Real Estate Rumblings

Demolition of century-old building in downtown Dallas causes upset

A building demolished over the weekend by developer Tim Headington upset a number of citizens who wished after the fact that they could have done something about the destruction.

Located at 1611 Main St. across from The Joule, the building was a modest three-story structure built in 1885. Fashion boutique Forty Five Ten will move into a new building going in its place in fall 2015.

Plans for the demolition were publicized in May, but the fact that the demolition took place on a Sunday, during a Cowboys game, took some by surprise.

"Headington has destroyed a part of the commercial history of Dallas without regard to the damage it will inflict on the rest of downtown," said Preservation Dallas.

Preservation Dallas, which bestowed an achievement award on Headington last May for his work on The Joule, issued an appalled response summing up what happened, as follows:

"What began as the demolition of a single historic building on Sunday has spread like a cancer to neighboring buildings between Main and Elm streets. Preservation Dallas finds the wanton destruction by the Headington Companies of these historic buildings in the heart of downtown appalling to say the least.

"The pulling of a demolition permit on Friday for a Sunday demolition was an underhanded tactic calculated to avoid a public outcry. These demolitions were planned and completed without conversation with Preservation Dallas. Following the May 2014 article in the Dallas Morning News regarding the demolition of 1611 Main St., Preservation Dallas made numerous attempts to contact Michael Tregoning, the CFO for Headington, through U.S. mail, email and several voicemails — all of which went unanswered.

"We expressed our concerns for the buildings and requested an opportunity to meet with them to discuss plans for the buildings and potential ways they could be incorporated into new development. We know that there could have been a successful path to meet both preservation needs and new development goals.

"The demolition of the buildings is also more shocking given the article in the August 2014 issue of FD Luxe, which announced the relocation of Forty Five Ten to downtown Dallas in a 'grand, multi-story historic building on Main Street.' This article successfully misled us and the public about Headington's true plans and enabled the buildings' demolition without any public discourse on the importance of the buildings to Dallas, alternatives to demolition or why the buildings could not be reused.

"Headington has destroyed a part of the commercial history of Dallas without regard to the damage it will inflict on the rest of downtown. All the demolished buildings were listed as Contributing Structures in the Downtown Dallas National Register Historic District, meaning they had a great deal of integrity and contributed to the overall importance of the National Register District.

"While important, this designation is not enough to provide legal protection to threatened buildings facing the wrecking ball. Ultimately, the demolition of too many Contributing Structures in the National Register District could lead to the loss of the entire District's National Register status, which in turn would cost developers millions of dollars in available tax credits used to rehabilitate historic buildings.

"The only legal way to stop future demolitions of important historic buildings is to designate those structures as City of Dallas Landmarks, or to establish additional City of Dallas Landmark Districts to cover historically important areas of downtown. Preservation Dallas has advocated for Landmark Districts downtown for years and regularly supports property owners in applications to designate specific structures as City of Dallas Landmarks.

"We need the support of everyone to send the message to City Council that our historic buildings downtown are important to all of Dallas, critical to the sustainable redevelopment of downtown and worthy of protection from developers who seek to erase our city's history!

"Steps that can be taken immediately by the City of Dallas to address future demolitions could include placing a moratorium on demolition of National Register listed historic buildings downtown to allow time for public discussion on the future of historic buildings in downtown Dallas, investigating the creation of a City of Dallas Landmark District based on the Dallas Downtown National Register Historic District, and encouraging redevelopment of historic properties through additional economic development incentives.

"It is truly heartbreaking when Dallas deliberately loses pieces of its history, especially given the historic integrity and importance of these buildings as representative examples of historic commercial architecture in the heart of downtown. These buildings stood for over one hundred years seeing the growth, decline and resurgence of downtown Dallas; however, it only took a couple of days for a wrecking ball to turn the venerable structures into debris to be carted off to a landfill."

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not too shabby

Dallas ranks No. 15 nationwide on new affordability and housing report

Reunion Tower

Downtown Dallas skyline, all lit up.

A new national real estate report card has given Dallas-Fort Worth a passing grade for housing demand and affordability.

Realtor.com's first-ever Metro Affordability & Homebuilding Report Card compared the 100 largest metropolitan areas in the U.S. based on two scores that measured the most important factors for potential home buyers: an "Affordability Components" score that examined the current affordability of housing for residents, and a "Homebuilding Components" score that analyzed the rate of new home construction to meet future demand. Both scores were then used to calculate the final score and assigned a letter grade.

Only 10 total U.S. metros, including Houston (No. 4) and Austin (No. 6), received grades in the "A" range (A+, A, A- ) representing the most balanced locales for "favorable current affordability conditions and healthy future inventory growth to sustain them."

"Homebuilding and affordability are inseparable, and if we want to improve affordability in a lasting way, we need to build more homes," said Realtor.com chief economist Danielle Hale. "The metros at the top of these rankings show that buyers benefit most when communities pair homes that are attainable for today's local earners with enough new construction to support tomorrow's demand."

Only two metros earned "A+" grades with a total score of 77.5 or higher: De Moines-West DeMoines, Idaho (83.4 points) and Raleigh-Cary, North Carolina (82.8 points).

Dallas-Fort Worth earned a "B+" overall with a total score of 67.9 points, an "Affordability Components" score of 54.5 points, and a "Homebuying Components" score of 81.3 points. The DFW Metroplex also ranks 15th in the national ranking of the best metros for affordability and housing.

Five more U.S. metros earned the same rating: Augusta-Richmond County, Georgia-South Carolina; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Madison, Wisconsin; Wichita, Kansas; and Louisville, Kentucky-Indiana.

Realtor.com's report said the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metro has a median household income of $88,783, and home listings have a median price of $426,446. The report's findings also show that newly built homes in the region cost 8.9 percent more than existing homes on the market.

DFW has a 1.76 housing permit-to population ratio, meaning the metro permits 76 percent more new homes than what would be considered typical based on its population and national average construction levels.

DFW's "Realtors Affordability Score," or the share of for-sale inventory affordable to households at different income levels, is 0.639, or slightly lower than the national average of 0.675.

Housing market grades across other Texas metros
Houston and Austin were the only two Texas metros to earn a grade in the "A" range.

Houston outperformed every Texas metro for housing and affordability with its solid "A" rating. Newly built homes in the Houston area cost about 7 percent more than existing homes on the market, and the metro has a 1.88 housing permit-to population ratio.

Austin earned an "A-" with a combined score of 72.5 points. Unlike many other U.S. metros, newly built homes in the Austin area are actually more affordable than existing homes on the market. Austin has a negative new construction premium, where new build homes are 6 percent cheaper than existing ones.

The Austin metro also has a permit-to-population ratio of 2.37. Combined with the negative new construction premium, these factors signal that "builders are delivering homes at a rate well above the metro's population share — and at prices slightly below existing homes."

This is a snapshot of the factors that impacted Austin's grade:

Realtors Affordability Score: 0.639
Median listing price: $501,200
Median household income: $102,412

Elsewhere in Texas, San Antonio-New Braunfels and McAllen-Edinburg-Mission both earned "C+" ratings, while El Paso's housing market performance was only worthy of a "D" grade.

The top 10 U.S. metros with the highest-performing housing markets are:

No. 1 – De Moines-West Demoines, Idaho (A+)
No. 2 – Ralgieh-Cary, North Carolina (A+)
No. 3 – Columbia, South Carolina (A)
No. 4 – Houston, Texas (A)
No. 5 – Indianapolis, Indiana (A)
No. 6 – Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, Texas (A-)
No. 7 – Jacksonville, Florida (A-)
No. 8 – Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (A-)
No. 9 – Palm Bay-Melbourne, Florida (A-)
No. 10 – Columbus, Ohio (A-)

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