Gatehouse Capital Joins Virgin Hotels Project in Dallas

By Barbra Murray, Contributing Editor

Virgin Hotels Dallas

Dallas—The team behind Virgin Hotels’ new project in Dallas just got bigger. According to the Dallas Business Journal, hospitality-centric real estate investment and development firm Gatehouse Capital Corp. has joined lead developer Dunhill Partners and minority owners Vinculum Partners and The Crosland Group to bring the 200-key lodging destination to fruition.

The beginnings of a British invasion of sorts. Virgin Hotels Dallas is one of a handful of properties slated for development as part of U.K.-based Virgin Group’s expansion plan for the new flag. The lifestyle brand’s first hotel, Virgin Hotels Chicago, opened last year.

The new hotel in the Big D will be built along High Line Drive, on Dunhill-owned land in the Dallas Design District, an increasingly trendy enclave. Virgin Hotels believes the area’s artsy atmosphere is a perfect match for its boutique hotel brand.

“With chic stores, eclectic galleries and upscale restaurants, we expect Virgin Hotels Dallas to move into the neighborhood seamlessly, as its aesthetic and offerings will attract the growing local creative class and business travelers that will call the Design District home,” Raul Leal, CEO of Virgin Hotels, said in a prepared statement announcing the project last year.

The hotel will likely find a warm reception in the Design District and in Dallas in general. The city’s lodging sector is performing quite well. “Business expansion and corporate relocations to the Dallas area is helping to drive occupancy among both full-service and limited-service hotel properties,” according to a mid-year report by commercial real estate valuation and consulting firm Integra Realty Resources. “As a leading center for business and industry in the southwest region of the country, demand should remain strong, further expanding the lodging market in Dallas.”

In addition to chambers—yes, Virgin Hotels’ guestrooms are referred to as chambers—Virgin Hotels Dallas will offer dining options, meeting space, a rooftop terrace and a host of other amenities. Virgin Hotels will manage the property, which is on schedule to welcome its first guests in 2019.

And there’s more to come for the Virgin brand. Hotels in Nashville, New York and Palm Springs are on track to open in 2019. Additionally, the company announced this week that it will make its debut in the sizzling Silicon Valley market, with a hotel to be developed by Lyon Living in Milpitas, Calif., just outside San Jose. Other markets presently on Virgin Hotels’ radar include Boston, Los Angeles, Miami, Austin, Seattle, Washington, D.C., and Virgin Group owner Sir Richard Branson’s hometown, London.

Rendering courtesy of 5G Studio Collaborative