DTD: Ross & Field Mixed Use

[jammin]

Ross Avenue may get tower
Developers buy most of downtown block for mixed-use project



12:00 AM CST on Thursday, December 29, 2005
By STEVE BROWN / The Dallas Morning News
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/DN-ross_29bus.ART.State.Edition2.188a4803.html

Developers have purchased most of a downtown block on Ross Avenue and are studying plans for a high-rise.

United Commercial Development bought the site at Ross Avenue and Field Street that contains a commercial strip and motor bank.

"We bought everything on the block but the fire station," United Commercial president David Dunning said Wednesday. "We are going to do mixed-use with high-rise residential."

Dallas architect Phillip Shepherd – who was the architect for the Mansion on Turtle Creek hotel and collaborated on the Crescent complex near downtown – has been hired to design the project.

Real estate investors James "Boots" Reeder and J.C. Sterquell also helped with the transaction.

The property was acquired from an out-of-state investor. Terms of the sale were not disclosed, but the block is valued for taxes at almost $3 million.

The commercial strip facing Ross was built in the 1950s, and the bank drive-in, which is leased to Wells Fargo, dates from 1982.

With the construction of the nearby Victory project and ambitious plans for the Trinity River corridor, the property near Woodall Rodgers Freeway is a prime development site, Mr. Dunning said.

"It's exciting what is going on in that area," he said. "Ten years ago, I wouldn't have even thought about doing it."

E-mail stevebrown@dallasnews.com

[FoUTASportscaster]

That is more good news for DTD. Can't wait to hear more on the specifics.

[Columbus Civil]

This is great news! This was always the drive-in bank I used before heading down to College Station for football and basketball games.

This is right across Field Street from Fountain Place.

Man, this year has been incredible for downtown development

Here's a map of the property:

[Columbus Civil]

Now if we could find someone to buy those two surface parking lots on the other two corners of this intersection...

[jammin]

Hopefully it'll be the end of the liquor stores near by too. Another tower with corridor of greenspace linking the west end and aquarium to the woodall rogers park would be cool too.

[clipper]

Those liquor stores across from the DART transfer station are a blight on that whole area. They are falling down and you can see the code violations from a block away. Someone must have a fix in at city hall.

[CARTMAN]

This is great news. Those four corners are in dire need of some type of development. I'm glad someone has a vision for it.

[1000aire]

the entire block where the liquor store, and the chinese food/donut shop are, is an eyesore. i wonder if it is another reason why 1001 Ross has had trouble. at any rate, i hope something good comes out of this deal, i really wish we could get some development in the huge parking lots right across the street. I always wanted to buy the rangers with my fictitious millions of dollars and build a stadium for them in that spot, although i don't see how I could fit it, but it would be cool none the less.

[gc]

This is great to hear. Clipper, do you have any inside scoop on this project?

[Kelley USA]

Nice news to close out the year!

[RobertB]

the entire block where the liquor store, and the chinese food/donut shop are, is an eyesore. i wonder if it is another reason why 1001 Ross has had trouble. at any rate, i hope something good comes out of this deal, i really wish we could get some development in the huge parking lots right across the street. I always wanted to buy the rangers with my fictitious millions of dollars and build a stadium for them in that spot, although i don't see how I could fit it, but it would be cool none the less.
Agreed. I ride the bus when I can, and every time I transfer at the West Transfer Center, I see the juxtaposition of the ramshackle liquor stores, the Donut/Food store that *always* has a panhandler stationed at the door... and right behind them, high-end retail and services. A certain level of grittiness is desirable, I think, to balance out the glitz of new development. But that block isn't gritty -- it's sleazy.

On the other hand, I'm sure many suburban-mindset developers see me and the rest of the Pleasant Grove crew boarding the 165 and react like the short-sighted owners of Prestonwood Mall, RIP. There's still a perception that bus == bad. But the right development could still flourish -- Honolulu's Ala Moana shopping center and Minneapolis' Mall of America are both major bus transfer hubs that have been able to integrate mobility and marketing to the benefit of both. I'd love to see such a center in downtown Dallas!

[clipper]

I think it's probably too early to say if that Ross deal happens. Plus I know the bank has more than 10 years on its lease.

[gc]

I think it's probably too early to say if that Ross deal happens. Plus I know the bank has more than 10 years on its lease.

Interesting. 10 more years, eh?

[clipper]

Of course, they could buy them out or encorporate the bank in the development.

[Columbus Civil]

Just wondering..who would want to live directly over a fire station??

[jammin]

You dont have to be over it to hear it...i was at the Manor House and I definitely heard every siren. It's just a part of urban life.

[JaeTex]

Just wondering..who would want to live directly over a fire station??


[In my best Shatner voice] Too...many...jokes...must resist...urge to respond with lame pole jokes.

[incrediculous]

Just wondering..who would want to live directly over a fire station??

I live next door to Medical City Dallas.

Only takes a few days before you stop noticing the sirens at all.

[msutton]

I live right across the street from one in NYC. Bothered me the first three nights or so, but as incrediculous says, you get used to it pretty quickly.

[gc]

^ Me too. I used to live at the Manor House where noise seemed magnified....and now live next door to the AAC.....anyhoo....point is....it takes only a few days where the noise is just like the wind blowing.

[gc]

Oh yeah....plus it is part of city life...

[texman]

Why is this developer making things complicated? Just build on a surface lot...

[BigD5349]

I think it's great. But, I'll need to go out and get some camera shots of Fountain Place from that side. I always loved how the view of Fountain Place was unobstructed from all angles, and that you can see that its shape appears different from every angle. I'd always point that out to a guest when we would drive around downtown, and everyone always thinks it's such a cool building.

The price of progress...

[frankchitown]

I live right across the street from one in NYC. Bothered me the first three nights or so, but as incrediculous says, you get used to it pretty quickly.

No joke. When I moved to Oak Lawn from downtown it was hard for me to sleep at night because it was so quiet. It was also strange not waking up to the downtown traffic in the mornings.

[incrediculous]

Yeah, when I went to my parents' house in West Texas over Christmas, I couldn't sleep. I need to hear the 8 lanes of expressway roaring by my balcony.

[FoUTASportscaster]

I went to my parents' house in West Texas


What city?

[RadicalBender]

And, of course, in Deep Ellum, there is all kinds of noise that you get used to eventually. The fire station up the street, the large police substation down on Canton, ambulances running about to and from Baylor, not to mention the CareFlite choppers. Add to that the ambient highway noise, idiots with loud cars and motorcycles running down Commerce and the standard bar and club din and you just get used to most of that.

Only when things get above and beyond the level of ambient noise (like a neighbor playing loud electronica at 2:00 am) is when I get irritated.

[1999McKinneyAve]

Keep your fingers crossed. J.C. Sterquell has been involved in a few deals lately in the Uptown area that never got past the planning stages.

[tamtagon]

Keep your fingers crossed.

I sure dee will.

Getting a large scale highrise residential building on this corner will open the door for The West End to focus on the needs of an extremely dense residential population as well as meet the expectations of tourists.

Victory Park is going to bring thousands of residents within walking distance of The West End. It is only a matter time before large scale residential developments, buildings with hundreds of units a piece, cluster around The West End.

[Jdallas]

1001 Ross was sold by Fram to Jefferson Properties. We are under new management here. The leasing agent downstairs told me that Jefferson could not get Starbucks to commit to building a shop right across the street from the leasing office but the track of land where all the liquor stores are is coming down. She advised me that Jefferson had to renegotiate all the deals with Fram to include 1001 Ross, the small piece of land across from the leasing office (proposed Starbucks), and the track of land by the bus stations with all the liquor stores on it. That is the reason for the delay. Apparently Starbucks had to many restrictions on the land across from the leasing office so Jefferson gave up….come see the new paved parking lot that is there now! Bummer.

[clipper]

Anything that gets rid of those booze shops is good for that area. But there are a couple of nice old buildings on that block, including one with some orignal cast iron. If they are going to build something then knock it down, but no more parking lots in that area. That's not what we need.

[FoUTASportscaster]

What do you want more, liquor stores gone or no surface parking?

[clipper]

Both

[tamtagon]

Both

they go together like ramma lamma lamma ka dinga da dinga dong

[BigD5349]

they go together like ramma lamma lamma ka dinga da dinga dong

Yeah, getting all liquored up helps take your mind off all the surface parking lots... :)

[FoUTASportscaster]

funny

[clipper]

This is the nice one with the old cast iron columns and ornamentation. I know, the tenants are the pits.

[clipper]

On the back side of the block this former gas station built in 1931 looked a lot better when it was unpainted brick.

[clipper]

This little pie shaped building was a bar for decades and decades. The newspaper printers at the nearby old Dallas Times Herald used to all drink there after the paper was printed. Now it's the third ratty booze shop on that block.

[clipper]

This is the worst of the bunch. I don't know why the city hasn't shut the hole in the wall down.

[tamtagon]

This little pie shaped building was a bar for decades and decades. The newspaper printers at the nearby old Dallas Times Herald used to all drink there after the paper was printed. Now it's the third ratty booze shop on that block.

That was always my favorite stop during and afternoon drinking tour of downtown dive bars. From what I hear, a Dallas dive bar tour is better in West or South Dallas these days, and that's good, it's time for people to start living in/around the West End....

[antoinekhuu]

That block definitely needs to be razed

[msutton]

Yeah, some of those are decent buildings underneath, but nothing really worth weeping over being razed.

[Lakewooder]

It wasn't just the printers from the Herald who drank there--- also the reporters, ad salesmen, and interns! ;)

[drycreek]

I love all those buildings. If refurbed into eateries, bars, etc. they would be awesome. We really need to keep buildings like this around. It's history first of all and they also do an excellent job of keeping DT on a human scale. These kind of buildings are critical to a healthy urban environment in my opinion. I too dislike the liquor stores, but the buildings themselves are diamond in the rough if you asked me.

[X Factor]

^ Ditto

[clipper]

Well said, Drycreek.

[EscapeToCity]

Was anything proposed for this site in the 1980s? For some reason I want to think there were previous high-rise plans for this tract...

[Insidetheloop]

Noe. Nothing was ever planned for that tract. Up until DART rebuilt the area for light rail use it was crisscrossed with railroad tracks and a real unattractive area. The twin to Fountain Place would have gone in nearby but this location would not be in it's footprint. Same with the BoA twin.

[Mephis Gooseberry]

Any news here?