Saturday, April 2, 2011

More Downtown Units

Near the end of this post, I talked about how downtown would need a similar growth rate this upcoming decade as it did during last decade. After a lost year in 2010, May should kick start this decade with two projects opening up.

This week, I talked to some folks at Andres Construction, the same guys who did the residential conversions at D&L Lofts and the Mosaic, both for Hamilton Properties. The father/son duo of Larry and Ted own the Atmos Complex, a block's worth of four buildings, with the earliest built in the 1930's. When Atmos Energy left downtown, they gave the buildings to The City of Dallas. They in turn gave it to Forest City, who decided they couldn't do it after they did the Merc (I am sure a critique on that one is coming at some point), and they gave it to the Hamilton's, with the City's approval.

After resolving their issues with HUD and getting the affordable units spread throughout the building, it looks like Hamilton Properties and Andres is set to begin construction in one month. The original proposal called for 269 units. I don't know if that has changed.

While talking with Andres, I also found out they plan to start on the Continental Building at the same time. This was another building Forest City was supposed to do in the Merc deal. They appear to finally have financing in order. The building while house roughly 150 units.

That equates to over 400 residential units, in an area of downtown that could use it. That just leaves 27 and a half thousand more units to equal last decades growth rate. It's at least a start.

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