4 February 15 - 21, 2024 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents Break Rooms into Bedrooms Dallas is a national leader in turning empty offices into apartments. BY SIMONE CARTER D allas is among the nation’s leaders when it comes to con- verting old office buildings into living spaces. Big D ranks No. 3 in the number of former offices getting the home- makeover treatment, according to a recent report by RentCafe, a nationwide apartment search website. The city is breathing life into 3,163 new apartments this way. Dallas placed third after two East Coast metros in the 2024 office-to-apartments pipeline: Washington, D.C., with 5,820 units and New York City with 5,215. Bryan Tony with the Dallas Housing Co- alition said RentCafe’s findings are “incredi- bly promising.” Downtown’s amenities are a major draw to young professionals and ur- ban dwellers. “The more office-to-residential conver- sions that can take place here, the more at- tractive our downtown living experience and our housing affordability will be,” Tony said. “Right now we know that Dallas is be- coming increasingly unaffordable, so the only way to combat that is add to our hous- ing supply.” The coronavirus pandemic upended the way that people work in Dallas and count- less other cities worldwide, with many now clocking in from home rather than reporting to a traditional workspace. Another recent study found that the January occupancy rate in Dallas-area offices was 34.2% lower than it was pre-COVID-19. At the same time, home prices have soared in North Texas in recent years, pric- ing out many would-be buyers. Dallas’ leading adaptive reuse projects in- clude the former Oncor building, with 330 units, and the Bryan and Renaissance tow- ers, with 425 and 500 units, respectively, ac- cording to a RentCafe news release. Tony noted that to keep up with housing demand, Dallas needs to develop 100,000 units by 2033. It’s crucial to get moving quickly on that goal. Also important: not leaving out low-income residents. Nearly half of Dallas renters are forking over more in housing costs than they can af- ford, he said. It’s unclear how many of the adaptive reuse spaces downtown will fall under the “affordable” umbrella, but Tony believes that these transformations are a step in the right direction. “Dallas right now as a whole, we have been affordable before, but we’re at risk of really becoming unaffordable,” he said, add- ing: “Those gaps are becoming more appar- ent.” Advocates had been pushing to see $200 million allocated to housing in the upcom- ing bond package. In a recent straw vote, City Council was prepared to approve only $61 million toward that goal. Many residents may soon be forced to move because of pricey housing, Tony said. Loads of jobs are located in Dallas, so he hopes that more housing will become avail- able in and around the urban core to attract and retain talent. “We want to keep that competitive edge as a city,” he said. Jennifer Scripps, president and CEO of Downtown Dallas Inc., noted that at the same time that some companies are down- sizing their space, Dallas is welcoming hun- dreds of new residents each day. In fact, the Dallas-Forth Worth region counted more newcomers between 2021 and 2022 than any other metro nationwide: nearly 170,400 additional residents. But converting break rooms into bath- rooms won’t necessarily be easy. Scripps pointed out that it’s challenging to reconfig- ure these spaces, pointing to factors like plumbing, additional toilets and other con- siderations. Scripps said she’s toured properties that were converted a decade or so ago that have held up well. “When people think about housing in Dallas, the kinds of apartments we offer in downtown, it wasn’t always the kind of apartment stock people were used to,” she said. “So we’ve had to kind of reinvent our apartment market downtown over the last 15 years, and now I think it’s showing lots of signs of health as we’ve had transplants from the coasts moving in, and a real demand that has been sustained.” Scott Goldstein with Downtown Dallas Inc. noted via email that newer conversion projects tend to land in the luxury realm, with prices as high as $4.16 per square foot. But older conversion-project units may not necessarily break the bank, with some cost- ing as low as $1.71 per square foot, he said. Over the past couple of decades, down- town Dallas has also introduced more than 20 acres of green spaces, Scripps said. That’s good news for residents who need to walk their pups. And Dallas today is a national leader in greening its downtown with a veri- table “portfolio of parks.” Plus, the area is home to tons of cafes and restaurants, as well as services including tai- lors, dry cleaners and optometrists. Many people want to work near where they live, Scripps said. “By attracting highly qualified profes- sionals and people who work in a variety of businesses that we have downtown …,” she said, “by having a healthy, diversified econ- omy and attractive housing and high quality of life, it’s ultimately what all of this stuff is about, right? That we will have a healthier, safer and more vibrant downtown.” ▼ CITY HALL RESTORING, NOT DEMOLISHING RULE THAT HAS CAUSED DESTRUCTION IN DALLAS MAY SOON BE REPEALED. BY JACOB VAUGHN I f you walk around Dallas’ Tenth Street to- day, you’ll likely see a bunch of empty lots. It wasn’t always this way. Decades ago, Tenth Street was a vibrant, thriving community full of homes and businesses. However, a rule in the city’s development code has made it easy to demolish those structures, destroying all the history associ- ated with them. Now, that rule seems to be on the verge of being repealed. Commonly known as the 3,000-square- foot rule, the Dallas Development Code regulation allows for the demolition of resi- dential structures of 3,000 square feet or less in historic districts that have been de- clared substandard urban nuisances. This process is generally initiated through prop- erty owners or building inspections and by- passes the city’s Landmark Commission. But residents have feared that the legacy of the neighborhood is being torn apart too easily. In a memo this month, Assistant City Manager Majed A. Al-Ghafry said, “Al- though this subsection of the ordinance is applicable to all historic districts, it dispro- portionately impacts our predominantly Black and Brown and lower-income his- toric districts because those districts in- clude many of the ‘declared substandard’ houses.” The ordinance was originally adopted to address structures that were considered ur- ban nuisances and to prevent blight and pro- tect the public health, safety and wellbeing of residents, Al-Ghafry said. “However, from 2010 to 2023, according to information from the Historic Preservation Office, this ordi- nance has disproportionately impacted his- toric districts with predominantly African American populations,” he said. “Specifi- cally, 35 historic homes have been demol- ished in the Tenth Street Historic District and six homes have been demolished in Wheatley Place.” He said the default for these homes became demolition rather than rehabilitation. Al-Ghafry said the city has other mecha- nisms to demolish substandard or hazardous structures outside of the 3,000-square-foot rule, so it’s not needed. “These options would remain in place and provide sufficient re- course to address hazardous or potentially hazardous structures,” he said. The City Plan Commission voted unani- mously in mid-January to remove the 3,000 square foot rule from Dallas’ development code. The City Council will take this up for consideration at its meeting on Feb. 28. Larry Johnson, a member of the Tenth Street Residential Association and of the neighborhood’s task force for Dallas’ Land- mark Commission, said he’s happy this rule may be repealed but questions why it took so long. “For me, that’s a bittersweet deal,” Johnson said. “I just think it’s ironic that they decide to repeal the 3,000-square-foot rule at a time where all of the historic dis- tricts are in trouble, including the white ones.” He said there are development pressures surrounding many historic districts that could threaten their survival and that most of these types of neighborhoods don’t have structures over 3,000 square feet. “You have a lot of structures in white historic districts that are under 3,000 square feet and I find it really interesting that this rule doesn’t get eradicated until they’re in trouble,” Johnson said, referring to gentrification and new home development. “How come it wasn’t stopped in 2011 or 2012 or when I got involved in 2018,” John- son asked. “You know, all these structures we’ve lost over a rule that never should have been ... I want to be happy, I do. But so much damage has been done.” | UNFAIR PARK | Getty Images Downtown Dallas is home to a booming office-to-apartment pipeline. >> p6
