DTD: The National/Thompson Hotel (1401 Elm)

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Brettoj
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Re: Downtown Dallas: The Drever

Postby Brettoj » 12 Dec 2018 09:48

Jay9398 wrote:
cowboyeagle05 wrote:Its construction related material, not LED's.


I live across the street. You can't see it in the photo posted, but at the bottom of the aqua stripe in the forefront, they have re-installed two marble panels. When they were prepping to do those 2 panels (as a test/POC, I presume) they smoothed out the concrete underlay and primed it with the aqua "paint" stuff. It looks like they are now prepping the rest of the building to re-install the rest of the restored marble, which is indeed very exciting news.


Can you tell what kind of work is going on inside?

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Jay9398
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Re: Downtown Dallas: The Drever

Postby Jay9398 » 12 Dec 2018 10:13

Brettoj wrote:Can you tell what kind of work is going on inside?


My apartment faces the south side of the building above the podium, and my office is in Renaissance tower facing the west side of the building much higher up. At least from those two vantage points, there has been no visible interior work for at least a year.

Tnexster
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Re: Downtown Dallas: The Drever

Postby Tnexster » 12 Dec 2018 10:57

I know this is supposed to be back on track but I always feel like they are just doing minimal amounts of work and their twitter page never shows anything related to the building.

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Jbarn
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Re: Downtown Dallas: The Drever

Postby Jbarn » 12 Dec 2018 13:13

At any given time, they have less people working on this skyscraper than they would have building a new house in Frisco. At this rate, it will take years and years and years to get this done. I am not confident this will ever get finished. The city should require that they at least put up scaffolding, so that people can walk on the sidewalks. It is like a big black hole that is sucking all the energy out of downtown.

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Re: Downtown Dallas: The Drever

Postby cowboyeagle05 » 13 Dec 2018 16:17

What I didn't notice till last night is they have removed a major section of glass and structure on the DART station side on the podium level. I only saw it because I rode the DART train yesterday and it reminded me of those pass-throughs some buildings are doing now that are multiple stories and create a pedestrian walkway. Last I looked at the construction documents it didn't appear to be anything like that but they definitely have a lot of projects started. If they truly flop we will be left with not only a marble less exterior but all kinds of obvious tear down work.
“Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell”

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TNWE
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Re: Downtown Dallas: The Drever

Postby TNWE » 13 Dec 2018 16:29

Jbarn wrote:At any given time, they have less people working on this skyscraper than they would have building a new house in Frisco. At this rate, it will take years and years and years to get this done. I am not confident this will ever get finished. The city should require that they at least put up scaffolding, so that people can walk on the sidewalks. It is like a big black hole that is sucking all the energy out of downtown.


"The Drever? More like the Never!"

At this point I'd be content with the podium being opened up as a shopping arcade of some sort, and let another developer do the actual tower development. Get some civic value out of it rather than a continuous string of developers taking years to make little progress.

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joshua.dodd
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Re: Downtown Dallas: The Drever

Postby joshua.dodd » 14 Dec 2018 19:03

One Elm is a relic of yesteryear. All the demand for office is in the northern burbs or Uptown. They like mixed use now. Epm was built for one use.

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dallaz
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Re: Downtown Dallas: The Drever

Postby dallaz » 18 Jan 2019 13:30

Any updates?

Construction activity? Literally...anything at this point. I’m very concerned about this project.

itsjrd1964
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Re: Downtown Dallas: The Drever

Postby itsjrd1964 » 18 Jan 2019 19:56

Well, there are still some lights on in there, so someone has to be paying a light bill, at least. Sadly, at the rate it's going, this will take longer than the Statler to get redone.

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dallaz
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Re: Downtown Dallas: The Drever

Postby dallaz » 19 Jan 2019 12:59

itsjrd1964 wrote:Well, there are still some lights on in there, so someone has to be paying a light bill, at least. Sadly, at the rate it's going, this will take longer than the Statler to get redone.

Will it ever get done? It is suppose to be completed by this fall. Hopefully, there isn’t another delay.

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Tivo_Kenevil
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Re: Downtown Dallas: The Drever

Postby Tivo_Kenevil » 19 Jan 2019 14:42

dallaz wrote:
itsjrd1964 wrote:Well, there are still some lights on in there, so someone has to be paying a light bill, at least. Sadly, at the rate it's going, this will take longer than the Statler to get redone.

Will it ever get done? It is suppose to be completed by this fall. Hopefully, there isn’t another delay.


Ha!

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Tucy
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Re: Downtown Dallas: The Drever

Postby Tucy » 22 Jan 2019 15:32

dallaz wrote:
itsjrd1964 wrote:Well, there are still some lights on in there, so someone has to be paying a light bill, at least. Sadly, at the rate it's going, this will take longer than the Statler to get redone.

Will it ever get done? It is suppose to be completed by this fall. Hopefully, there isn’t another delay.


I think they already extended their completion deadline another year (to the end of 2020), didn't they?

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dallaz
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Re: Downtown Dallas: The Drever

Postby dallaz » 22 Jan 2019 16:58

Tucy wrote:
dallaz wrote:
itsjrd1964 wrote:Well, there are still some lights on in there, so someone has to be paying a light bill, at least. Sadly, at the rate it's going, this will take longer than the Statler to get redone.

Will it ever get done? It is suppose to be completed by this fall. Hopefully, there isn’t another delay.


I think they already extended their completion deadline another year (to the end of 2020), didn't they?

Oh ok. I didn’t know that. Ha..Maybe I can stop being so worried now.

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Tivo_Kenevil
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Re: Downtown Dallas: The Drever

Postby Tivo_Kenevil » 22 Jan 2019 20:48

I'm still very much worried. I don't see substantial progress. And it's not like this development started a few weeks ago. I still think this developer is in over his head. The amount of restarts is scary.

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trueicon
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Re: Downtown Dallas: The Drever

Postby trueicon » 23 Jan 2019 10:28

Fear not, I found Drever's 10 year challenge pic.

Screen Shot 2019-01-20 at 9.35.20 PM.png
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dallaz
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Re: Downtown Dallas: The Drever

Postby dallaz » 23 Jan 2019 11:10

trueicon wrote:Fear not, I found Drever's 10 year challenge pic.

Screen Shot 2019-01-20 at 9.35.20 PM.png

Haha. Good one! :lol:

Let’s hope that’s not the case...

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exelone31
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Re: Downtown Dallas: The Drever

Postby exelone31 » 23 Jan 2019 12:10

trueicon wrote:Fear not, I found Drever's 10 year challenge pic.

Screen Shot 2019-01-20 at 9.35.20 PM.png


Lol, too much progress to be accurate tho

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ArtVandelay
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Re: Downtown Dallas: The Drever

Postby ArtVandelay » 04 Feb 2019 07:41

I know this is a stretch, but the green backing may indicate the stone is going back up?

Image

cowboyeagle05
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Re: Downtown Dallas: The Drever

Postby cowboyeagle05 » 05 Feb 2019 01:57

I do occasionally see people on site so I think they just have a very very very small group of workers making minor progress on various projects. Not that it's a wonderful sign other than I don't think the site is completely dead. They will never meet their deadlines with a tiny crew but maybe some stone will go back up...
“Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell”

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Jbarn
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Re: Downtown Dallas: The Drever

Postby Jbarn » 05 Feb 2019 13:47

I was just downtown. Not a bit of activity going on with this building. The city really needs to step in and get some sort of timeline when the sidewalks will be reopened. Totally unacceptable that the city allows developers to shut down sidewalks for years, especially when it is obvious the development has been at a virtual standstill for a year or two. Unless someone takes over this development, it will not be completed. This is really dragging down everything around it. Would probably be better just to tear the thing down at this point. An empty lot is better than a 50 story abandoned building.

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Re: Downtown Dallas: The Drever

Postby DPatel304 » 06 Feb 2019 12:07

Jbarn wrote:An empty lot is better than a 50 story abandoned building.

:shock:

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art_suckz
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Re: Downtown Dallas: The Drever

Postby art_suckz » 06 Feb 2019 14:19

IMO... once you stare at an empty parking lot for a few decades, you'll want that building back... even if it's empty.
To the man who only has a hammer, everything he encounters begins to look like a nail.

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dallaz
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Re: Downtown Dallas: The Drever

Postby dallaz » 06 Feb 2019 14:42

Why does it seem like developers have a hard time completing this project? Is this project too big for them?

itsjrd1964
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Re: Downtown Dallas: The Drever

Postby itsjrd1964 » 07 Feb 2019 02:14

In some ways, it's a similar conversion to the LTV Tower of a few short years ago. Both buildings were built with a bank and office space in mind, not apartments, hotel, and restaurant in mind. The apartments and hotel will require much in the way of water lines (especially hot water, which the building likely had little of, other than for the occasional hallway bathroom sink), good elevator/escalator infrastructure, communications/telecom/internet/media connectivity, and more, all in a building that is over 50 years old, that likely had mold and asbestos when the conversion work first started. I've not been in the building when it was any of its previous iterations, but I would guess the intricacy of the building then/now would have to be looked at when putting in all the different planned parts. The Statler was no slouch when it came to that, there were many different parts to get moving again. With the stops/starts/etc that this conversion has had, you have to wonder how potential lenders think about this. Are the developers good partner material? Will they be able to work with the capital they'll receive? Will they go over-budget and need to go back to the well for more? Do potential tenants really want to partner and do business with them? Will the City get tired of them after a while? I'm not taking up for them, but there may be things we don't know about, other than the sheer obvious about the lengthy time it's taken up to now. I hope it doesn't become a scar and a money pit. It will be an awful big and prominent one if it does.

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Re: Downtown Dallas: The Drever

Postby dfwcre8tive » 07 Feb 2019 11:56

An old holiday card I found recently.

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Tnexster
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Re: Downtown Dallas: The Drever

Postby Tnexster » 23 Feb 2019 00:26

Talked to somebody at Drever this week. He said the building should resume full construction in March.

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Re: Downtown Dallas: The Drever

Postby DPatel304 » 23 Feb 2019 00:51

Tnexster wrote:Talked to somebody at Drever this week. He said the building should resume full construction in March.


Thanks for the update! I will always be forever skeptical when it comes to this project, but I appreciate the update very much.

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Jbarn
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Re: Downtown Dallas: The Drever

Postby Jbarn » 23 Feb 2019 07:57

Tnexster wrote:Talked to somebody at Drever this week. He said the building should resume full construction in March.


Have they ever been at full construction?

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Re: Downtown Dallas: The Drever

Postby Tnexster » 23 Feb 2019 11:39

DPatel304 wrote:
Tnexster wrote:Talked to somebody at Drever this week. He said the building should resume full construction in March.


Thanks for the update! I will always be forever skeptical when it comes to this project, but I appreciate the update very much.


Sure, lots of eyes on this one so I'm sure we will know when activity picks up.

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Tivo_Kenevil
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Re: Downtown Dallas: The Drever

Postby Tivo_Kenevil » 23 Feb 2019 15:14

DPatel304 wrote:
Tnexster wrote:Talked to somebody at Drever this week. He said the building should resume full construction in March.


Thanks for the update! I will always be forever skeptical when it comes to this project, but I appreciate the update very much.

How many restarts have we've had now...
This is ridiculous, either get financing for the while project or just sell it already

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Re: Downtown Dallas: The Drever

Postby itsjrd1964 » 24 Feb 2019 02:22

Tnexster wrote:Talked to somebody at Drever this week. He said the building should resume full construction in March.


Any new timeline mentioned to you? Did they let on what the real holdup was?

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ArtVandelay
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Re: Downtown Dallas: The Drever

Postby ArtVandelay » 24 Feb 2019 09:14

If you’re a property tax payer in Dallas, $50MM of your money has been earmarked for this project in the form of a TIF Grant. You have every right to know what the F is going on with this project. As of 12/31/17, the City has not advanced any funds to these incompetents. I’m hoping, that is still the case as of 12/31/18.

My prediction is the TIF agreement is terminated at some point. Sometimes you have to be patient and wait for a competent developer to come in (e.g. KDC).

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Re: Downtown Dallas: The Drever

Postby lakewoodhobo » 24 Feb 2019 10:56

ArtVandelay wrote:If you’re a property tax payer in Dallas, $50MM of your money has been earmarked for this project in the form of a TIF Grant. You have every right to know what the F is going on with this project. As of 12/31/17, the City has not advanced any funds to these incompetents. I’m hoping, that is still the case as of 12/31/18.

My prediction is the TIF agreement is terminated at some point. Sometimes you have to be patient and wait for a competent developer to come in (e.g. KDC).


TIF money isn't given out until after the project is completed, so I'm not worried about that. My concern is that these people are allowed to block the sidewalk, endangering pedestrians, and for nothing.

I've worked downtown for close to 13 years and I've never seen so many construction projects going on here at once, which is great. I'm willing to live with some of the inconveniences caused by this, but what the Drever is doing with the sidewalk should be illegal.

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Re: Downtown Dallas: The Drever

Postby soco » 01 Mar 2019 09:07

I'm not sure what they are up to, but construction crews were milling about on the podium deck this morning.

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Re: Downtown Dallas: The Drever

Postby Tnexster » 21 Mar 2019 21:34

We are getting towards the end of March which was supposed to be the launch of full construction, anybody see any signs? I look when I go by but nothing obvious to me.

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Re: Downtown Dallas: The Drever

Postby lakewoodhobo » 01 Apr 2019 11:19

They've been pouring concrete on the amenity deck, so at least there's that. (From a friend's post on FB:)

Image

DPatel304
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Re: Downtown Dallas: The Drever

Postby DPatel304 » 01 Apr 2019 11:42

Thanks for the update! At this point, I'll take any sort of progress.

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Re: Downtown Dallas: The Drever

Postby Jay9398 » 02 Apr 2019 11:41

DPatel304 wrote:Thanks for the update! At this point, I'll take any sort of progress.


This morning I noticed they have put up drops for worker overhang on the NE corner over Akard. I assume to start prepping for the marble. I just hope they don't get this entire building painted mint green and then run out of money again.

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dallaz
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Re: Downtown Dallas: The Drever

Postby dallaz » 02 Apr 2019 13:19

Glad to see progress! Hopefully, this continues (fingers crossed).

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Jbarn
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Re: Downtown Dallas: The Drever

Postby Jbarn » 02 Apr 2019 13:52

dallaz wrote:Glad to see progress! Hopefully, this continues (fingers crossed).


Just walked by there. I could hear crickets.

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dallaz
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Re: Downtown Dallas: The Drever

Postby dallaz » 02 Apr 2019 15:13

Jbarn wrote:
dallaz wrote:Glad to see progress! Hopefully, this continues (fingers crossed).


Just walked by there. I could hear crickets.

Well damn! :(

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Re: Downtown Dallas: The Drever

Postby cowboyeagle05 » 03 Apr 2019 00:01

Y'all are just going to have to be patient. Its obvious whatever amount of work they are doing is a small crew. Looks like they are paying for some small amount of workers to work a number of projects possibly to keep the city from coming down on them for a lack of any progress. They don't seem to be working full steam but just moving deck chairs around keep something from looking like nothing.
“Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell”

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whd3
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Re: Downtown Dallas: The Drever

Postby whd3 » 03 Apr 2019 13:40

From the 10th floor of One Main, I see workers on the west side of the podium today (the side facing Renaissance Tower). Two guys are working on a corner drop a few floors above the podium on the NW corner. They appear to be "sanding" the concrete, maybe to prepare it for the tiles? There are two more guys that are preparing a corner drop to rise on the SW corner.
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Jbarn
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Re: Downtown Dallas: The Drever

Postby Jbarn » 04 Apr 2019 06:01

whd3 wrote:From the 10th floor of One Main, I see workers on the west side of the podium today (the side facing Renaissance Tower). Two guys are working on a corner drop a few floors above the podium on the NW corner. They appear to be "sanding" the concrete, maybe to prepare it for the tiles? There are two more guys that are preparing a corner drop to rise on the SW corner.


Four whole workers at the same time. They should be finished in no time.

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Re: Downtown Dallas: The Drever

Postby lakewoodhobo » 10 Apr 2019 10:30

New tile going up today?

IMG_7020.jpg
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eburress
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Re: Downtown Dallas: The Drever

Postby eburress » 10 Apr 2019 11:55

Thank goodness...that has been an eyesore for far too long!

cowboyeagle05
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Re: Downtown Dallas: The Drever

Postby cowboyeagle05 » 10 Apr 2019 11:59

Now the wait and see to see if they get halfway done and stop again.
“Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell”

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jetnd87
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Re: Downtown Dallas: The Drever

Postby jetnd87 » 10 Apr 2019 13:28

Tile looks nice!

Tnexster
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Re: Downtown Dallas: The Drever

Postby Tnexster » 10 Apr 2019 13:36

Wow, that will look great!

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whd3
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Re: Downtown Dallas: The Drever

Postby whd3 » 11 Apr 2019 08:37

Just noticed this this morning. Look at those shiny white tiles ready to be hung!
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