in apartments behind pottery barn- “So I guess you just walk to Trader Joes for your groceries?” “No I drive, everyone drives everywhere here.”

this doesn't surprise me

IcedCowboyCoffee wrote:Dallas has become significantly more dense in the past 40 years but with the massive caveat that a lot of the density built in that time is still abysmal. Tons of inward-facing apartment buildings sprinkled across the city either wrapped by a gate or significantly off-set from the street, designed for getting residents quickly to the parking area rather than the sidewalk. They will have to be demolished and restarted if they ever want to be a cohesive element of a walkable area. I understand building for the reality we're in, but still I can't help feeling frustrated seeing those sorts of buildings pop up knowing they'll become a problem we'll have to deal with later on.

But anyways, chilled in the Knox area a couple weekends ago and while it's great how much it's grown,

Srayldtx wrote:Comment on walkability. Overheard as I was walking down Knox St at Travis on Saturday, a father talking to his daughter who lived in apartments behind pottery barn- “So I guess you just walk to Trader Joes for your groceries?” “No I drive, everyone drives everywhere here.”

this doesn't surprise me

Good point with the bolded.

A lot of Los Angeles and Miami was built as streetcar suburbs (pre-World War II). So the housing is tightly knit in a way that the sidewalks are easily accessible (as if those residents were going to ride transit), and the main streets lined with an endless wall of store fronts that aren't set way back from the street.

In Miami, this is especially true in Little Havana and Coral Way bleeding over into Coral Gables (the north side of the city is more car-centric and suburban).

eburress wrote:The first thing I would do is get rid of those useless grass strips between sidewalks and roads. This alone would double the width of most sidewalks in Dallas, dramatically improving walkability.

Yes, not sure why those are still incorporated! Makes no sense. They just replaced the sidewalk in front of the elementary school in Uptown on McKinney Ave and it's the same narrow sidewalk. I just don't get it.

R1070 wrote:Those mattress shops are so lame.

Funny you should say that; I noticed one of them is now for lease. Good!

emmasensei wrote:

R1070 wrote:Those mattress shops are so lame.

Funny you should say that; I noticed one of them is now for lease. Good!

I would hope so. How can a mattress store afford the rent in this area much longer? I know they have the worst locations with terrible parking at NCX and Knox St, but someone will pay for the location especially now that Anthropologie is closer to opening at McKinney/Knox. They have been working on the space for a little while now. The papered windows now say SPRING 2022 I think.

With all the change in that block, I wonder how much longer Chuy's can hold out? That is a big space with lots of potential. Let's be honest, it doesn't really work for a restaurant - people try to enter at the patio and can't find the door at the corner. They also come from the parking lot in back. It's kind of a hot mess, but a well-loved one from the looks of the crowds that still come there. Was that the first Dallas location for the brand?

No.....a long time ago there was a Chuy's in the West End where the Holocaust Museum used to be.

Looks like Ligne Roset has closed.

scott2 wrote:No.....a long time ago there was a Chuy's in the West End where the Holocaust Museum used to be.

I liked the downtown location so much better.

R1070 wrote:Looks like Ligne Roset has closed.

This was the worst run business I've ever interacted with. Completely incompetent and it's stunning they're still in business at all.

eburress wrote:

R1070 wrote:Looks like Ligne Roset has closed.

This was the worst run business I've ever interacted with. Completely incompetent and it's stunning they're still in business at all.

I had spent close to $90k over a 2 month period at their store in the design district 20+ years ago to furnish my modern 3 level town house in between uptown and Knox Henderson. That was a great space they had in the design district and well run. I still have the same furniture furnishing my 3 level condo in San Francisco, albeit 1400sf in SF vs 2800sf in Dallas and for almost 5 times the price and with no parking in the building. And they still look amazing without any noticeable wear. Classic designs that still look fresh and many still being sold. Recently I had gone to Ligne Roset in San Francisco to help a friend buy stuff for his condo and the owner of the San Francisco store mentioned she used to work at the Knox Henderson store years ago. She mentioned the original owner had sold the Knox Henderson store and the new owners were horrible and impetus for her to leave.

Their furniture is great. I'm not surprised your experience has been so positive from that standpoint. That location though was the worst! lol

City approval for the new development. Looking forward to it!!!!

https://www.dallasnews.com/business/rea ... from-city/

‘Dallas' Knox District is getting a boutique market with a dedicated following: Berkley's Market, the neighborhood grocery concept founded by entrepreneur Zac Porter, will open a location just off the Katy Trail at 3300 Knox St., in the former Into the Garden space near the corner of Knox and Travis. The store is set to open later in 2022. Berkley's Market on Knox will feature 3,700 square feet of interior space, plus a 600 square-foot patio. It will sell groceries, ranging from basic to gourmet, from toilet paper to artisan crackers, plus prepared foods and a wine department & bar.”

From: Dallasculturemap.com today

‘In addition to Knox Street, Berkley's is opening a location in Oak Cliff, in the Bishop Arts District at 634 W Davis St., in the long-vacant Bolsa Mercado space, tentatively set to open in June.”

In Knox Street restaurant news….from DMN https://www.dallasnews.com/food/restaur ... rsections/

Anchor Bar (new seafood concept from Vandelay Hospitality—Hudson House, Lucky’s Hot Chicken and East Hampton Sandwich) to open in early 2023 at one end of the former On the Border along with Foxtrot at the other end (STAG staying in the middle space). Anchor bar will focus on oysters, sushi and martinis.

They had me at Coldest Martini.

They’ll serve “the world’s coldest martinis” (a theme at other Vandelay restaurants) alongside oysters. Anchor Bar will also have a smashburger on the menu. And a filet.

vandelay has a knack for building a very good bar....food is typically ok albeit over priced and almost everything some kind of knockoff from Hillstone, but excited nonetheless for more options.

Berkley's roll out has been entirely too slow, Foxtrot has beat them to market, it will be interesting to see how they both survive 3 doors down from each other.

jdotpdot wrote:vandelay has a knack for building a very good bar....food is typically ok albeit over priced and almost everything some kind of knockoff from Hillstone, but excited nonetheless for more options.

Berkley's roll out has been entirely too slow, Foxtrot has beat them to market, it will be interesting to see how they both survive 3 doors down from each other.

Not to mention Trader Joe's as well, who's just around the corner.

I just got an email telling me about a clearance sale at the Dallas Bassett store because they are “relocating.” Not sure what that means, but that’s a large prime spot on McKinney Ave if Bassett is indeed leaving. Please not another furniture store.

UPDATE: So I guess this is not new news. Here's a link to a site from months ago which is offering the "former Bassett furniture space" as for lease. https://www.crexi.com/lease/properties/ ... -furniture

They haven't been in that spot too terribly long, but for the life of me, I can't remember what that was before.

Knox is such a trendy furniture area... Bassett was too traditional for that area. I think we have a great deal of furniture stores in the area, but I'd like to see an actual Hudson Grace open. They carry some of the collection in that Crate & Barrell already.

LongonBigD wrote:They haven't been in that spot too terribly long, but for the life of me, I can't remember what that was before.

This is not what i remember was there before, but according to an ad In Texas Monthly from 1979, this location was the flagship Half Price Books!


Noticed the other day that On a Whim has been locked out (4433 McKinney Ave). That didn’t last long.

jegchachi wrote:City approval for the new development. Looking forward to it!!!!

https://www.dallasnews.com/business/rea ... from-city/

Other news pieces like The Real Deal’s had reported 18 floors of residential atop a small hotel. DMN linked above said the hotel would be 18 floors. Neither would account for the FAA-approved permanent height of 435 feet, which will provide quite a landmark on NCX.

https://oeaaa.faa.gov/oeaaa/external/se ... 762&row=19

https://therealdeal.com/texas/2022/04/1 ... r-3-years/
Excerpt from the Real Deal article:

The entire project will include three buildings on Travis Street. The largest of the three will have 18 floors of luxury condos built on top of a small hotel. The tower will include 45 to 50 residential units averaging about 3,500 square feet.

Facing Knox Street will be a six-story office building, which has yet to get final approval from Dallas’ city council. Details on the third tower haven’t been finalized.