ooms with a redo
Praetorian Building to become lofts, have exterior restored
11:58 PM CST on Thursday, March 3, 2005
By STEVE BROWN / The Dallas Morning News
When the Praetorian Building opened on Main Street in 1908, people paid a quarter to climb to the top floor and look out over downtown.
At 16 stories, it was the tallest building in Texas.
But the last office tenants of "the pioneer skyscraper of the Southwest" moved out in 1993.
Now a California investor has decided that the landmark could be a hit with loft apartment renters. 3J Development LLC of San Diego bought the Praetorian Building this week.
"It's not going to be sitting empty much longer," said 3J Development president Joseph Sapp. "We are not going to let it sit dormant but are going to move forward with the project."
The Praetorian is 3J Development's second buy in downtown Dallas. Mr. Sapp's development partner in the project is Don Cooksey of CGP LLP in California.
Last month, the commercial builder and investor purchased the mostly vacant 1600 Pacific tower. The 33-story, black glass tower will be turned into about 370 residential units.
The Praetorian Building and 1600 Pacific (formerly the LTV Building) are a block apart on the popular Stone Street Gardens mall.
Terms of the sale were not disclosed, but the Praetorian Building is valued at about $900,000 on the tax rolls. 3J Development bought it from a Singapore investor.
The Praetorian was built with an elaborate stone exterior. But the classical architecture was obliterated in the 1960s, when the building was "modernized" with a metal-and-glass exterior.
The new owners plan to replicate the old exterior. "Maybe people love that metal façade, but I don't," Mr. Sapp said. "Our whole game plan from the beginning was to redo the façade completely and bring it back to the look of the early 1900s when it was built."
The current building
The original facade/what they want to recreate
