This Year's hottest headlines

Rare Cliff May-designed home tops this year's 10 most-read Dallas real estate stories

Editor's note: As the year comes to a close, we look back at the 10 biggest real estate stories in Dallas for 2020 — including top neighborhoods; market trends; and homes with ties to celebrities, history, and important architects.

1. Rare Cliff May home in East Dallas for sale with original fixtures. In August, a rare East Dallas midcentury modern home designed by famed architect Cliff May came on the market. Located at 2636 Materhorn Dr., it was a 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom home with 1,337 square feet. It had a prototypical Cliff May courtyard, attached garage workshop, and in what MCM purists will find enchanting, original fixtures such as Formica countertops in a "linen" weave pattern — all in tip-top condition. (It didn't take long for the home to sell.)

2. New residential development in McKinney comes with its own lagoon. If nothing says "home" to you like a lagoon, then put McKinney on your short list of places to live: Megatel Homes LLC, a Texas homebuilder, announced in mid-December it is developing a community of homes called the Venetian Lagoon, centered around what looks from high overhead like a very, very large pool.

3. Homes in Dallas' Lake Highlands hit jaw-dropping new benchmark. You can’t call it sticker shock if the seal has already been broken, so to see more and more homes in Dallas' Lake Highlands area listed for $1 million or more spoke to a growing trend toward high-end remodels and flips this year. In fact, a July story from our partners at Candy's Dirt noted that remodeled homes specifically within the White Rock Valley neighborhood and the highly sought-after White Rock Elementary attendance area were commanding prices upwards of $1 million on a frequent basis.

4. Rare Highland Park home still in vintage condition listed for $12.5M. A century-old historic home in Highland Park that's been magnificently preserved went on the market, as reported in January by Candy's Dirt. Located at 4712 Lakeside Dr., the Cary estate is a 7,643-square-foot home with five bedrooms, six bathrooms, two powder baths, a cabana, putting green, and tennis court, for sale for $12.5 million. (It sold later in the year.)

5. New '50s house for sale in East Dallas is untouched by flippers' hands. A sweet house in Dallas built in the '50s went on sale in late August, that was unsullied by flippers' hands. Located at 1830 Viewcrest Dr., it was a 3-bedroom 2-bathroom house with 1,379 square feet, built in 1956, and with many original features, including hardwood floors in the living spaces, and bathrooms with original vintage tile, all in pristine condition. (The home later sold.)

6. One Dallas suburb drifts onto Money's Best Places to Live 2020. According to Money magazine, if you want to live the good life in North Texas, you should head to Rockwall. The northeast Dallas suburb made it into the top five in Money's list of Best Places to Live in America 2020, noted Candy's Dirt. In rankings released September 22, Rockwall was No. 4.

7. Glenn Beck slashes price of his Dallas-area mansion to less than $5 million. Conservative talk show host Glenn Beck tried again in late 2019 to sell his mansion at Westlake’s exclusive Vaquero Club. Beck listed the nearly 9,000-square-foot property, at 2224 King Fisher Dr., for $4.95 million on December 13 — $1.25 million less than it was offered a year-and-a-half earlier. (At the end of 2020, it is no longer on the market.)

8. City of Dallas is being bamboozled by Preston Center developer. In the second of a two-part analysis in July, Candy's Dirt columnist Jon Anderson looked into a report concerning options for the Preston Center Garage. There was a lot to unpack, but it looked as though a developer was asking for nearly unbridled development rights and a huge city giveaway.

9. This trendy neighborhood has the most expensive rents in Dallas-Fort Worth. Summer is traditionally the time to move, so in early June, it was time to get a handle on where in Dallas-Fort Worth was (somewhat) affordable to rent an apartment and where wasn't. The Victory Park neighborhood (Uptown/Park Cities) topped a new list for the highest average rent ($2,189). Only one other neighborhood (Uptown Dallas) had average rent above $2,000 as of mid-May.

10. 2 Dallas neighbors climb to rooftop in ranking of best home markets. In August, Frisco earned another national accolade to crow about. In a ranking from personal finance website WalletHub, Frisco grabbed the No. 3 spot among the best cities to buy a house. WalletHub divided data into two buckets for its ranking: best real estate market, and best place for affordability and economic opportunity. Frisco snagged the No. 13 ranking in real estate, and the No. 1 ranking for affordability and economy.

The prototypical courtyard you find in Cliff May homes in this part of East Dallas/Casa View.

Courtesy photo

The prototypical courtyard you find in Cliff May homes in this part of East Dallas/Casa View.

Mixed Use News

Mixed-use East Dock will revive 1915 building in Dallas' Oak Cliff

Courtesy rendering

East Dock

A century-old property in Oak Cliff Dallas is getting a makeover: Called East Dock, it's a former industrial site located at 900 E. Clarendon Dr. that is being restored into a retail and studio space.

The project is being led by Proxy Properties, an Oak Cliff real estate group famous for breathing new life into vacant and often historical buildings. The project is supported by the City of Dallas through their Tax Increment Financing program (TIF), which reinvests property tax revenues on under-performing real estate.

Proxy Properties' prior 50 projects in Oak Cliff include the Zion Hill Missionary Baptist Church, rebranded as Oak Cliff Assembly, an arts and theatre space with offices and co-work studios; and the Madison Hotel, a building from the 1920s which was restored and opened in 2024.

"For us, it is important to buy buildings that have been vacant for a long time, ignored, or forgotten about," says Proxy founder AJ Ramler. "East Dock fit in that box. It was not contributing to the neighborhood."

East Dock is intriguing both for its history and its location. Built in 1915, it has served over the decades as an ice factory, book manufacturing site, and producer of airplane parts, but has been vacant for more than seven years.

The 62,000-square-foot-retail and studio space is fortuitously located in an area currently under heavy development: near the future Southern Gateway Park and Tenth Street Historical District, and a 7-minute walk from the DART Zoo Station.

Ramler envisions the space as "an 18-hour campus," with coffee and athletic businesses open in the morning, followed by daytime operators such as offices, studios, and restaurants, then bars and entertainment in the evening.

East DockRendering courtesy of JQAQ Atelier, LLC

There's room for at least 15 businesses, with a few already secured including Barro, a Latin-American restaurant and market from Robert Ramirez, part-owner at Nova restaurant in Oak Cliff, who is partnering with chef Eric Spigner to bring Barro to life.

“Our vision is to create a rustic, family-style restaurant with a rotating menu every three months, featuring cuisines from different countries in Latin America," Ramirez says.

In addition to the restaurant, Barro will include a market with fruits & vegetables, imported ceramics, bakeware, and blankets.

Other tenants
Local artisans who've already signed include Brazilian-American artist Daniela Flint, who will open a studio there. "I want to surround myself with my community and can see myself bringing in clients to Barro and other places in East Dock," she says.

Evan L. Court Woodwork, an artisan furniture maker, will take a 3,000-square-foot space and transform it into his personal studio where he’ll be creating custom handcrafted furniture and fine woodworking pieces. The space will have room for multiple projects, as well as an apprenticeship program to train new woodworkers.

And Carlos Araujo Neto is relocating his Jiujitsu studio from nearby Beatrice Street to East Dock. "I liked the idea of having multiple businesses that everyone can have access to and hang out," he says.

There'll be parking for 140 cars. The project will be finished in phases, with the first openings in early fall. They're sharing updates on their construction progress on Instagram.

Rather than work with a broker, Proxy Properties is doing community outreach to find tenants, all from the southern sector: in Oak Cliff, the Cedars, or West Dallas. Soliciting input from the locals is part of their DNA.

“We want the property to serve the community and also represent the community," Ramler says.

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