$400M Dallas Project Obtains Key Incentives

Newpark. Image courtesy of Hoque Global

The Dallas city council voted to provide up to $96.1 million in economic support for the proposed 825,000-square-foot Newpark development just south of city hall, the Dallas Morning News.

The development entity is a partnership of local investment company Hoque Global and Lanoha Real Estate Co., of Omaha.

The site, in the southern part of downtown Dallas, is bounded by Cadiz, Canton, South Akard and South St. Paul streets and now largely consists of surface parking lots. It’s adjacent to city hall, the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center and one of two deck parks proposed for construction over I-30.

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The incentive package will consist of up to $4.1 million in the form of an economic development grant and up to $92 million payable from future TIF district funds, according to the city council’s announcement.

The core of the project will be One Newpark, a 38-story tower consisting of lobby and retail space, with about six floors of parking above, followed by seven floors (240,000 square feet) of office space and seven more of the hotel space (245 guest rooms), topped by 15 floors of residential with 268 apartments.

Council member Omar Narvaez said longer-term plans for the Newpark district include a fire station, public library and three schools.

The project’s architects are Merriman Anderson and Pickard Chilton, and the landscape architect is StudioOutside.

The property was one of the sites that Dallas pitched in 2017, when Amazon was looking for second headquarters locations, according to the Morning News.

Somehow still growing

Although the Dallas–Fort Worth office market continues to attract investors, its fundamentals remain challenging, according to a first-quarter report from Newmark. Overall office vacancy is among the highest in the nation, and while inflation has allowed landlords to keep rents up, these are still lower than in other Sun Belt cities.

The Dallas CBD office submarket totals 29.5 million square feet with an average vacancy of a startling 29.6 percent. Year-to-date absorption was just 34,600 square feet, and the direct asking rent averages $27.86 per square foot.

Evidence for the Metroplex’s appeal to investors comes from the March purchase of the Trammell Crow Center by Regent Properties for an undisclosed price.