More than 400,000 square feet of commercial and residential property near Fair Park has been bought by a Dallas real estate firm that’s redeveloped two Deep Ellum buildings, Steve Brown of the Dallas Morning News reported.
August Real Estate has bought 17 buildings in the Exposition Park neighborhood near the main entrance to Fair Park, the newspaper said.
“We are thrilled with this acquisition,” developer Evan August said in a statement to the paper. “The opportunity to acquire a significant scale of historic, creative properties spread across enough land to establish a new urban district is really compelling.”
Most of the buildings are in the area between Parry Avenue and Interstate 30, the Morning News reported. The sites are on Parry, Exposition Avenue, Commerce Street and Pacific Avenue.
The newspaper said that the buildings are 97% leased to small businesses, artists, and residential tenants.
The DMN reported that August Real Estate bought the buildings from businessman David Gibson, who had acquired them over the past 50 years. He converted the old commercial buildings into mixed-use properties, the paper said.
Two large office tenants in the Exposition Park buildings are architects GSR Andrade and Studio Outside. Some of the buildings are historic structures from the 1920s, the paper said.
“We’re inheriting an excellent foundation from an owner that has cared deeply for his buildings and the neighborhood,” August told the DMN.
The new owners said they plan improvements for some of the properties.
“We have some light cosmetic upgrades planned and see the potential for redevelopment and new development long-term, but our focus now is on improving the tenant experience,” Partner Jordan August said in a statement.
The sites are zoned for as many as 19 floors of construction and “vertical development may be in their future,” August Real Estate said.
August Real Estate repurposed the landmark Continental Gin — built in 1888 — on Elm Street near Baylor University Medical Center in Deep Ellum. It converted the historic cotton gin manufacturing plant into office and retail space.
The firm also renovated the nearby former Trunk Club building at 333 First Ave. which has been leased as office space, the DMN reported.
With this purchase, the newspaper reported that August Real Estate owns and operates 650,000 square feet of properties east of downtown.
In other recent activity between Fair Park and downtown Dallas, builder Larkspur Capital developed its eight-story Willow apartment building, which has almost 200 rental units, on the eastern edge of Deep Ellum, the DMN reported.
Larkspur is working on other projects in the area, as well.
Last fall, voters in Dallas approved a ballot measure to replace the city’s convention center and commit up to $300 million to Fair Park venue upgrades, prompting increased developer interest in the area.
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