holman

All that a city will ever allow you is an angle on it—an oblique, indirect sample of what it contains, or what passes through it; a point of view. Peter Conrad (b. 1948), Australian critic, author. Independent on Sunday (London, 11 March 1990), said of New York.

Commuters give the city its tidal restlessness; natives give it solidity and continuity; but the settlers give it passion. E. B. White (1899–1985), U.S. author, editor. “Here is New York,” in Holiday (Indianapolis, April 1949)

and I'm Jones'n for the porcelain-skinned Esso service station (a Period Building) at Commerce and Main. What a cool little building.

It would make a great sandwich shop w/wine and beer. Old man Maynard owns it.

I borrowed a million bucks and built Deep Ellum Self Storage, if that counts.

My buddy next door bought the old Pearlstone Grain Elevator and has plans for that, if he can get the city to move their garbage trucks that park overnight across the street.

And a lot of people don't know this but Mort Meyerson (of Meyerson Symphony Hall fame) bought the old Dr. Pepper Building at the corner of Hickory and 2nd Ave, and they have big plans for that.

Paul Morgan bought the old Bill Reed building and completely converted it (at great cost) to a really tricked out photography venue with extra space for high-end spec lease space. It’s the building with the four flag poles in front of it. Morgan is a great guy, BTW.

Let's see . . .

TxDOT is pretty far along on dropping I-30 below grade, widening it to 19 lanes, and decking it with a park (ala Woodall Rogers) at the 2nd Ave intersection.

Westdale Asset bought all the Deep Ellum Loft buildings (the Continental, the Murray, Farm & Ranch) and maintain it real nice at pretty good rents. They also bought the old Door building then knocked it down (I bet they wish they hadn't done that w/the present economy plunge). They helped out on the Ambrose. They are looking for more stuff. They also did a good job on the Futura. They also headquarter in Deep Ellum – they are a big but quiet outfit.

Look. Deep Ellum . . . is. It will go where it wants to.

I'm hungry.

See you at the All Good.

I appraised 21 properties (Blanton estate) in Deep Ellum and surveyed the rest (Westdale Asset, Jernigan, the Beck deal, and two others I can't mention), including the monies dumped into the boundaries by the Baylor Hosp directly, and others attempting to piggy-back the only real estate play in America right now - medical real estate.

I wouldn't look back to how things used to be done in the perimeter developments (Southside, the Cedars, West End, Uptown, Old East Dallas, and Downtown).

Deep Ellum is largely unleveraged. They (the other districts) aren't. Deep Ellum missed the Bigs blocking up then borrowing out on expensive construction that missed their target market (ouch).

No debt will keep Deep Ellum cheap. It keeps the area out of foreclosure, resulting in the same old mindset back in because the banks are looking to dump off to Vulture Funds who will either knock down, double rents, or sell to offshore investors who will further torture the tenants and block what needs to happen - which is to leave it alone and let the locals figure out what fits.

And TODs work. Might want to educate yourself a little before you spout. I recently appraised a large chink of a TOD in Santa Fe, NM, called The Railyard. They just got the Rail Runner - a 100+ MPH train running several times daily from Albuquerque's downtown TOD 55 miles to the south.

Between Baylor, the Light Rail stations, no debt, and the cut up nature of property ownership that blocks assemblage by the Bigs (who are in the tank) . . .

Deep Ellum will make it through this prolonged recession just fine.

There has been a concerted effort by the dominant property owners to improve and upgrade. A lot of money has been spent in advance of the Green Line opening. The City has also spent a tremendous amount of money re-routing the sanitary sewer line from the alleys to the streets, and stubbing it their own costs for the individual bays to hook up to.

With 3 Light Rail Stations and Baylor as an anchor, Deep Ellum perfectly fits the definition of an urban Transit Oriented Development, or Transit Village.

The residential rent/work/play crowd continues to get a GREAT deal on a comparative rent per sq.ft. basis - this should not change since the property owners are not highly leveraged (not a lot of debt on the properties).

Bars and restaurants have to get the new SUP, which kills a lot of deals due to timeline costs - most people who want to open an entertainment venue do not factor in the amount of time it takes to get one through the City and their limited funds are eaten up in unanticipated pre-opening costs. But that's the price of blocking the return of hot-headed underage crime. Also, national chain store venues do not want to take the chance of dumping big chunks of money to have the SUP yanked early in their lease periods. Fine with me. We don’t need no stinkin’ House of Blues thingy.

Baylor Hospital has under construction a $350 million Cancer Center, which is drawing in investor interest to Deep Ellum real estate on that end of PD269 (Deep Ellum) - even in the present recession and locked up credit markets.

The other off-downtown markets are suffering mightily due to wild, heavily-leveraged overbuilding whose target market never show up. Better them than us.

Deep Ellum is a real buy due to the low whole dollar numbers involved however, not much of it is for sale. Also, it is extensively cut up into very small properties (common wall ownerships), which prevents big developer block-up due to hold-outs.

Which is a good thing if you desire to keep Deep Ellum bohemian, local, small-townish, and not-formulaic – and cheap.

Deep Ellum remains highly resistant to recession, and conversion to the kind of pseudo-cool that got developers in trouble in the first place. The new frugality phase killed them. Frugality is Deep Ellum’s middle name.

Better than downtown, pal. And after the taxpayer has dumped in millions like at the Urban Market.

Maybe it was a good thing that the City and the Ross Perots of the development world passed us by. Now, we aren't leveraged to the hilt, part of the bloodbath the commercial real estate world finds itself in, nor saddled with a half billion hotel boondoggle that is going to collapse all the other hotels in the name of socialism - like the Urban Market did to the bodegas.

Deep Ellum is the best small town in Dallas, and you have that tidal wave of drifters, con-men, early-releasers, and 27 registered sex offenders posiong as homeless at your lovely Bridge ALL within two thousand feet of a park, daycare, two DISD schools, Farmers Market, and the Central Library.

How's that working out for ya?

We dropped our $50,000 stipend to bulk up security - we no longer need it.

Go wash your face with this week's Dallas Observer.

You are right. This did not accur in Deep Ellum. It was in Old East Dallas. The Dallas Morning News has already corrected the mis-identification.

PD 269 (Deep Ellum) extends south of I-30 to include the Expo strip hence, they need an SUP.

The bus system used to have a downtown circular route for dwellers in the DT area. DART should dedicate a couple of buses to a circular route so Deep Ellum could connect to Downtown (Urban Market, West End, Cedars, Uptown) w/o going through the transfer stations. This would allow the aggregate Downtown to avoid the hassle of pulling cars out of remote parking, then pay the meters, then re-park their vehicles. It would have an immediate effect if the other integrated neighborhoods could eat, drink and shop without the hassle and in the safety of city transit. Car break-ins are bad in Deep Ellum, on street or off.

Here’s an angle worth mentioning:

“WHEREAS, while it is recognized that, in time, residential uses in the area may increase, those who choose to live in this district should expect should expect that noise, odor, and the visual intrusions associated with those business uses will be greater than those normally associated with other residential areas. It is the expressed intent of this ordinance to preserve and protect the business uses which currently exist or have traditionally existed in this area and to this end, the provisions of this ordinance should be broadly interpreted;

WHEREAS, the city council finds that it is in the public interest to establish this planned development district, to be known as the Deep Ellum/Near East Side District.”

It appears that near by property owners must assert a compelling encroachment argument OVER AND ABOVE normal noise, etc., generated by the typical bar/restaurant.

Maybe our elected representatives, and those on the board, should be reminded of the preamble of the adopted ordinance – PD 269.

Uptown's built out and over-priced (the land - $75/SF).

The three main drags coming out of downtown - Elm, Main and Commerce make Deep Ellum a natural. Central Expy blocks East Dallas on optimal access, which means much.

The Cedars is still too dangerous. Farmers Market now has a 27 million mega shelter, which will kill all but spec development.

It's already started on the east side of Deep Ellum where Mort Meyerson has the Old Dr Pepper building, Paul Morgan redeveloped the Bill Reed Building, and Westdale's new construction near Baylor and the proposed substation and now in the 3100 block of Main Street.

With the subprime collapse, apartments are back in demand.

It's rumored that there is a block-up in progress, but I have no direct knowledge of it.

The thing of it is, the biggest block to re-igniting Deep Ellum as it was, has always been a select number of entertainment-oriented property owners who took the decision to not long-term lease to viable operators who had the finincial strength to get it done, over the long pull. They just didn't want to lock their properties' up like that, for a reason. No doubt their lament is that the tenant never showed up, but look around: Uptown, downtown, Southside, Denton, and Arlington all got it done.

They are old, absentee and want to cash out.

For instance, if a Houston Blues Club operator came to town loaded with cash and backed by a bank and wanted to lease 20,000 sq.ft. in the middle of Deep Ellum, they would demand a 20 year lease and spend a million on finish-out.

A property owner cannot be part of a larger redevelopment plan if he is encumbered by a credit tenant on a long term lease, for he has conveyed a portion of the bundle of rights of ownership - use and occupancy - to others for 20 years.

This is probably the single greatest red flag why Deep Ellum is where it is today. The current property owners block reinvestment as an art and entertainment enclave that would make it viable, as it is. They are letting Deep Ellum bleed out.

They are swinging for the fences. Complete redevelopment.

And I understand what you are saying, and where you are coming from. But there is a reason why the lessors of these properties do not upgrade the buildings and spend the monies necessary to bring in talent that would attract a larger spectrum of the "entertainment dollar".

It would make Deep Ellum viable as an edgey entertainment district, as it is presently configured. This would block redevelopment. The current property owners make no superstructure upgrades nor do they actively solicit tenants (club/retaurant operators) who would pay for such upgrades at their own expense to create the environment that large numbers of Dallasites would want to patronize.

Basically, the current uses of the properties on the west side of Deep Ellum are what is known in real estate parlance as "interim uses" designed to cover property taxes until it is time to redevelop.

When the City deems the area to be "blighted", that is the harbinger of a legal process where by they will assuyme the authority to "clean it up". And I believe that the present landlords want to stay just in front of that state.

But it's coming because these SUPs are a band-aid. The perception of Deep Ellum by the rest of Dallas is what will cause the district to be re-sleeved into a fake and glitzed copy of itself.

Kinda like a Stepford Wife.

The property owners who rent to the tenants that operate the venues which attract the crowd that causes the mayhem . . . is not the bunch I am talking about. But I will now.

Let me foretell the future: Deep Ellum is going to be bull-dozed (see: The Door property transition into mid-rise residential/gallery/retail by Westdale Asset Management).

Why? The City government, the neighborhood property owners (other than the entertainment slum lords), and Dallasites all across the fruited plain . . . do not see an exit strategy. It ain’t getting’ better, baby. The strategy by the lessor is to lease at cheap rates the low-end venues so to keep it dilapidated and dangerous so there is no chance of making a half-assed comeback to Edie Brickell years. There is a net benefit to this.

Land will rise to $40 per square foot, and entire city blocks will sell to developers who will get a good reception downtown to flush the existing improvements down Mill Creek along with the rest of the brackish water.

The so-called major property owners who presently play the deal like they really care about giving the “Black n Blue” night people a venue, are pushing land value up over any return the current buildings can generate. That means the buildings must go. And the City Council will agree to it in the name of Safety.

If we don’t hit a recession, Deep Ellum will be a branded entertainment district anchored by mid-density residential and art galleries. It will be unrecognizable. Kinda like the West End.

That’s where we are going because that is where the underlying property owners who intentionally brought in a bunch of riff-raff with no more personality than a paper cup.