A veteran player in downtown Dallas has plans to create an urban development extending more than 20 acres that would include offices, residential, retail, and restaurants. Called Dallas Smart District, the development is located on several prime blocks near Dallas City Hall, running along Canton Street from the Dallas Farmers Market to the Dallas Convention Center.

Understanding the key positioning of this area and its potential for redevelopment, Hoque Global strategically acquired the property. For the past three years, with diligent work and land purchases from dozens of owners, Mike Hoque acquired several blocks with a goal of creating a development with lasting impact for the Dallas economy.

Hoque is a recognized pioneer in the development of downtown Dallas, having opened restaurants such as Dallas Chop House, Dallas Fish Market, Chop House Burger, and Wild Salsa, making him a catalyst in the revitalization of the city’s urban center.

Hoque is working with KDC, a mixed-use development veteran, and renowned Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects. The team started formulating plans in 2016.

Mayor Mike Rawlings says in a release that the project can fall under the umbrella of GrowSouth, the city's initiative to revitalize Dallas neighborhoods, calling it "an incredible vision" that will appeal to corporations, new residents, and tourists.

"I'm especially proud that this project falls within the GrowSouth boundary, making it part of the downtown gateway to southern Dallas," he says.

Gregg Jones, principal of Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects and the project's lead architect, says that it represents a unique opportunity. "It is rare for a first-tier American metropolitan area to have this amount of contiguous developable land and building rights, all located in the heart of the city adjacent from the City Hall and Convention Center," he says.

He also says it has the ability to assemble a critical mass necessary to link other nearby districts as a technology hub, with the kind of space that could be a campus for a company, calling it "the greatest collection of state-of-the art / International Class A office space in the United States."

It'll have more than eight million square feet of office space, with the focal point being a 78-story tower. Through building massing and arrangement, three linkages will be created, each with their own identity and connectivity.

These groupings will work together and further expand with greenways, bike paths, and strings of creative retail ventures. A central node will act as a hub of creativity and activate the corporate signature.

Phase One of the Dallas Smart District development will include office space, a location for a grocery store, a food hall with culinary incubator, a boutique hotel with residences, and greenspace with parks and bike paths.

KDC is directing the office space development of Dallas Smart District.

Hoque Global is directing the residential, retail and hospitality development, with announcements soon on major brand one-of-a-kind or first-of-their-kind locations to be located at Dallas Smart District.

Through a next-generation cloud digital platform, the Dallas Smart District infrastructure will encompass not only communications, but the day-to-day operational systems of security, parking, energy, water, lighting, waste management, and recycling — to bring optimal efficiencies for businesses. It sounds like Utopia.