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Building Sales And Medical Growth Boosts Property Along Dallas’ Stemmons Freeway

One of Dallas’ first business districts is seeing a robust revival.

Construction of Stemmons Freeway, which started in the 1950s, sent office development northwest of downtown Dallas.(PHOTO CREDIT: Tom Dillard / Dallas Morning News Photographer)

Starting in the 1950s, office construction spread northwest of downtown along Dallas’ new Stemmons Freeway. By the 1960s, the Interstate 35E corridor between downtown and Dallas Love Field was seeing a building boom with dozens of new business addresses popping up along the highway. But the Stemmons Corridor was loslifeing its shine by the 1990s, with many of the big office employers headed to newer pastures in North Dallas, Irving and Plano.

Now the area is seeing a rebound, with multiple property sales and plans for construction.

 “It’s amazing how things have transitioned over there — it’s all of a sudden gentrified,” said Gary Carr, vice chairman of Newmark Group.

Newmark has recently handled several office building lfie sciencessales along Stemmons Freeway and Mockingbird Lane The commercial real estate firm is marketing the two Mockingbird Towers, one of the largest office properties in that area.

“The growing interest in the area is due to the local boom in medical and life science operations,” said Carr. “A big part of it is the hospital district and the growth at Parkland Hospital, UT Southwestern and Children’s Medical. They’ve taken a ton of office square footage over there. Development is also a result of Love Field expanding and everything moving in that direction.”

The centerpiece of the Pegasus Park project is this 18-story office tower that was once the headquarters of jeweler Zale Corp. and, before that, Exxon Mobil.(PHOTO CREDIT: Elias Valverde II / Dallas Morning News Staff Photographer)

Redevelopment of the former Exxon Mobil office tower on Stemmons at Commonwealth Drive has spurred other investments along the highway.

Small Investments and Lyda Hill Philanthropies converted the vacant office high-rise into a mixed-use office campus for biotech firms and nonprofit organizations called Pegasus Park. UT Southwestern Medical Center, Massachusetts-based BioLabs and Taysha Gene Therapies along with other firms have taken space in the building.

“Pegasus Park is growing as we expected and attracting lots of new activity,” the owners said in a statement. “It is truly becoming the center of the life sciences cluster here in North Texas, and we are excited about continuing to build the ecosystem.”

Small Investments acquired a second office tower for redevelopment at 2525 North Stemmons.

A Wisconsin-based medical real estate firm, Hammes Partners, has purchased the largest office building in Dallas’ Stemmons Freeway corridor northwest of downtown — the 20-story Trinity Towers at Stemmons and Inwood Road.

Ricchi Tower along North Stemmons recently sold to the city of Dallas for more than $14 million.(PHOTO CREDIT: Shafkat Anowar / Dallas Morning News Staff Photographer)

The city of Dallas spent more than $14 million to buy the Ricchi Tower at 7800 North Stemmons to be used for “city services and operations.”

And a California-based medical real estate firm, Alexandria Real Estate Equities, bought a vacant block at the northeast corner of Mockingbird and Harry Hines Boulevard where it’s planning a medical campus, real estate brokers say.

The Alexandria site is across the street from Exchange Park, where UT Southwestern is eyeing a major expansion.

“What’s happening in the area is truly exciting,” said Kolby Dickerson, vice president of TXRE Properties. “When I got down there 10 years ago, it seemed like nobody else wanted to work there. You have new and well-capitalized owners putting money into the buildings and providing great quality office space at a discount to the overall market. It’s probably the most affordable office space in Dallas. The activity is growing as people are getting priced out of Uptown, Las Colinas and even buildings on Central Expressway.”

TXRE Real Estate has bought and sold offices in the Stemmons Corridor and still has properties in the area. Dickerson said developers are taking a look at the locations for building sites for apartments and other projects.

An Austin-based apartment builder is buying a vacant office at 8001 Stemmons that will be demolished to make way for rental units.(PHOTO CREDIT: Shafkat Anowar / Dallas Morning News Staff Photographer)

OHT Partners, an Austin-based apartment builder, is buying a vacant office building at 8001 Stemmons Freeway and plans to demolish the property and put up rental units.

“You can get a lot of land down there that is already zoned at prices that are way less,” said Jake Milner, who is working with J. Scott Lake of Davidson Bogel Real Estate to broker the property sale to OHT Partners. “We are already getting calls from other owners in the area saying, What is my dirt worth?’ ”

 

Source: Dallas Morning News

Dallas Medical District Towers Up For Grabs

One of the largest office tower complexes in Dallas’ medical district near Love Field have just been put up for sale.

The 12-story Mockingbird Towers are at 1341 W. Mockingbird Lane.

Built in the 1970s, the almost 450,000-square-foot high-rise project has been substantially renovated with almost $11 million in upgrades since 2015.

The mirrored glass-clad towers are 91% leased to tenants including Labcorp, Children’s Medical, Parkland Community Health Plan, JetSuite and Surveying and Mapping LLC.

Since 2020 the buildings have been owned by Boston-based Albany Road Real Estate Partners.

Commercial property firm Newmark Group is now marketing Mockingbird Towers for sale.

The real estate broker describes the buildings as: “The finest office asset within the booming West Love/Medical District submarket of Dallas.”

Mockingbird Towers are coming to the market at a time when multiple nearby office buildings have recently changed hands.

Seller Albany Road Real Estate recently acquired two additional nearby office towers, And other buildings in the Stemmons Freeway corridor have sold to firms that are repositioning the properties for medical use.

Newmark Group’s Chris Murphy, Robert Hill, Gary Carr and Chase Tagen are marketing Mockingbird Towers to buyers.

 

Source: Dallas Morning News

Multiple New Developments In Dallas’ Medical District Proves Major Growth And Movement

The Medical District’s population in Dallas is projected to grow by 12.5% from 2016 to 2021,

Olerio Homes’ launch of its first townhouse development at Kimsey Place in the distrct could’t come at a better time. The area is only minutes from downtown, area hospitals, universities, Love Field, the Park Cities and major highways.

Containing 28 units, the first of four phases of townhomes is now available for sale or lease. With sale prices ranging from the high $300s to the mid-$400s, this housing should be attractive to the medical and higher education personnel who work in the district.

Olerio Homes’ President, Lou Olerio, couldn’t be more satisfied with the company’s new venture.

“I had been looking for multi-family land for a while but didn’t want to develop in East Dallas or The Cedars due to the market saturation,” Olerio says. “I was excited to find a pocket off Maple and Inwood that offers affordability, location, and a developing neighborhood in need of more housing options. I feel like Kimsey was a perfect fit.”

With these homes’ affordability and convenience comes a rapidly developing neighborhood—one of the hottest real estate markets in the area. That’s not all. In the works is a Texas Trees Foundation project to make the area greener and more walkable which should increase property values for homeowners who get in on the ground floor of this new development.

With a job growth rate of nearly double the national figure that shows no sign of stopping, the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington area has become a magnet for job seekers all over the country. The state’s low tax rate continues to attract many of the nation’s top firms, with plans to relocate or establish branches in this growing region.

All that good news means that affordable housing will become scarcer as demand rises. To meet that need, Olerio Homes is pre-selling 24 patio homes in Modella Park, a gated development near Webb Chapel and Forrest. These homes will be available during the second quarter of 2020 and will be available at prices from the high $400s upwards.

“With the land rush on the east side of I-75, almost all land in the city’s east side had already been bought,” Olerio explains. “Since Olerio Homes bought the new land, there wasn’t much development on the west side of town. These new developments give buyers an option to own a home with as little as three percent down. Combined with the area’s potential for upside appreciation, this development’s central location and proximity to hospitals, universities, and businesses make buying a home there an attractive opportunity for first-time homeowners and new residents.”

 

Source: Tipp News Daily