Dallas Fort Worth Urban Forum

What first seemed like your typical multifamily transaction turned out to be a lot more interesting. Headington Co. is the new owner of the Davis Building, and it begs the question of how does the acquisition fit into his vision for upscale hotel and retail along Main Street. And since the purchase includes the parking garage on Elm, you can safely assume that the Subway, Sushi Ya, Dry Cleaners and Enchilada's aren't long for this world.

Oilman Headington adds to Main Street holdings
http://www.dallasnews.com/business/real ... t-holdings

^^^
None of those retailers would be a big loss, plus that garage and that retail looks awful.

That is awesome news. While I am a huge fan of Larry Hamilton and his commitment to downtown development, I always thought he has no concept of what works at street level. Mosaic lagged considerably with scene and am/pm, DP&L street level is a joke, Davis building with its prime location still had issues over the years. Even with the gas lofts street level Agave Azul still there was a just a lot missing to make it work.
I think he should focus on what he is really good at, bringing older buildings to life and completely subcontract any street level to a company with more vision.
Tim Headington understands what works at street level. This will be a great thing for main street.

I can't read the article... Does it mention any specific plans?

muncien wrote:I can't read the article... Does it mention any specific plans?

No it basically just says he bought the property

Not only is this promising for Main Street retail, but is potentially fantastic for Elm! Very exciting, and great location -- being directly across from The Drever.

I don't see him keeping the apartments around. Do you think this will eventually become condos? I think the units need an update. I hope frankies stays.

Did the purchase also include the building next door that houses Ravena?

I don't know... Although I do appreciate the quality of the Developments that Headington brings...


I cannot forget how he demolished buildings for a pseudo urban high end store that <1% of the Downtown population utilizes.

Who knows what he may do it. If anything it makes me weary...


Although the incredibly ugly garage needs a do over badly. Perhaps Headington actual improves Elm St this time.

I hope a he keeps the Davis building as apartments and Builds some Lofts where the garage is.

Preferably, any existing structures get nothing more than cosmetic treatments while the real financial focus is put on his Field/San Jacinto parking lots. But if that were the case, what would be the point of this purchase? I fear that we won't be seeing anything with those lots for quite some time.

muncien wrote:Preferably, any existing structures get nothing more than cosmetic treatments while the real financial focus is put on his Field/San Jacinto parking lots. But if that were the case, what would be the point of this purchase? I fear that we won't be seeing anything with those lots for quite some time.

I fear the same, but the purchase of the Davis building brings Headington closer to those car park, physically. Eventually he'll want to better-utilize those spaces for the sake of bringing more foot traffic to his other investments on Main and now Elm.

With the Mayflower Building being close to finished, and with The Drever scheduled for next year, I can't imagine those car parks last TOO much longer.

Tivo_Kenevil wrote:I cannot forget how he demolished buildings for a pseudo urban high end store that <1% of the Downtown population utilizes.

Not sure what this is supposed to mean, but I am guessing you haven't been in the store.

Cabrio330 wrote:

Tivo_Kenevil wrote:I cannot forget how he demolished buildings for a pseudo urban high end store that <1% of the Downtown population utilizes.

Not sure what this is supposed to mean, but I am guessing you haven't been in the store.

Sorry. I such have used a comma. I meant that it's suburban in design, it's not really urban ..Quasi at best. There's a parking lot around back where the art structure is.... And heck no I haven't gone in there, maybe I'm just a normie but I don't know anyone who has gone tbh

I have been in and it definitely is a high end store. Not for me, but frankly none of Headington's retail is for me. For that matter, very little of Highland Park Village is for me either! But while I don't shop there I can appreciate what he is creating, and I certainly hope it is successful.

I think the Forty Five Ten building turned out well and I don't have any heartburn about the "parking lot" which is really not much more than an entry court, similar to what you might see around Rodeo Drive. Yes, that is not downtown Dallas, but Headington seems smart enough to realize the patrons of his high-end retail require something like that entry court. Were he or other developers to include similar entry courts in multiple locations around Main Street, I might share more of your concern about its appropriateness there. But my guess is Headington expects this one-off (for now) entry court will serve all of his and other downtown retail.

A crew is working on the cladding of the Davis building garage on the Elm Street side. Started yesterday and have so far just removed 3 small rectangular sections, so I can't tell what exactly the intent is.

I was just talking to the leasing staff at the Davis building a couple of weeks ago. They're undergoing a big internal renovation now, and something like half the units are vacant because of it. I didn't hear about exterior tweaks, but I guess it wouldn't surprise me.

Downtown Dallas' landmark Davis Building gets $45 million redo

https://www.dallasnews.com/business/rea ... llion-redo

Mycon Construction says it's been hired to renovate the 250,000-square-foot residential and retail building at 1309 Main Street over the next 15 months.

The renovation includes upgrades to the retail space in the building and conversion of the 183 loft style apartments into 215 luxury rental units.

^I wonder what the plan is for the retail at the base of the garage. Suppose they will all be replaced with restaurants that source from the Commissary.

dallaz wrote:Downtown Dallas' landmark Davis Building gets $45 million redo

https://www.dallasnews.com/business/rea ... llion-redo

Mycon Construction says it's been hired to renovate the 250,000-square-foot residential and retail building at 1309 Main Street over the next 15 months.

The renovation includes upgrades to the retail space in the building and conversion of the 183 loft style apartments into 215 luxury rental units.

They've been letting leases go without renewal for several months now. A friend who lives there told me yesterday everyone remaining in the building got a notice to vacate by 5/31.

The Davis building garage is the one on Elm with the Subway and Dry Cleaners, right? The article doesn't mention the garage but I wonder if they will ever try to make the garage look any better. Headington is all about appearances so I would put it past him to try to clean up the facade to attract a better tenant to the ground floor spaces.

I hope they do something to make the garage look nicer. I wonder how feasible it would be to cover the garage with greenery. I don't think I've seen it done in Texas, so maybe we don't have the right climate for it, but that would be an easy way to make the garage look better, add some greenery downtown, and also it wouldn't require any structural work.

and conversion of the 183 loft style apartments into 215 luxury rental units.

Going from 183 to 215 is only 32 extra units - pretty marginal - so this tells me that the owners of the Davis Building feel that any weakness or overbuilding in the downtown rental market is not going to last very long.

The cupola is gone from the top of the Davis building. Does anyone know why?

Update from R Wilonsky at DMN: "They are replacing it. Got approval from Landmark Commission in May, as part of the $45-million makeover [by Tim Headington]."

Replacing with what exactly... Headington drives me nuts with his tearing down.

HOLY SH**. It better be an exact replica. Wow. How could this even happen? For anyone that has ever lived with a Downtown Dallas view, that cupola is a defining feature of our skyline.

Tivo_Kenevil wrote:Replacing with what exactly... Headington drives me nuts with his tearing down.

Another eye-ball... from what I hear.

*** totally kidding - I never heard that ***

UPDATE: Someone on the Downtown facebook says it will be repaired and reassembled. Better be true.

Read the Landmark Commission agenda and minutes for the May 2018 meeting. It’s all in there.

https://dallascityhall.com/government/m ... ssion.aspx

tl;dr: damaged parts to be replaced; non-damaged parts to be cleaned and restored. Will look the same.

great to hear they will be fixing it up. I wonder if that means removing the hot tub or whatever it was they stuck in there...That rooftop (even though the pool was tiny and shallow) was one of the highlights of living in Davis

The cupola was severely unstable and the support system inside was largely rust at this point. It needed to be majorly rehabbed. Similar to how the Old Red Courthouse clock tower was removed decades ago and only in the last 10 years was reinstalled with a better support system. Weather does some pretty damaging things to clocktowers/cupolas like this.

Here's a Glamourus PR article about Headington's investments.

And Some tidbits about Headingtons plans with the Davis bldg.


https://commercialobserver.com/2018/11/ ... companies/

"In Dallas, Headington’s expansion push is far from over. In March, it announced the acquisition of the Davis Building, a 20-story residential building at 1309 Main Street, where it’s planned a $45 million renovation. It’s the firm’s first residential project Downtown—to be renamed Drakestone—and it’s set to open in the spring 2019."

And some extraneous info.

"The firm is also exploring development opportunities just a couple blocks north of Downtown at the intersection of Ross Avenue and Field Street, where it has scooped up 10 acres of development space since 2011. In a nod to Tim Headington’s history in film production, Tregoning said the firm is considering adding a film center, with a museum as well as offices for the local film society, that would host festivals and screenings and production work."

"Drakestone"??

Well, at least we finally know at least some Ross/Field possibilities, instead of just a bunch of disappointment and conjecture.

itsjrd1964 wrote:"Drakestone"??

Well, at least we finally know at least some Ross/Field possibilities, instead of just a bunch of disappointment and conjecture.

Ummmm no. That building is a landmark and its name is The Davis Building. Also, Drakestone sounds really, really stupid.

It's been called the Davis Building since 1954 but sure, let's change the name to something that'll only stick for 10 years or however long it takes to sell it off to someone else.

I'm more annoyed about this than the name change to The Drever since First National Bank had already changed to Elm Place before it became vacant. I get it: his money, whatever, but it still reminds me of people with lots of money who think they're good at marketing.

Yeah "Drakestone" is cringey. I don't even know what that is.. when I hear it I envision this....

lakewoodhobo wrote:It's been called the Davis Building since 1954 but sure, let's change the name to something that'll only stick for 10 years or however long it takes to sell it off to someone else.

I'm more annoyed about this than the name change to The Drever since First National Bank had already changed to Elm Place before it became vacant. I get it: his money, whatever, but it still reminds me of people with lots of money who think they're good at marketing.

Total agreement with you there.

They're re-building the Cupola right now.

Haven't seen an update on this for a while. This week I noticed that they've built a pretty massive greenhouse-looking structure on the roof. It amazes me how Headington is able to get lightning-fast approvals to make these changes to historic structures.

Considering how much historical property he has destroyed as well as rebuilt...

It looks like Zoes Kitchen is going into the former Union Park spot next to Frankies. I noticed their name was stenciled on the front door of this space.

Ah, something that will close at 4 pm.

soco wrote:It looks like Zoes Kitchen is going into the former Union Park spot next to Frankies. I noticed their name was stenciled on the front door of this space.

I saw that too. Been wanting Zoes to come downtown for ages.

lakewoodhobo wrote:

soco wrote:It looks like Zoes Kitchen is going into the former Union Park spot next to Frankies. I noticed their name was stenciled on the front door of this space.

I saw that too. Been wanting Zoes to come downtown for ages.

There was a post about this on the Downtown Resident's Council Facebook group several days ago about this:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/DallasD ... 357621123/

Basically people commented saying the door was just a temporary door and it just happened to have the Zoe's kitchen logo on it, but that does not mean Zoe's kitchen is coming downtown. At this point, I'm not sure what to believe, but I would say we should wait for further confirmation on this one. I hope this does happen, because more chains invested in Downtown would be a great sign for the area!

This guys worked there http://www.dallas-locksmith.com They sad that this building is generally necessary to demolish

DPatel304 wrote:

lakewoodhobo wrote:

soco wrote:It looks like Zoes Kitchen is going into the former Union Park spot next to Frankies. I noticed their name was stenciled on the front door of this space.

I saw that too. Been wanting Zoes to come downtown for ages.

There was a post about this on the Downtown Resident's Council Facebook group several days ago about this:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/DallasD ... 357621123/

Basically people commented saying the door was just a temporary door and it just happened to have the Zoe's kitchen logo on it, but that does not mean Zoe's kitchen is coming downtown. At this point, I'm not sure what to believe, but I would say we should wait for further confirmation on this one. I hope this does happen, because more chains invested in Downtown would be a great sign for the area!

This makes zero sense to me. So they just happened to come across some doors they could use with Zoes Kitchen still on them?

Temporary doors, so I assume they are replacing the doors and the new ones haven't come in yet and believe me this happens all the time. When you work in construction you learn they wait till the absolute last second to order everything.

cowboyeagle05 wrote:Temporary doors, so I assume they are replacing the doors and the new ones haven't come in yet and believe me this happens all the time. When you work in construction you learn they wait till the absolute last second to order everything.

I did think it was odd that they had the Zoes decals on the door during construction, but are there that many Zoes restaurants that have closed down? And why did they need a temporary door added instead of using the original from Union Park?

Depends on a lot of things honestly. They may have taken the doors down to be able to move equipment and materials in without the problem of divided doors and the possibility of breaking glass. Some discussion at the beginning the plan may have been to put up something more temporary like plywood but maybe a city inspector or someone else demanded something more presentable or more secure. They ay have already sent the old doors away for some reason so they sourced some doors they had sitting around.

There are some new photos of "The Drakestone" posted on apartments.com. Overall, the renovation looks pretty nice. I could live without the white subway tile in the kitchen or the carpet squares in the bedrooms but the spaces do look attractive. Pricing/availability info is not yet available.

Crown fiasco aside, this should be a hot place to live.

https://www.apartments.com/the-drakesto ... x/zf77n7x/