Now Available: The Latest Incarnation of “The Book”

A who’s who of commercial real estate leaders gathered Wednesday at Turtle Creek Park for a celebration honoring the release of the third edition of “The Book.” Filled with stories of perseverance and innovations, “The Book” highlights the developments and the legendary figures whose extraordinary vision and real estate prowess shaped North Texas. Among the eight-member team who worked on “The Book” are Younger Partners’ Robert Grunnah and Kathy Permenter.

See what Steve Brown has to say about it in the Dallas Morning News.

An Evening of Winners: NTCAR 2018 Stemmons Service Award Event

Congrats to Younger Partners Co-Founder Kathy Permenter on her NTCAR Stemmons Service Award nomination. We are so incredibly proud of her achievements both professionally and within the community she serves. She was nominated along with Venture’s Mike Geisler, Fischer & Co’s Sharon Friedberg & Citadel Partners’ Scott Morse. Congratulations to the 2018 winner, Scott Morse. Here’s a wrap up of the Younger Partners team at the event at the Dallas Country Club.

Columns Magazine’s Vibrancy vs. Vacancy: Lessons From Downtown

AIA Dallas Columns Magazine’s spring issue features an article written by Younger Partners’ communications manager Tonie Auer and includes broker Robert Grunnah as one of the expert sources on the ups and downs of vacancy in Downtown Dallas over the years. You can view the article here. 

If you take a look at the history of downtown Dallas vacancy rates, there is a story behind each wave of ups and downs reaching back to the 1950s. And it all leads to the recent revitalization that we are seeing today.

In the 1950s and 1960s, downtown Dallas was not only the central business hub of the city, it was also the historic retail and entertainment core, says Kourtny Garrett, Downtown Dallas Inc. president and CEO.

“You had the streetcars running and Theater Row,” she says. “It was a destination for entertainment, shopping, as well as business.”

“The 1950s and ’60s were the heyday downtown. There was both retail vitality and office vitality,” says GFF Chairman Larry Good, FAIA. “I have fabulous memories of taking a bus downtown and seeing all of the department stores from Neiman Marcus to Sanger’s, James K. Wilson, and all the great retailers. The movies were all open at the Majestic, the Palace, the Capri, the Melba. Downtown was humming.”

But the abundance of highway construction between the 1960s and 1980s contributed to the flight of retail and office to the suburbs from the central core, Garrett says.

RISE OF THE SKYSCRAPERS

By the late 1970s throughout the 1980s, office towers sprouted and overbuilding became a Texas tradition. “That’s when the vacancy piece of the puzzle became a problem,” Garrett says.

Greg Biggs, JLL managing director for tenant representation, says the millions of square feet of skyscrapers developed in downtown Dallas in the 1980s changed two things. First, there was more space available than tenants to occupy it. Second, developers gave building architects free rein to design massive projects that were more about making a statement of prominence.

“Back then, employees would go to work for a big firm and work their way up to a partnership and the corner office and be there for years. It was a time when ‘who the employer was’ made a statement. As times progressed and the workplace changed, employees began to dictate how the space was used. Employers are in a daily battle to retain and recruit the best employees. Employees now enter their career and if they don’t like where they are for whatever reason, they’ll leave and go somewhere else or work there for a while and start their own business.

“That transition has driven much of what has happened in downtown Dallas office occupancy. Many of the businesses that used to be in downtown have migrated to the suburbs and created offices that are more efficient and better suit their employee needs,” Biggs says.

On the other hand, Garrett says, “Overbuilding, combined with the market crash of the 1980s and the consolidation of retail nationally, led to the sidewalks rolling up at 5 p.m. We had a quiet downtown except for the 9-to-5 folks. Downtown was now automobile-driven with no vibrancy. There were some discount stores left at ground level and a couple of restaurants that came in, but no reason for people to really go out on the street.”

Downtown became an office park by the 1970s as the retailers one by one closed their doors in favor of more successful suburban locations, Good says. The big banks, law firms, accountants and architects were enjoying “officing” in downtown, and the banks each built their monuments, he says.

“There were some pretty impressive high-rise office buildings that hit a crescendo around 1978 to 1988,” Good recalls. “The last one to be built was 2200 Ross [Texas Commerce Bank tower, now Chase Bank tower].”

VACANCY MOVES IN

Younger Partners broker Robert Grunnah says that in the era of new construction in the early 1970s and 1980s, vacancy started to rise, especially in the Class B and Class C properties. When developer Trammell Crow built Trammell Crow Center, the extended negative cycle began in earnest.

“Comerica and the Bank of America buildings were added, among others, and they all struggled; Fountain Place as well,” Grunnah says. “After that boom of construction in the 1980s, there was no new construction downtown until projects in the Arts District. Office rents in downtown were flat for 20 to 25 years. With the success in the Arts District, former Class B buildings became C, and then vacant, and then no one wanted to lease them.”

Grunnah says the downtown buildings languished through the late 1980s and early 1990s. The collapse of the savings and loan industry hit hard, followed by the RTC debacle that resulted in many building owners losing their properties or even giving them back. The Resolution Trust Corp., a U.S. government-owned asset management company, was established in 1989 to liquidate primarily real estate-related assets such as mortgage loans held by the savings and loans.

“The downtown Class B and C buildings remained vacant, with most essentially owned by former lenders waiting for something to happen,” Grunnah says. “All of these buildings had environmental issues like asbestos. And with no demand for office users, they couldn’t afford to remodel them, so they sat empty.”

Good says the early 1990s saw the first wave of residential conversions of the most beautiful of the empty office towers. But while it was a nice trend, it was slow and didn’t have legs because many of the other middle-age office buildings were “hard to love” and not necessarily appealing.

TURNING POINT

“By the late ’90s, downtown had more than 40 vacant buildings. All the department stores had closed with the exception of Neiman Marcus. Theater Row was shuttered. Then came the city’s first TIF (Tax Increment Financing District, a publicly funded subsidy for redevelopment, infrastructure and other community improvement projects), and it was a pivotal point in the city’s move to revamp downtown,” Garrett says.

The City Center TIF, launched in 1996 with updates added years later, created a little spark of interest from a couple of out-of-market developers who saw the potential, she says.

“That’s when we saw the introduction of residential into the picture. There’s no single thing you can point to for the decline and the revitalization of downtown,” Garrett says. “But, if you pare the success down, it was because of the introduction of residential, which drives demand for retail, public space, and more services. Those initial TIF investments turned some of those vacant buildings into apartments.”

The inspiration to make big changes downtown followed the disappointing loss of the Boeing Corp.’s decision to pick Chicago over Dallas for its new headquarters, Good says.

“They told us we lost that opportunity because we had dead downtown streets, vacant retail, no street life, and that downtown was not appealing. That lit a fire under the mayor and City Council and Downtown Dallas Inc.,” Good recalls. “Everyone pulled together to address creating green space, getting people out of the tunnels and back on the street, and becoming more dedicated to converting some of those old office buildings to residential use. In addition to the City Center TIF was the creation of the Downtown Connection TIF.

“Those supplied some gap money to help make some of the conversions possible at the Davis, Dallas Power and Light building, Lone Star Gas Lofts, and the Mercantile Building. That era of buildings became converted for residential instead of office and very importantly took that vacancy off the books and replaced with new residential occupancy,” Good says.

The early 2000s was the turnaround time when city leaders “really got our act together, made plans, had public sector support and began to see the reinvestment downtown,” Good adds.

Until residential developers started rehabbing downtown towers in the early 2000s, there was only one downtown high-rise condo and it struggled, Grunnah says. It has since been remodeled and is doing well today, he says. During the RTC days, Grunnah had three offers on a pool of RTC-marketed buildings, but many of the offers requested that the Davis Building be removed from the offering. Ultimately, a buyer took the title for no cost and, after another pair of trades, the Davis Building is now a highly successful residential building, he says.

The market for residential properties increased, and many buildings have now been converted to multifamily because the buildings had low ceiling heights and inefficient office floor plates or they needed new HVAC, which all prevented the office buildings from leasing at competitive rates, Grunnah says.

RESIDENTIAL AND REVIVAL

Smart developers have taken empty office buildings and converted them to residential apartments or condominiums with views and other amenities, Biggs says.

“It’s cooler and closer to the heartbeat of the inner city, and that’s a huge comeback from the 1980s and the ’90s with all of the giant vacancy numbers. Empty buildings found a purpose, and their vacancy was taken off the office market,” Biggs adds.

The demand for urban residential that began around 2000 hasn’t slacked. Today, downtown residential properties hover around 94 percent occupancy on average, Garrett says. With no overbuilding in the market, that occupancy rate is usually attained within six months of opening.

The historic Wilson building and the Davis Building were among the first office-to-residential conversions, and the Magnolia Oil building was transformed into the hotel we know today, she adds. The second wave included the Davis, Dallas Power & Light, and Mosaic projects, Good says.

The residential population has jumped dramatically since the mid-1990s. In 1996, downtown had about 200 residents. Today, more than 11,000 people live downtown. Add in the Cedars, Deep Ellum, and other neighborhoods around the urban core, and that number increases to around 50,000 residents.

After the explosion in residential, next came the parks, including Main Street Garden, Belo Garden and ultimately Klyde Warren Park. Walkability became the buzz word, Garrett says.

“A trend we started seeing around five years ago with Bryan Tower and 2100 Ross (the old San Jacinto tower) among others along the Ross Avenue corridor—which is congruent with the new construction trajectory going on in Uptown—is building owners realizing that the older office stock needs to be competitive with places like Uptown or Legacy,” she says. “They have to be stepping up to meet the demands from the recruitment and retention standpoints.”

There is much more renovation and adaptive reuse occurring in downtown office buildings, such as the conversion of One Main Place to a Westin Hotel and residential tower.

“It’s a recent phenomenon, but I believe we will continue to see buildings do that,” Garrett says. “I think creative office is also huge trend; I believe we will see a lot more creative and innovation industry coming into downtown.”

AT STREET LEVEL

Garrett expects more in-fill development: “We are entering an era of new construction; we will see parking lots absorbed with mixed-use, and they’ll all better connect our vibrant nodes like the Farmers Market, Main Street, the West End, and the Arts District.”
At the top of the Downtown Dallas Inc. priority list is more attention to the street level. It’s been done very intentionally with plans for traffic calming , bike lanes, and more complete streets. Traffic calming uses physical design and other measures to improve safety for motorists, pedestrians, and cyclists. It aims to encourage safer, more responsible driving and potentially reduce traffic flow.

“Livability is a word that comes into play significantly here,” Garrett says. “Infill development will be complemented by more services, schools, grocery stores, and the elements that create a true livable place.”

“We now have enough population downtown that retail is practical again,” Good says. “We have the daytime office population and the full-time residents and nighttime population, along with visitors for sports and cultural events. Retail makes sense again. We are seeing the storefronts reactivated, and we’re already seeing grocery stores nibbling around edge of downtown.”

Grunnah believes the biggest problem for downtown—unlike Frisco, Plano or Legacy—is  providing affordable housing for back-office employees, who now fight traffic on commutes and face expensive parking. “I see downtown becoming a place for Class A corporate locations that do not require high-density employment,” Grunnah says.

Dallas has one advantage over many of its suburban competitors—the DART mass transit system. As fuel prices increase, more people will turn to mass transit, Biggs says.

“Dallas is in a great position to continue its diversified growth,” he says. “Downtown Dallas has a number of influential supporters who are going to continue to do what they can to improve the attractiveness of downtown.”

Long-term, Good sees a rosy picture.

“The millennials absolutely love the center city. They want to be in the heart of a metropolitan area where you can walk. And they’re becoming the decision-makers and the leaders of their companies. They’re making the decisions of where they office and live,” Good says.

Tonie Auer is communications manager at Younger Partners.

YP Deal: Sale of 123-Acre Lake Travis Waterfront Property with 80-Slip Marina

After a complicated deal process, Waterford Lago Vista LLC acquired 123 acres, which includes waterfront property and an 80-slip marina on Lake Travis, just outside of Austin. The land sale will allow the investor to also own and develop four phases of the Waterford at Lake Travis, which includes 49 ready-to-go lots for single-family home development, as well as larger vacant land tracts.

The buyer, Waterford Lago Vista LLC, was represented by Tate Chiles with NB Elite Realty. The seller was represented by Younger Partners brokers John St. Clair, Robert Grunnah and Michael Ytem.

“The buyer recognized the untapped potential of this beautiful Lake Travis community,” Chiles says. “The new ownership believes it is the right time and the right location in the path of growth of Central Texas.  Waterford Lago Vista LLC looks forward to the possibilities that lie ahead and is in the process of making plans to revitalize the subdivision and increase building activity.”

“Waterford at Lake Travis, located along the north shore in the highly desirable Hill Country, just outside of Austin, is a great location. This deal was distinctly underrated by the Austin market and required a very sophisticated approach to see the potential for investment and this buyer recognized that,” Grunnah says.

St. Clair says Waterford was extensively planned, engineered, and partially developed, but the timing 10 years ago wasn’t ideal for the project. Since that time, there is now a wealth of amenities, shopping, and restaurants located along the north side of Lake Travis.

This offering included four phases all within the Lago Vista Extra Territorial Jurisdiction (ETJ) with 49 developed lake lots with great views as well as acreage to develop more lots. The buyer of Waterford also inherits participation in the Municipal Utility District.

“The developed lots are within an established, partially sold development and are configured to meet the market demand,” St. Clair explains. “The scenic country surrounding the development and lake views from these home sites are impressive as are recreational opportunities surrounding the development including the contiguous marina.”

Lago Vista was incorporated in 1984 as a lakeside resort community with homes, condominiums, golf courses, and the marina. The community encompasses more than 15 miles of Lake Travis shoreline with a population of about 5,000 residents.

“The quality of life in this community is extraordinary whether the homeowners are retirees, looking for a second home, or those benefitting from telecommuting. Working from your gorgeous lake home makes that occasional commute to Austin enjoyable,” St. Clair says. “We are confident this will be a great investment for the new owners and we look forward to listing and selling more projects in Central Texas.”

Younger Partners, the Dallas Cowboys & The NTCAR Hall of Fame

?The very best among DFW #commercialrealestate are being honored at the #NTCAR #HallOfFame event tonight including Dallas Cowboys’ Jerry Jones & KDC Development’s Toby Groves. Our own Kathy Permenter & Robert Grunnah serve on the HoF committee.?

Here’s a variety of shots from the Hall of Fame members with inductees, the Hall of Fame committee, Younger Partners brokers and some Dallas Cowboys, too.

YP Listing 123-Acre Lake Travis Waterfront Property for Sale

For $6 million, the right buyer can acquire 123 acres, which includes waterfront property on Lake Travis and an 80-slip marina. But, that’s only part of the big picture. What’s at stake is a unique opportunity for an investor to also own and develop four phases of the Waterford at Lake Travis, which includes 49 ready-to-go lots for single-family home development, as well as larger vacant land tracts.

“The location of Waterford at Lake Travis along the north shore in the highly desirable Hill Country, just outside of Austin, is ideal both for retirees and those executives who may work in Austin, but don’t have to make the daily commute,” says Younger Partners broker John St. Clair, who is listing the bank-owned property for sale with colleagues Robert Grunnah and Michael Ytem.

St. Clair says Waterford was extensively planned, engineered, and partially developed, but the timing 10 years ago wasn’t ideal for the project. Since that time, there is now a wealth of amenities, shopping, and restaurants located along the north side of Lake Travis.

This offering includes four phases all within the Lago Vista Extra Territorial Jurisdiction (ETJ). There are 49 developed lake lots with great views as well as acreage to develop more lots. The buyer of Waterford also inherits participation in the Municipal Utility District.

“The developed lots are within an established, partially sold development and are configured to meet the market demand,” St. Clair explains. “The scenic country surrounding the development and lake views from these home sites are impressive as are recreational opportunities surrounding the development including the contiguous marina.”

In addition to the natural beauty of the land is the appeal of the pricing. First United Bank acquired the property through foreclosure and is motivated to sell it at attractive current market levels, St. Clair says.

Lago Vista was incorporated in 1984 as a lakeside resort community with homes, condominiums, golf courses, and the marina. The community encompasses more than 15 miles of Lake Travis shoreline with a population of about 5,000 residents.

“The quality of life in this community is extraordinary whether the homeowners are retirees, looking for a second home, or those benefitting from telecommuting. Working from your gorgeous lake home makes that occasional commute to Austin enjoyable,” St. Clair says.

It is believed that all infrastructure and entitlements are in place to complete the construction of homes on the remaining land and single-family lots. Several homes have been completed and are occupied, St. Clair adds. Because of the bankruptcy and subsequent foreclosure, the property has not been for sale until now. Here is the listing for more details.

Robert Grunnah’s D CEO Column: Musings from the Press Box at the Top of the Ninth

Check out Robert Grunnah’s column in D Magazine entitled Musings from the Press Box at the Top of the Ninth
As we continue through the longest economic recovery period in recent history, most indicators remain level promoting a perceived stability. There appears to be no common agreement on the remaining length of this positive cycle being offered from knowledgeable prognosticators. Most feel a predictable “correction” is inevitable and most seem to be wisely preparing for it.  Industrial, multifamily, Class A office, and hotel construction continues at a record pace, although all are beginning to display moderate discipline with significant decreases in new and planned projects. Stealing a comment from Wayne Swearingen, “Are we really overbuilt, or just over announced?” Earlier periods in similar cycles resulted in major corrections that required severe financial adjustments. Retail construction, perhaps the only slow growth segment, has shown its vulnerability to the obvious internet invader that has a growing, competitive edge.
Read the entire column here.