Dallas Fort Worth Urban Forum

No mention of the demolition of other buildings (505 North Ervay) or additional projects, yet.

https://www.dallasnews.com/business/rea ... -expansion

Downtown Dallas' First Baptist Church is breaking ground this weekend on a $35 million addition to its six-block campus.

The 13,000-member church will add two floors on top of its Horner Family Center on St. Paul Street to accommodate an expansion of its young adult and children's ministries.

More information including renderings on the church website.

Link: http://www.firstdallas.org/generation-n ... expansion/

"This expansion will provide an additional 80,500 square feet of educational space, nearly doubling the size of the existing Horner Family Center."

Never thought I'd see the day when there would be check-in kiosks at a church. It's not an airport or hotel.

itsjrd1964 wrote:Never thought I'd see the day when there would be check-in kiosks at a church. It's not an airport or hotel.

Pretty much anything dealing with childcare (which includes church Sunday school) these days has to have some sort of record of who picked up or dropped off kids. It's a bit unusual to see kiosks in a church, but with the number of families that go there, I guess they decided to invest in kiosks rather than pen & paper.

It's a bit unusual to see kiosks in a church, but with the number of families that go there, I guess they decided to invest in kiosks rather than pen & paper.

I assume there must be some company that makes church check in/check out software, because all the churches we go to for mothers day out type events have migrated from pen and paper to legitimately impressive tracking in the past 6 or so years. And most now have hotel-esque check-in desks for their daycare/child care areas.

I use to volunteer in the Pre-School at Fellowship Church... There are a few reasons for using such a system. 1) It helps expedite drop-off at the pre-school. The less hassle you encounter the more likely you are to keep bringing your family and kids back to that church. 2) The biggest reason though is overall security. So the kiosk basically print 2 tags that have matching codes. One tag with the kids name goes on the kid and the other stays with the parent. When you come to pick your child up the codes are matched for verification. It also helps the Pre-School to track all the kids to make sure no child is being left behind etc...

It really is quite an effective system. Plus, it enables kiosks on multiple levels instead of directing everyone through a single 'lobby'. When you have different age groups on different levels, this allows for a much more efficient check in. Keep in mind... all registered users that are eligible for the kiosk also have an RFID card for controlled access. For new users, or those who don't have their card, there is a manned desk on the bottom floor.

So they were installing a construction elevator on 505 North Ervay today when I passed by. I assume to start removing asbestos before eventual demolition.

Shame. And for another parkin' garage. Downtown Sux.

Here we go, another building lost to the wrecking ball. This time tax-exempt.

What a waste...

I have to wonder what this church and all of it's non taxable property brings to downtown Dallas. Do the parishioners stay and shop and eat nearby or support anything other than their church. Seriously I have no idea.

This church is a net negative for downtown.

Disgusting. There needs to be a ban on any new above-ground parking in our core urban areas. Downtown is becoming a dark sea of garages. I don't even get it, because new buildings aren't really going up. Just new parking. And deader, darker streets with more cars aggressively driving through the core. Trying to attract an Amazon when I doubt we could even attract a Panera store at this time.

Cbdallas wrote:I have to wonder what this church and all of it's non taxable property brings to downtown Dallas. Do the parishioners stay and shop and eat nearby or support anything other than their church. Seriously I have no idea.

I really feel like there should be a gun shop nearby too or shooting range. How could that business model fail?

Matt777 wrote:Disgusting. There needs to be a ban on any new above-ground parking in our core urban areas. Downtown is becoming a dark sea of garages. I don't even get it, because new buildings aren't really going up. Just new parking. And deader, darker streets with more cars aggressively driving through the core. Trying to attract an Amazon when I doubt we could even attract a Panera store at this time.

Wish city could pass a zoning ordinance that would require any new parking garages in the urban core also have to incorporate residential apartments above the garage. At least we would increase the people living in the urban core.

Terrible news. Just when I thought we were making some decent progress in the CBD, something like this happens.

The rest of Downtown seems to be slowly coming along together, but I still think we are at a pretty critical stage and mistakes like this can hurt the area quite a bit.

I'm rarely downtown on Sunday mornings, so not sure if people stick around after their services. But when I visit downtown during the week I rarely see anybody around the FBC premises. I haven't kept up, but I haven't read anything that says it will definitely become a garage.

mdg109 wrote:I'm rarely downtown on Sunday mornings, so not sure if people stick around after their services. But when I visit downtown during the week I rarely see anybody around the FBC premises. I haven't kept up, but I haven't read anything that says it will definitely become a garage.

They already said they're looking to expand parking

mdg109 wrote:I'm rarely downtown on Sunday mornings, so not sure if people stick around after their services. But when I visit downtown during the week I rarely see anybody around the FBC premises. I haven't kept up, but I haven't read anything that says it will definitely become a garage.

I live Downtown. They don't stick around. They get in an out as quickly as possibly. I don't even understand why they didn't hike their way up to a suburban area long ago where they could sprawl out to their heart's desire. Everything surrounding their campus is a dead zone since started "reimagining" the area and knocked down all the old buildings with character. They are not a good neighbor and care less than zero about Downtown Dallas.

Permits have been issued for the demolition and construction of a 13 level parking garage.

Did some more digging. The Baptists sold the property to an entity connected to Todd Interests of Post Office and East Quarter fame. After seeing the EQ renderings this doesn’t surprise me - they like parking.

The only good thing coming from this is the property will once again be on the tax rolls.

ArtVandelay wrote:Permits have been issued for the demolition and construction of a 13 level parking garage.

For 505 North Ervay? Is it for the entire lot or partial? Could there be a conversion of the building into residential + new parking structure proposed if new developers are involved?

Looks like it sold in late December to an LLC named PROVIDENTIAL PARKING PLACE LP.

http://dallascad.org/AcctDetailCom.aspx ... 5055000000

No idea why a company would build a parking garage by itself in downtown Dallas if it didn't also own an adjoining property.

lakewoodhobo wrote:Looks like it sold in late December to an LLC named PROVIDENTIAL PARKING PLACE LP.

http://dallascad.org/AcctDetailCom.aspx ... 5055000000

No idea why a company would build a parking garage by itself in downtown Dallas if it didn't also own an adjoining property.

Well it's catty corner from 400 N Ervay...


PROVIDENTIAL PARKING PLACE, L.P.
Texas Taxpayer Number 32068667693
Mailing Address 400 N ERVAY ST STE 150 DALLAS, TX 75201-3134
Right to Transact Business in Texas ACTIVE
State of Formation TX
Effective SOS Registration Date 10/16/2018
Texas SOS File Number 0803142108
Registered Agent Name PATRICK S. TODD
Registered Office Street Address 400 NORTH ERVAY, SUITE 150 DALLAS, TX 75201

dfwcre8tive wrote:

ArtVandelay wrote:Permits have been issued for the demolition and construction of a 13 level parking garage.

For 505 North Ervay? Is it for the entire lot or partial? Could there be a conversion of the building into residential + new parking structure proposed if new developers are involved?

Yes and it does look like there is activity on the TXU property (surface lot) behind the building but they could be merely leasing it for storage/staging during construction.

FBC made a deal for their most recent parking garage with a nearby office tower to share in the access so I imagine they could be doing the same here. Selling the property for parking rights.

If Todd Interests remodled 505 Ervay into apartments and built a 13 story parking garage on the vacant lot behind it, I think that would be an enormous win for the area.

cowboyeagle05 wrote:FBC made a deal for their most recent parking garage with a nearby office tower to share in the access so I imagine they could be doing the same here. Selling the property for parking rights.

I just don't see FBC giving up ownership for parking rights. Notice how the parking garage they just built on St. Paul is jointly owned by the church and a private individual from California that's responsible for all of the taxable value of half of a parking garage: http://dallascad.org/AcctDetailCom.aspx ... 5196000000 - of course they have a deal with Harwood Center to keep the garage full on weekdays.

If Todd Interests plans on converting 505 Ervay into apartments while providing much-needed parking for 400 Ervay, this would be huge news but it doesn't look like the lot behind it is owed by the same company.

Don’t you think Steve Brown would be all over this if Todd was building something more than an open cast concrete parking garage?

ArtVandelay wrote:Don’t you think Steve Brown would be all over this if Todd was building something more than an open cast concrete parking garage?

Yes, if Steve Brown did any investigative reporting. He usually just prints whatever press release he's given, and then adds about a dozen typos.

Would love to know what this little establishment once was

Address?

1600 block of Federal. Looks like it was a restaurant or bar at one time.

Hannibal Lecter wrote:Address?

It's 505 N. Ervay. It's coming down for a parking garage, of course. Annoying.

Looks like it would have made a nice residential conversion and of course there is an empty surface lot next door. And it's next to another parking garage.