Downtown News

Blue-paneled '50s office building in downtown Dallas to become residences

The 211 North Ervay building is a beautiful mid-century modern 1958 build.

Wolfe Investments

A distinctive '50s building in downtown Dallas has a new owner with big plans. The building is 211 North Ervay, notable for its pretty pale-blue paneled facade, and it's been acquired by Wolfe Investments, a real estate company headed by CEO Kenny Wolfe, with plans to transform it into residences.

Wolfe shared the news not in a press release that a person might ordinarily cut-and-paste then massage into a story, but instead via a YouTube video which is so very 2023, which he made from the rooftop deck.

"Hey guys, we're here at 211 N. Ervay, we just bought this property, as you can see we are right smack dab in downtown Dallas," Wolfe says. "It's going to be a beautiful asset. We're taking an office building and converting it to 238 residential units right here in the heart of Dallas."

The 238 units will include studios, one-bedroom/one-bath, and two-bedroom/two-bath floor plans with a contemporary aesthetic. Additional amenities will include fitness center and lobby lounge. They're anticipating completion in 14 to 16 months.

Built in 1958, 211 North Ervay is an incredibly cool 18-story cube with alternating panels of lighter and darker aquamarine outlined with original porcelain enamel steel panels between ribbon windows.

A profile on AIADallas.org recalls that color panel buildings were "all the rage" in the '50s. These panels were created by Texlite, the same Dallas company that built the Pegasus atop the Magnolia Building, as well as panels for The Statler, another iconic 1950s building just a few blocks away.

As Dallas Innovates notes, former Dallas Mayor Laura Miller called 211 North Ervay an "eyesore," definitely do not let her near your '50s house, and there were plans to demolish it and install yet another park.

The building was saved in 2012 by Alterra Worldwide, the investment company headed by Mukemmel "Mike'' Sarimsakci, most famous for almost building a Trump hotel in Dallas until the Trump Organization backed out.

The building was renovated in 2014, and has had some high-profile tenants on the ground floor including a 7-Eleven store and pre-pandemic, a location of Cafe Izmir.

Founded in 2012, Wolfe Investments has with nationwide holdings including commercial real estate, real estate development, and multifamily projects such as this.

In 2021, they purchased the also gorgeous historic Post Office building in downtown Dallas at 400 N. Ervay St., and in January, they acquired the Oil & Gas building next to the former Star-Telegram offices in downtown Fort Worth, in a partnership with Dallas’ Bluelofts Inc., which they will also convert to residences.

home-for-sale downtown

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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