At last, downtown Dallas tower to get $450 million redo

After a decade of starts and stops, the 1.5 million-sf First National Bank Tower—which occupies the largest vacant block in the core of downtown Dallas—is to be redeveloped. Todd Interests is the new developer. Andres Construction Services is the GC. Merriman Anderson Architects is the design firm.

Work on the 52-story tower at 1401 Elm Street quietly began ramping back up in recent days, while the deal with Todd Interests was still being ironed out. That’s because the project must hit a completion target of year-end 2020 to qualify for millions in entitlements.

According to a May 8, 2019, report by Jeremiah Jensen in Commercial Real Estate, the redevelopment will focus on four uses: apartments, hotel, restaurants, and retail. A 200-room hotel, which will serve as a Texas flagship for Thompson Hotels, is scheduled to open in September 2020. The residential component will feature 318 luxury apartments, including some on the 48th floor—the highest in downtown Dallas.

The landmark tower has been vacant for a decade, according to a report by Steve Brown, RE Editor of the Dallas News. Todd Interests is the fifth owner to tackle redevelopment of the 1960s office tower, which is the largest empty building downtown.

The Tampa Bay Rays Major League Baseball team announced that it has reached an agreement with St. Petersburg and Pinellas County on a $6.5 billion, 86-acre mixed-use development that will include a new 30,000-seat ballpark and an array of office, housing, hotel, retail, and restaurant space totaling 8 million sf.

Engineers | Sep 15, 2023

NIST investigation of Champlain Towers South collapse indicates no sinkhole

Investigators from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) say they have found no evidence of underground voids on the site of the Champlain Towers South collapse, according to a new NIST report. The team of investigators have studied the site’s subsurface conditions to determine if sinkholes or excessive settling of the pile foundations might have caused the collapse.

MFPRO+ Research | Sep 11, 2023

Conversions of multifamily dwellings to ‘mansions’ leading to dwindling affordable stock

Small multifamily homes have historically provided inexpensive housing for renters and buyers, but developers have converted many of them in recent decades into larger, single-family units. This has worsened the affordable housing crisis, say researchers.

Deciphering the Differences in Smart Lock Networks

Adaptive Reuse | Aug 31, 2023

New York City creates team to accelerate office-to-residential conversions

New York City has a new Office Conversion Accelerator Team that provides a single point of contact within city government to help speed adaptive reuse projects. Projects that create 50 or more housing units from office buildings are eligible for this new program.