Fasten your seatbelt

Innovative mobile car dealership shifts into high gear in Dallas

This West Coast used car sales platform is en route to Dallas.

Photo courtesy of TRED

A Seattle-based online car marketplace has all engines revving for Dallas as the company plans its Lone Star State expansion.

Tred plans to expand into major Texas cities, including Dallas, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio, it says. The startup will be live in Dallas at the end of this month, followed by the rest of the state in February.

"We very excited about Texas," says Grant Feek, co-founder of Tred.

Tred is a sales platform that aims to help car owners earn more money than they would by offering their cars through a traditional, brick-and-mortar dealership. In technical terms, Feek describes the company as "a peer-to-peer marketplace for selling and buying used vehicles that offers sellers a thinner transaction margin and buyers a lower price point.

"[We're] combining the best of the dealer experience with the best of the market experience," Feek says. "We are the only ones that allow you to work directly with your counter party. There's literally no middle man."

The company will not have any initial employees on the ground in Texas, as Feek explains that Tred's model is focused on removing employee involvement from auto sales, which, he says, is strategic. Tred is all about getting out of the way of peer-to-peer sales.

The company set their eyes on cities with large populations and car markets. Feek says that Tred will also expand into Florida in late 2019.

"It's no secret that a lot of people live in California, Texas, and Florida," says Feek, "we've always had our eyes on these states."

---

Continue reading this story on our sister site, InnovationMap.

transportation technology

Coworking News

New coworking space to open in Dallas' Oak Lawn neighborhood

Office Evolution

A coworking space is opening in Dallas in a central location: Office Evolution, a Louisville-based coworking chain, will open what a release says is a "state-of-the-art coworking space" at 3500 Oak Lawn Ave. #360 in Dallas at the southeast corner of Lemmon Avenue.

No details on what makes it state-of-the-art, but construction is ongoing and an opening is anticipated in mid-October.

Office Evolution was founded in 2003 as a shared workspace-coworking environment, cultivated on the principles of "Ohana," the Hawaiian tradition that references family working toward a common goal. (The founder was from Hawaii.)

The company started out in Boulder, Colorado, then relocated its headquarters to Louisville. It's an affiliated brand of United Franchise Group, and is part of The Vast Coworking Group, which specializes in franchising within the coworking industry. All of their locations are franchised.

The Dallas location is owned by franchisee Michael Pickering, a Dallas native who runs a family-owned indoor soccer facility in Dallas. (There are two other Office Evolution locations in the DFW area in McKinney and Southlake, owned by different franchisees.)

They're describing the Dallas location at 3500 Oak Lawn Ave. as "Turtle Creek," although its location at Oak Lawn and Lemmon really puts it at the epicenter of Oak Lawn. (To further complicate matters, the building previously and incorrectly described its address as "Uptown.")

It's a seven-story building in which the majority of tenants are doctor and medical offices.

Office Evolution rates include a coworking day pass for $25, plus "flex" office options starting at $200 a month for 20 hours, up to $550 a month for 80 hours.

Amenities of the building that are also accessible to Office Evolution customers include a front desk; a 1,000-square-foot fitness center; covered parking; and on-site security six days a week.

According to a spokesperson, Pickering and his team put $1.2 million into the renovation to transform the space, which occupies most of the fourth floor where it will span 9,240 square feet of space with 41 total offices — one of which is earmarked as an "on-demand office" for the professional on the go.

trends oak lawn openings