Dallas: Market Center area

[itsjrd1964]

A new owner has acquired the Infomart. They want to add a 4-story expansion to the building. Hopefully it will at least compliment what's already there; I'm not hopeful it will be built in the style of what's there now as it's likely too expensive to do that.

https://www.dallasnews.com/business/rea ... n-addition

[Matt777]

I can't tell you how many times out of towners have said "wow, what is that building?" when passing the Infomart. I am 97.5% sure that whatever expansion is being planned will ruin the aesthetic, especially since it is modeled after the Crystal Palace that was built in London. It won't look like that anymore with a 4 story addition. Sigh.

[Tnexster]

^Where would they place the addition? If Infomart is 7 stories and the addition is built behind it or off to the side it might not make a difference.

[Hannibal Lecter]

I don't know about you, but when I spend $800 million for a building I usually try not to screw it up too badly in the first year.

It sounds like the addition is to for physical plant, so it logically would be out of the way visually.

[ContriveDallasite]

$800 million that is a pretty large sized deal. I can't really picture how the floor expansion would look like, it will probably be quite a challenge to match the style perfectly. Would love a more recent picture from this vantage view though

[eburress]

If you Google the Crystal Palace, you'll notice that it's much more spread-out and shorter (3ish stories). Who knows if the new owners will want to maintain that style, but one can imagine how a 4 story-tall expansion could make the Infomart appear even more consistent with its historic inspiration.

[R1070]

Does anyone have info on the construction going on the ramps on Stemmons Freeway?

[Tucy]

If you Google the Crystal Palace, you'll notice that it's much more spread-out and shorter (3ish stories). Who knows if the new owners will want to maintain that style, but one can imagine how a 4 story-tall expansion could make the Infomart appear even more consistent with its historic inspiration.

Good thought. Except that the addition is so small. It will apparently have a floorplate that is only about 1/15th the size of the existing building's floorplate. The addition plan seems a little odd. It is SO small relative to the size of the building, one wonders what would cause them to do such a thing.

[Reignofcane]

Does anyone have info on the construction going on the ramps on Stemmons Freeway?

This is part of the "lowest Stemmons" project designed to fix traffic flow coming off of Woodall Rogers as well as the flow onto the Dallas North Tollway ramp, much the same as the horseshoe rebuild fixed the entrance onto Woodall Rogers from 35 coming north on 35 and off of 30. It'll be a few years before this project is completed, but it should be very helpful for the traffic in that area.

[cowboyeagle05]

Well according to others above its an addition related to equipment to support its growth as a data center so I imagine it's not a lot of office space just utility space related to making the center more up to date and competitive with brand new centers built all over DFW. No new signature restaurants and gyms here just room for lots of a expensive equipment, batteries, heating, and cooling etc.

[Tnexster]

Well according to others above its an addition related to equipment to support its growth as a data center so I imagine it's not a lot of office space just utility space related to making the center more up to date and competitive with brand new centers built all over DFW. No new signature restaurants and gyms here just room for lots of a expensive equipment, batteries, heating, and cooling etc.

Had the same thought, expanding to increase it's capacity as a data center. It's such an attractive building, seems odd that this is what it has become.

[Tucy]

It kind of goes without saying that they are expanding to somehow increase their capacity or utility as a data center; that is, after all, the purpose of the building. It's just that it is such a small addition relative to the size of the existing building...

[Hannibal Lecter]

Had the same thought, expanding to increase it's capacity as a data center. It's such an attractive building, seems odd that this is what it has become.

The industry changed. The kind of use -- fancy showroom for corporate customers -- disappeared. Credit goes to the architects for making the building flexible, and to the owners for quickly adapting to the new reality.

I actually COLO'd my servers there about 10 years ago.

[I45Tex]

Might I ask for a quick clarification? Possibly the tech product showroom industry was disappearing, but in Atlanta the apparel mart downtown complex still seems to be chugging along. Maybe Infomart's ownership and lenders modeled a higher foreseeable ROI for the tech industry, but...

unless Dallas' national mart is worse off than Atlanta's, these days, my uneducated guess would at least have anticipated more of a location premium from tapping into the rest of that geographic industry face-to-face hotspot than from ignoring the whole market center and going full digital.

[cowboyeagle05]

Well, it was Lincoln Property Group wasn't that wanted to put a server farm along Stemmons on the old Cabana hotel site? They abandoned that idea and it did not seem to be because they got cold feet on the historical teardown just that whatever market conditions they were looking at for that site shifted so they changed course. Maybe Stemmons isn't a bad freeway for more lower staffed largely server facilities? Medival Times datacenter has a nice ring to it.

[tamtagon]

Might I ask for a quick clarification? Possibly the tech product showroom industry was disappearing, but in Atlanta the apparel mart downtown complex still seems to be chugging along. Maybe Infomart's ownership and lenders modeled a higher foreseeable ROI for the tech industry, but...

unless Dallas' national mart is worse off than Atlanta's, these days, my uneducated guess would at least have anticipated more of a location premium from tapping into the rest of that geographic industry face-to-face hotspot than from ignoring the whole market center and going full digital.

I think there's two entities there... the tech gadget showroom Crystal Palace turned into a server farm or whatever, and the Dallas Market Center sprawls next door, still thriving in the wholesale world. The Market Center is why we have the Anatole. The Infomart was another TCrow spin-off concept that ran it's course (sorta like Circuit City).

I've been waiting for, like, at least a decade for some coalition of decision makers and developers to extend Hi Line to Market Center Blvd the Anatole and under I-35 to the Dallas Market Center: really connect the Wholesale Fashion, Fashion Accessories and Homegoods showrooms to the Design District and Victory Park.

[itsjrd1964]

Infomart owners gearing up for $138 million data center expansion

Plans are proceeding, but the article doesn't say if the addition will be on the side (north side is the likeliest since there's really no room outwardly in other directions), or on top. The plans still call for 4 stories, and over 230,000 square feet. No timetable was given in the article, either.

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

[kingpin]

Untitled by rlopez2011, on Flickr

[NdoorTX]

Another stunning redevelopment concept from Corgan for the Market center:

https://www.corgan.com/projects/dallas- ... aster-plan

[NdoorTX]

[NdoorTX]

[Dallas_Uptown]

Nice find!

[Tivo_Kenevil]

The market Center area is stuck in 1974. Kinda gross.

[I45Tex]

[I45Tex]

That tends to happen when one developer builds a big chunk of land. It can't process risktaking in little independent plots. It can't process risktaking like an urban neighborhood.

Thus it can't be one that keeps developing a local urbane flair nor actual urban character except of one kind: that of a local trophy shelf.

Which either ages into a different nice vibe or into a stale local punchline.

Likewise too his son Harlan Crow's snazzy new private equity park, the initial Hillwood Victory, and Gabriel Barbier-Mueller's Harwood District.

My 2c.