A historic building in Dallas' historic West End has a familiar new owner: Five Smooth Stones, a real estate company that specializes in renovation, just acquired Market Ross Place, a mixed-used combination of three buildings located at 1701 N. Market St.

Five Smooth Stones is led by Owen Hannay, Dallas native and West End enthusiast who first began investing in the neighborhood in 2000, and is now making a return to the historic area to breathe in new life.

“We have had a lot of success in the West End over the past 25 years but, like many other districts, it tends to be cyclical, so we find ourselves with a lot of opportunity to improve the West End — again," Hannay says in a statement.

Market Ross Place consists of three buildings connected by a five-story atrium, comprising four restaurants and office space totaling approximately 142,000 square feet. It was built in 1905 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Hannay also bought three retail buildings across from Market Ross, a parcel that includes the Museum of Illusions; the former Gators restaurant; and a building containing Mas Tacos and Cannon Bakery. He also bought the West End Parking Garage, which includes 35,000 square feet of retail and more than 650 parking spaces on six levels.

These acquisitions closed in March 2026.

Hannay, who also owns Dallas ad agency Slingshot LLC, first began investing in the West End when he acquired the Awalt Building at 208 N. Market St. in 2000. He went on to buy other West End properties such as a three-building portfolio at Elm and North Record streets, giving him one of the largest stakes in the neighborhood, with ownership of nearly one quarter of the 1 million square feet of office space in the area.

Over the years, Five Smooth Stones has purchased and renovated almost 1,000,000 square feet of historic office and retail space in The West End.

One of their most high-profile purchases was the Landmark Center, the six-story building at 1801 N. Lamar St. that was formerly a regional center for the FBI and also served as the first office HQ for CultureMap Dallas when the site launched in 2012. Five Smooth Stones bought it in 2004, renovated it, sold to Argus Realty Investors LP in 2006 — then bought it back again in 2023.

The Landmark Center is one of many properties in the West End that has undergone multiple ownership changes, bouncing from local companies like Five Smooth Stones to institutional companies like Granite Properties — often with less than ideal results.

“When we sold our holdings in the West End in 2015, office occupancy in the district was probably over 90 percent," Hannay says. "We intend to get there again by proving that businesses want high-quality, well priced, centrally located historic space that exists in a genuine neighborhood that provides a human scale to live in, work in, and play in."

To that end, Five Smooth Stones has signed several new lease agreements in the Landmark Center, as well as facilitating the comeback of Ellen's Restaurant into its old space at Market Ross.

The new office tenants at Landmark include:

• The Law Offices of Dean Omar Branham Shirley, LLP, a leading law firm, leasing almost 16,000 sq ft
• HighLevel Inc., a marketing technology company with 15,700 sq ft on the fifth and sixth floors
• Benchmark Group Architects, with 7,500 sq ft on the first floor
• The Houston Room, an event venue occupying 6,000 sq ft on the fourth floor

… along with several smaller tenants including Corgan Architects Model Studio, Wildcat Investments, Cravens Brothers, JF Depetris, Jr., CPA and Collabridge Solutions, Inc.

The new leases bring The Landmark Center to more than 50 percent occupancy, with additional build- to-suit leasing opportunities available ranging from 2,000 to 30,000 sq ft.

"I believe that the leases we have already signed are indicative of demand,” Hannay says.