Downtown News

Deep Ellum's biggest landlord acquires Dallas complex Victory Park

New boss in Victory Park.

Photo courtesy of Victory Park

The Victory Park development near downtown Dallas has a new owner: Asana Partners, the Charlotte, North Carolina real estate investment company, acquired the retail portion of the complex from Florida-based Estein USA in a deal that transpired on May 16.

Already a familiar name in Dallas, Asana has become a major force in Deep Ellum, where they've acquired 44 buildings since 2017.

An Asana spokesperson said that the company had no comment at this time.

Estein was the financier behind Victory Park from the outset. They took over the retail portion from Hillwood when it sank into serious decline.

Victory Park tenants were informed two weeks ago that the property would change hands. One source who asked not to be named said that the transaction was so sudden that an official grand opening party planned for June would be rescheduled.

Estein just threw a party in April to celebrate its revamp of the Victory Park shopping district, when CEO Lothar Estein touted it as "the most walkable district in the city of Dallas."

Estein executives told the DMN at that time that they remained committed to the project.

They spent millions on the resuscitation, in partnership with the city of Dallas. The center now has a Cinepolis theater, plus new restaurants and bars, such as Dibs on Victory, Billy Can Can, Café Victoria, Imoto, and Hero.

Asana managing director Brian Purcell told BisNow that his company is attracted to neighborhoods that possess authenticity and infrastructure, including walkability and access to major highways, all of which Victory Park boasts.

Asana also favors areas that are active 24 hours a day with a combination of retail and office space, and ideally a growing residential base. In the past two years, Victory Park has welcomed new housing options, such as The Katy, which opened in 2017, and the Magnolia Station apartments, which opened in 2018.

In Deep Ellum, the company has been respectful toward the culture by retaining and repositioning properties rather than replacing them.

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No Cap

Dallas was a top-10 destination for Gen Zers on the move for 2023

Photo by Lance Asper on Unsplash

Who wouldn't want to live in a Gen Z paradise like Dallas?

As Gen Z enters adulthood, many are flocking to the nation's biggest cultural hubs like New York City, Los Angeles — and now Dallas, which had the ninth-highest inflow of Gen Zers in 2023.

Dallas' new reputation as a Gen Z hotspot was unveiled in a recent report by American home improvement brand This Old House, which analyzed migration trends across multiple generations using 2023 U.S. Census Bureau data.

Dallas saw an influx of 13,770 Gen Z residents last year to become the generation's No. 9 most popular city. That's 4,223 more Gen Zers than the net migration rate from 2022, the report found.

Real estate marketplace Zillow seems to agree on a statewide scale, declaring Texas as the No. 1 destination for Gen Zers on the move in 2024.

However, as Gen Z Dallasites may have learned, it's going to take a big bite out of their paychecks to live in such a highly sought after city. A March RentCafe housing cost analysis predicted Gen Z adults living in Dallas are likely to spend over $149,000 on rent by the time they are 30 years old.

While Dallas saw big gains in its Gen Z population last year, many other big cities saw a mass exodus. Plano, for example — which gained 1,295 Gen Z residents in 2022 — lost 4,028 Gen Zers in 2023, the report discovered.

The biggest Gen-Z exodus was in El Paso, with a drop of 5,607 — "a sharp turn from 2022 when the city saw an increase," the report said. "Other cities, including Plano, Texas; Memphis, Tennessee; McKinney, Texas; and Wichita, Kansas, are seeing similar declines."

"Gen X, baby boomers, and the Silent Generation are also moving away from major cities, particularly New York City and Washington, D.C.," the report said. "They’re heading to some of the same cities as Gen Z, including Houston and Jacksonville, Florida."

The top 10 cities that gained the most Gen Z residents in 2023 are:

No. 1 – New York City, New York
No. 2 – Los Angeles, California
No. 3 – Houston, Texas
No. 4 – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
No. 5 – Chicago, Illinois
No. 6 – San Diego, California
No. 7 – Seattle, Washington
No. 8 – Charlotte, North Carolina
No. 9 – Dallas, Texas
No. 10 – Minneapolis, Minnesota

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