Dallas Fort Worth Urban Forum

I was so looking foward to this. Sad and with the DART station right there it could have been such a catalyst.

Oh man, how awful. This has become such an eyesore for the area, and it looks like it will continue to be one for quite sometime.

lakewoodhobo wrote:Lender behind $380M project in downtown Dallas says developer has 'defaulted' on loan
https://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/news ... -says.html

I can't get passed the paywall, but the headline says it all.

Hmmmmmm. Let’s think about this. Two developers have struggled financially to make this project work. Could this lender reasonably expect to foreclose, resell and come out whole? Nope. We might as well relax and wait for the refi.

How awful. And right after the marble is removed.
I'm afraid this skyscraper will eventually be demolished due to all of this mess.

They should have left the facade alone and focused on the interior first.

If it werent for the hole it would leave in the skyline I would say just demoloish the damn thing and let something else be built, but being Dallas it would likely sit as either a parking lot or only a 20 story glass box gets replaced there because the city doesnt realize it can zone for requirements or form.

I think some of you guys are may be writing this one off too soon. Yes it's clusterfuck so far but I don't see how Dallas let's this one crash and burn. As the largest single re-development project currently underway downtown, the bad PR from this possible foreclosure + Trump threatening to do away with Historic Tax Credits could kill any number of additional projects in the core...Note however, I'm not saying I have a clue how this will be done. I'd very much like to see this mammoth project successfully completed though, that's all.

I highly doubt that this building would be demolished. It just wouldn’t make sense (to me) for someone to do so...

I'd rather it sit empty than be demolished. It's a building with a lot of potential, and we have plenty of open land to develop on in the meantime.

With that said, I'm still optimistic someone will complete this building. The completion date will obviously be pushed back by a few years, but I don't think it'll sit idle for too long.

I hope this doesn't persuade the Thompson Hotel to pull out of the project. The plans for the hotel looked amazing and would add a much needed boost in this area for pedestrian activity.

Did they ever mention any potential retailers for the ground level ?

Looking for a silver lining here... Perhaps this could open the door for converting some of these dwelling to Owner Occupied instead of all rentals. That is certainly one way to raise cash, and in the current Real Estate market, they should go gang busters. Hell, I'd buy one tomorrow...

muncien wrote:Looking for a silver lining here... Perhaps this could open the door for converting some of these dwelling to Owner Occupied instead of all rentals. That is certainly one way to raise cash, and in the current Real Estate market, they should go gang busters. Hell, I'd buy one tomorrow...

Yes, please. We have plenty of apartments being built in and around Downtown. I'd love to start seeing some more condos.

Yes more along the lines of the Metropolitan. I would gladly put down a deposit to purchase a unit in this building that is not built solely around uber luxury like Museum Tower or Blue Ciel. It is more about getting to live downtown than living like Dynasty for me.

A condo conversion is actually a great idea. There definitely is demand for condos and the supply in the uptown/downtown/deep ellum area is laughably low.

I hate that my suspicions about 1401 Elm (I will not call it anything else until it opens!) were right. With all the work needed to be done, the only reason I can think why they would ship out the marble would be so they have leverage with the city/financiers ("if you cut us loose, we're keeping the marble!").

I want this to succeed but everything I hear about the Drever organization makes the company sound like a dead beat parent avoiding a child support payment. It's been three times this year Drever has defaulted (Signate elevators, sunbelt rentals, and now GCP income). Meanwhile the Drever keeps asking for more time. That's no way to run a business - much less the biggest redevelopment project in Dallas at the moment. Unfortunately, if the bank forecloses, which might NEED to happen, I'm afraid this will be dormant for a long time, and it looks much worse without marble. But, I have no faith in the Drever organization to make this work.

Does it matter that their Instagram account just posted today with work continuing to be done and sounding optimistic?

mdg109 wrote:Does it matter that their Instagram account just posted today with work continuing to be done and sounding optimistic?

FWIW, work is still going on and in fact they were working on the marble today.

That's still not necessarily the end. We'll see what happens.

trueicon wrote:Turns Out, The Drever has Been Posted for Foreclosure

Sigh...

Unbelievably sad. Source?

dukemeredith wrote:Unbelievably sad. Source?

You should be able to click on the link in my post above. It was published in D Magazine yesterday. Very sad news.

I think Drever will get new financing.

From Drever spokesperson: “We remain in ongoing discussions with the lender. While we are on track in closing new financing, construction continues and we are looking forward to completing construction on schedule in 2019,” the statement said.

I would say that too if I was running PR for The Drever.

cowboyeagle05 wrote:I would say that too if I was running PR for The Drever.

Yeah but work has not seemed to stopped so they do have that going for them. But in other news there is a large LED display on the north side of the building near the upper floors that is similar to the Omni. Have not noticed these before, wasn't able to grab a picture.

The Drever is safe for now. New loan was secured.

https://www.dallasnews.com/business/rea ... on-funding

Developers redoing one of downtown Dallas' biggest skyscrapers have gotten $66.7 million in funding that removes the threat of foreclosure of the high-rise.
Drever Capital Management this week secured a bridge loan from Starwood Property Trust, the New England-based firm that's the country's largest commercial mortgage real estate investment trust.
The money will be used to continue redevelopment of the 52-story former First National Bank tower on Elm Street.

The Drever is Thankful for.. Financing.

This building really is turning into a very very expensive redevelopment. It's going to be a long time until all of these loans can be paid off...

A couple of nights ago I saw the LED display. At one point, there might have been some kind of lettering, but I couldn't make it out. Hope these aren't too shaky/blurry, had to slow down but keep driving while taking these.

Whoa.... Are they doing the whole building like this, or is it just a certain section?

** Thx for the pix btw **

But we buried the lede in the DMN story.

There will also be a 12,000-square-foot food hall.

I thought I was losing it when I saw the display the other night. Looks like a reflection at first, and then I saw it moving. I was too far away (Victory Park) to make out anything it was saying though. Certainly an eye-catcher!

lakewoodhobo wrote:But we buried the lede in the DMN story.

There will also be a 12,000-square-foot food hall.

To give that some context, "the Market" part of the Dallas Farmers Market is 26,000 square feet. So, this will be slightly smaller than half of the market. That's all good and fine, but what I think everyone was really hoping for was a grocery store.

This is.... somewhat positive news. Keep in mind a bridge loan is a temporary loan with very high interest rates -- kind of like the commercial equivalent of a pay day/title loan. I'll be more optimistic when/if they secure a permanent solution. But, even then, I don't see how the interest rate/payments will be less than they were with the original company, which the Drever did not pay. It's troubling that the Drever keeps selling off (monetizing) the tax and other grants they get. I don't know enough about how that stuff works, but I don't see how that would be better in the long term than simply holding on to the tax incentives and grants they receive. Color me skeptical, but I hope for the best.

trueicon wrote:It's troubling that the Drever keeps selling off (monetizing) the tax and other grants they get. I don't know enough about how that stuff works, but I don't see how that would be better in the long term than simply holding on to the tax incentives and grants they receive. Color me skeptical, but I hope for the best.

No, selling off the tax credits is how they're used to finance this kind of redevelopment. Same thing with LIHTC for low-income housing.

Developers need capital now to be able to finance the projects, while the 10 years of tax credits are much more valuable to large banks with a consistent tax liability.

Developer lands $67M loan for massive $380M project

"The development group behind the massive $380 million redevelopment in downtown Dallas — called The Drever — at 1401 Elm St. has landed a nearly $67 million bridge loan, as expected, from a big capital group on the East Coast.

Real estate sources told the Dallas Business Journal a development group led by longtime developer Maxwell Drever had a loan keyed up to help financially after a lender claims the group defaulted on a $55 million loan. That lender, GCP Income Opportunities I LLC, appointed a new trustee readying the project for the Dec. 5 foreclosure auction.

The closing of the $66.7 million bridge loan, announced on Wednesday, Nov. 22, will likely grant The Drever project a stay from foreclosure auction, even though the property was already posted for foreclosure.

Robert Kline of JLL represented the borrowers, an affiliate of the Drever-led development group, in securing the loan through Starwood Property Trust (NYSE: STWD). The development group says they have other big institutional capital lined up for future financing.

"We're eager to move forward with the remainder of the project's permanent financing," said Jerry Tonn, an asset manager for Drever Capital Management, in a statement.

"Construction has continued and we are looking forward to delivering this project to Dallas in 2019," Tonn added.

The 52-story, 1.5 million-square-foot redevelopment of the former First National Bank Tower is the biggest adaptive reuse project underway in downtown Dallas. The mid-century office tower, built in 1961, qualifies for $95 million in federal and state historic tax credits.

Dallas-based Merriman Anderson/Architects Inc. is the project architect. Architectural Arts Company is the arts consultancy on the project.

Andres Construction is the general contractor for the redevelopment.

The Drever is one of the last and largest vacant buildings in downtown Dallas yet to be revitalized, said Kourtny Garrett, president and CEO of Downtown Dallas Inc.

Garrett said the city's central business district community is looking forward to seeing The Drever's impact on creating jobs and bringing energy to downtown Dallas."

https://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/news/2017/11/22/its-done-developer-lands-67m-loan-for-massive-380m.html

Marble tiles getting reinstalled.

lakewoodhobo wrote:Marble tiles getting reinstalled.

IMG_2298.jpg

Some of the tiles looks cracked...

Am I the only one that noticed that?

Are you sure they are reinstalling? They didn't finish taking it off the podium yet before the last round of funding issues.

My apartment faces this side of the Drever, and those tiles had not been removed yet. The crews are working west to east when removing the tiles.

cowboyeagle05 wrote:Are you sure they are reinstalling? They didn't finish taking it off the podium yet before the last round of funding issues.

I think you're right. The photo I posted on Nov 9 still showed this corner covered in tile but when I saw it today and noticed the drilled holes on the corners and the labels on each of the tiles, I thought they were being reinstalled.

The crews methodically label the tiles before removing them, and some of the tiles already had holes from previous 'repairs' (I assume).

I'm sorry but that tile is ugly. I know it's historical; but no one said history was pretty!

Hopefully, the renovation makes the tile look better.

Look at the Old Library next to the Statler for clues as to how the white marble will look like once this restoration is complete. That building looks a million times better now.

This marble is fit for the Greek gods. Photo courtesy of the Drever

Downtown Dallas high-rise fine-tunes rehab with ancient Greek marble
By Teresa Gubbins, Dallas CultureMap, Nov. 28, 2017 | 12:14 pm

A major restoration project in downtown Dallas is underway: The Drever, one of the largest buildings in downtown and the only building in Dallas to span a full city block, is getting its exterior re-did.

The building's marble exterior is being removed, restored, and reinstalled, with surplus being reutilized in the building's interiors.

Located at 1401 Elm St., the building is the former First National Bank of Dallas, and has had a rocky road in its redevelopment, changing hands more than once and facing foreclosure a number of times. Drever Capital Management just secured a new loan; the project is scheduled to be complete by the end of 2018, with the building opening in the first quarter of 2019.

But come on, let's get back to that divine marble: It was originally attached to the building during its construction in the early 1960s. Dense, handsomely veined white marble slabs came from a quarry in Mount Pentelikon, a mountain range located in Attica, Greece — the same quarry as the marble used to build the Parthenon, which itself very possibly may have also had some financing woes during its construction, and nobody talks about that now.

Steve McCoy, president of Drever Construction Co., worked with lead architect Merriman Anderson/Architects and contractor Andres Construction to develop a solution to remove, restore, and reinstall the slabs with new connections that will secure and stabilize the tower's exterior for decades to come — making these minor foreclosure concerns seem so utterly trivial.
...
Article: http://dallas.culturemap.com/news/real-estate/11-28-17-drever-downtown-dallas-marble/

Cord1936 wrote:By Teresa Gubbins, Dallas CultureMap, Nov. 28, 2017 | 12:14 pm

[...] the Parthenon, which itself very possibly may have also had some financing woes during its construction, and nobody talks about that now.

[...] making these minor foreclosure concerns seem so utterly trivial.

I lol’d.

Am I the only one who noticed the new video display on the north face of the building last night?

Not particularly awe inspiring. Too small for the size of the building. Looks like someone just needed to check off the box labeled "animated LED lighting effects".

Sorry for the low quality of the pic.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NB3OZe ... p=drivesdk

Hannibal Lecter wrote:Am I the only one who noticed the new video display on the north face of the building last night?

There was discussion about it a month or two back. The display seems to be more of a proof of concept so far than a finished product, but we'll see.

I have my doubts whether that stays when the building opens. My purely speculative guess is they’re using it to generate some advertising revenue during the build-out.

Well, its terrible for advertising if you are on the freeway. Can not read any text even when stuck in traffic. If a similar display were stretched across the building to do more abstract visuals I could see some coolness about it. I'm sure the view from a neighboring building could be doable.

Those lights you lovely folks are talking about are simply temporary. They were put up before the holidays to add a little flare to the building's facade while construction moved forward(according to The Drever's Facebook page). Now, it has been confirmed by the person who runs their FB page that the iconic white pinstripes will be converted to the latest LED technology and will be able to put on a pretty awesome show. Pretty cool huh? Its so exciting! The Dallas skyline will soon be even more colorful and brighter than ever!