Ross Avenue may get tower
Developers buy most of downtown block for mixed-use project
12:00 AM CST on Thursday, December 29, 2005
By STEVE BROWN / The Dallas Morning News
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Developers have purchased most of a downtown block on Ross Avenue and are studying plans for a high-rise.
United Commercial Development bought the site at Ross Avenue and Field Street that contains a commercial strip and motor bank.
"We bought everything on the block but the fire station," United Commercial president David Dunning said Wednesday. "We are going to do mixed-use with high-rise residential."
Dallas architect Phillip Shepherd – who was the architect for the Mansion on Turtle Creek hotel and collaborated on the Crescent complex near downtown – has been hired to design the project.
Real estate investors James "Boots" Reeder and J.C. Sterquell also helped with the transaction.
The property was acquired from an out-of-state investor. Terms of the sale were not disclosed, but the block is valued for taxes at almost $3 million.
The commercial strip facing Ross was built in the 1950s, and the bank drive-in, which is leased to Wells Fargo, dates from 1982.
With the construction of the nearby Victory project and ambitious plans for the Trinity River corridor, the property near Woodall Rodgers Freeway is a prime development site, Mr. Dunning said.
"It's exciting what is going on in that area," he said. "Ten years ago, I wouldn't have even thought about doing it."