8 July 25 - 31, 2024 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents the limestone bluff the hotel sits atop solidi- fied it as an icon of the region. It’s a piece of Old Hollywood, drifting over West Dallas like a smattering of clouds. As a child, Anderson remembers feeling there was an air of mysticism surrounding the hotel. He and his dad regularly ate at the Hungry Bear, the Belmont’s original restau- rant, and the hotel was “an anchor” for the surrounding Oak Cliff and West Dallas com- munities, which had yet to be touched by the unforgiving hand of Dallas overdevelop- ment. So, when the property came into his possession in 1999, Anderson was “highly, personally involved.” From the get, there wasn’t enough money. Much-needed renovations took place one room at a time. “It was painfully slow,” Anderson said. “At night I sat up on top of the hill and guarded the place, because we couldn’t af- ford security at the time, to keep people from stealing the TVs.” Under Anderson, the Belmont qualified for federal historic tax credits, which are de- signed to help pave the financial path for major preservation projects. The money helped, but the program’s particulars about maintaining historical accuracy posed chal- lenges. For instance, the guidelines specified maintaining the building’s original materi- als, such as aluminum windows, which sim- ply would not work with modern energy codes, Anderson said. Already, everything was “so hard” to manage, so Anderson declined to initiate a Landmark Designation process for the building. Now, he wishes he had. Saving the Hotel on the Hill D esignating a building as historic can be an unexpectedly tedious process. When a new building is nomi- nated, the city’s designation committee re- views the application and makes recommendations that are forwarded to the landmark commission. Once the Land- mark Commission has added their two cents, the project is sent to the City Plan Commission, where the documents are combed over once more before being com- pleted by the City Council. From the time a building’s designation is initiated, it is pro- tected from demolition for two years as the process is underway. Once the two years expires, and if the preservation ordinance hasn’t been ratified, anything is fair game unless the process is reinitiated. The path to the Belmont’s preservation has been exceptionally complicated. For starters, preserving the hotel was ini- tiated in 2019, but efforts stalled out because of COVID. They were picked up again in the summer of 2022, but not by Ford. It was the City Plan Commission that instructed the designation committee to take a look at the hotel, and a year ago commissioners began to bring attention to the ticking clock on the Belmont’s case. There was also confusion on the city’s end about who actually was involved with the hotel. It was widely reported across Dal- las media last summer that the local real es- tate developers Todd Interests had signed onto the Belmont. They had a master plan for the site, which representatives walked Daron Tapscott, chair of the designation committee, through last year. Tapscott said he was under the impression the Todd In- terests guys were the right ones to be work- ing with. Information from that site walk was used to write the landmark nomination form and preservation ordinance — outlining every- thing from acceptable concrete types to no- build zones — that was approved by the designation committee last month. But when the recommendations were presented to the Landmark Commission on July 1, a slightly disheveled Ford stood before the quasi-gov- erning board. He said he’d never been made aware of the current process to preserve the building, and many of the designation com- mittee’s recommendations contradicted his design plans for the property. Todd Interests was no longer involved with the property, he added. He was, and is, the sole representative for the Belmont Hotel. In an interview with the Observer, Ford said he felt “disheartened” to learn he’d been left out of the designation process, because he felt he’d developed a relationship with a number of Dallas city staff members during the 2019 attempt. Talking with architects and other preservation-minded profession- als, he was told it was unusual for a city to “just go after” a property. “[Ford] should’ve been contacted, in my opinion,” David Preziosi, who sits on the designation committee and the Landmark Commission, told the Observer. “You want to have the owner on board with the desig- nation; otherwise, it’s harder to get the des- ignation through.” Ford told the city he received a notice when the designation process was initiated, but didn’t understand what it was for. He also says he had no knowledge of Todd In- terests’ involvement in aiding with the des- ignation report. The partnership fell apart for financial reasons, Ford said. Winters was as shocked to learn that Shawn Todd, the founder of Todd Interests, had pulled out of the Belmont project as he was to hear Ford had no knowledge of the designation committee’s process being well underway. The whole thing, he says, is “mind-boggling.” “[The Belmont] was a legitimate effort on Shawn’s part, and I was disappointed that he was not able to move through that with the current owner,” Winters said. “That was very surprising, bordering on stunning, that that project did not move forward. Because if anyone could save the Belmont, it was Shawn Todd.” Todd Interests declined the Observer’s request for comment. City attorneys say that because meeting notices are public record, the city’s only obli- gation is to notify property owners when a designation process has been initiated. What’s more, the city is legally allowed to move forward with a designation without the property owner’s consent if approved by a three-fourths vote of the Landmark Com- mission. As a show of good faith, Preziosi moved to send the report back to the designation committee to give Ford a meeting to advo- cate for any amendments he wanted. When Ford arrived at that meeting on July 18, his lawyers presented a thorough breakdown of the document. The ensuing debate, albeit civil, could not be contained to a two-and-a- half hour meeting. The group will have to finish their changes during next month’s designation committee meeting. In the meantime, the designation process will expire before the report and recommen- dations have the chance to navigate each of the channels necessary to become law. Ford’s lawyers and city staff are arm wrestling over technical language — like what does decora- tive really mean when you’re describing iron- work, anyway? — while the whole thing hinges on the City Plan Commission initiat- ing the Belmont’s designation process for a third time in five years. “If it’s delayed a month to give the owner the chance to read the designation report, I think that’s fair,” Winters said. “[The Bel- mont] was so well restored by Monte Ander- son … To see how far this complex has fallen into dire neglect is really disappointing. I do think everyone is concerned that this is a project that could nearly qualify for demoli- tion by neglect.” The State of a Crown Jewel W hen talking about the Belmont with Ford, you get the sense that he be- lieves all his troubles started with COVID. But in 2019, when the landmark com- mission began considering a designation for the Belmont, former Dallas Morning News city columnist Robert Wilonsky vis- ited the hotel and noted that it looked “shabby” and “unloved.” The hotel’s long- time anchoring restaurant, Smoke, was out of business by the end of 2018, leaving the dining space empty. Few rooms were booked, and business was down. Simply put, COVID was not the coffin’s first nail, even if Ford doesn’t see it that way. And while the rest of the world has re- opened and recovered — or, if they haven’t, they’ve thrown in the towel — the Belmont Hotel sits vacant. Ford told the Observer that some criti- cisms of the building’s state — both Ander- son and Winters said they are concerned about demolition by neglect — are Unfair Park from p6 Christopher Durbin Oak Cliff developer Monte Anderson sold the Belmont hotel in 2015. >> p10