Historic downtown Dallas buildings closer to demolition

by Robert Wilonsky

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It's like sending your folks to The Home so you can add on to yours...

DALLAS — More than four years after the city of Dallas first made it clear it wanted to raze some of the downtown’s oldest remaining buildings to widen what’s now known as César Chávez Boulevard, the city council’s one step closer to breaking out the wrecking ball.

On Wednesday, the council will be briefed by city attorneys — behind closed doors — about the amount a panel of special commissioners says the city owes the owners of 2226 Elm Street and 2222 Elm. For the former, a corner-sitting saloon way back in 1891 before it became Liberty State Bank, the city has been told to fork over $860,000. For the latter, a separate chunk of history that now serves as Harvard Companies‘ HQ, the city has been told it owes $1,300,000.

Those amounts are significantly higher than the city’s first offers of $400,000 and $750,000, respectively. But still, no one’s pleased: 2226 Elm’s Pete Fonberg and Harvard Companies think the settlements are too low and want their respective disputes resolved by a jury. The city’s also appealing the commissioners’ ruling, because city attorneys, who have been trying to take the land by eminent domain after years’ worth of refusals from the owners, believe the settlement offers are way too high.

Nevertheless, the council will be told to deposit the money into a Dallas County court account so the city can at least attempt to get on with the expansions of Chávez and Pearl Expressway from Commerce Street to Live Oak Street — a road-widening that’s only possible if those buildings are erased.

The city council is scheduled to vote on the deal February 13; right now it’s on the consent agenda. Ten days later those checks go into the account. And as far as the city’s concerned, that’s that: The city has 90 days to get those buildings emptied, which means paying moving expenses for the businesses still in there. But at the end of those three months, boom goes the dynamite.

Fonberg and Harvard Companies partner James Walker are still itching to fight City Hall. But they won’t be able to stop the demolition of the buildings at the corner of Elm and Chávez if they take a single penny out of that account. If they make any withdrawal whatsoever, the only thing they’ll be able to fight over is how much they get paid.

And at this point, it becomes something of a game show for the owners, a sort of real-estate version of Deal or No Deal. The owners can take the special commissioners’ significantly higher offers now, or challenge them and risk losing everything.

In all likelihood, the money will be deposited into an account and just sit there; then the owners will challenge the city’s right to take the property. City attorneys weren’t available for comment, but sources at City Hall familiar with the dispute say the owners can try to make the case that razing those buildings serves no “public purpose” or that the city simply doesn’t have the right to seize them.

“The city has no respect for these older boutique buildings,” says Walker. “Zero respect. They see nothing there. And on top of everything else it irritates me to where I want every last dollar. They’re not far from what would probably make us happy. But you can’t replace those buildings. That’s the problem. There may be, in what I call the city core, maybe 20 old buildings left. And that’s sad.”

Messages have been left for architect Craig Melde, who has previously expressed interest in moving at least one of the buildings to a spot near the Dallas Farmers Market. City Hall sources say he’s still hoping to relocate 2226 Elm, if it’s not cost-prohibitive.

If nothing else, though, the city may have time on its side after all: Fonberg says he’s just tired of fighting the city, and starting to wonder if he’s not throwing good money after bad at this late date.

“It reminds me of the federal government: They wear the [expletive] out of you,” he says. “You have to have a hearing, then another hearing then another hearing. We’ll do what we gotta do. The offer’s too low. But on the other hand I don’t want to keep spending money to prove they didn’t give enough. It’ll cost more than it’s worth. And that, right there, is the fine line.”

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