Design District Digs

Virgin chooses designer neighborhood for swanky new Dallas hotel

Virgin Hotels, the lifestyle hotel brand by Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, has confirmed it will open a hotel in Dallas, in one of the city's hottest neighborhoods: the Design District. The property will be located on Hi Line Drive and Turtle Creek Boulevard, and it is expected to open in 2018.

The company was considering a number of locations, but Virgin Hotels CEO Raul Leal said in a release that the company is "ecstatic" to be part of the Design District.

"With chic stores, eclectic galleries and upscale restaurants, we expect Virgin Hotels to move into the neighborhood seamlessly, as its aesthetic and offerings will attract growing local creative class and business travelers," Leal said.

The "lifestyle" hotel will have more than 200 rooms, including grand chamber suites. The property will offer multiple dining and drinking outlets, including its flagship Commons Club, a rooftop terrace with a pool, gym and spa.

This continues Dallas' ongoing love affair with Branson, whose Virgin America airline is now flying out of Love Field, with lots of nonstop flights and competitive fares that benefit travelers to and from Dallas.

Virgin Hotels Dallas will be a new build located within the 33 acres that developer Dunhill Partners and its founder Bill Hutchins acquired in 2014. In addition to Dunhill, the property will be developed by Vinculum Partners and the Crosland Group; it will be managed by Virgin Hotels.

Virgin is opening hotels in all the major cities. The most recent opening was in Chicago, with Nashville and New York next. The company is looking at cities such as Austin, Boston, Los Angeles, Miami, Seattle, San Francisco, Washington D.C. and London, be it conversions or ground-up development.

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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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