Museum Tower is Now 80% Sold Out. Boom.

Museum Tower has hit a crucially important sales milestone: 80% sold. Which means 100% is in the very near future. In high rises, sales multiply more rapidly with every signed contract.

And for Museum Tower, one of the contracts that put them in the 80 percent club came from another prominent Dallas family moving out of Preston Hollow. They will be in good company. (Editor’s Note: upon request and respect for privacy, we have removed the names of the high profile homeowners though it is public record.) 

Currently there are 108 homes, after legal combinations of units, and only 22 homes left to sell.

22/108 =20.37%

The 42-story luxury tower is now five years old. And for Steve Sandborg, Managing Director, Sales and Operations, this sales threshold couldn’t be a better holiday gift.

“We’ve been inching towards that magic 8-0 number, we’ve had a strong year, so we knew we would get here by now,” says Steve. “Museum Tower is a very special place, and nobody has this perfect location, in the center of everything.”

Steve and the Briggs Freeman real estate team working tirelessly toward 100% sales says interest in the building seems to get stronger every day.

“The buzz around town is that we are THEE place,” says Steve.  

The Ritz, with the exception of the Townhomes, is sold out of new inventory and onto re-sales. Craig Hall is just breaking ground on Hall Residence Arts Center (stay tuned). Bleu Ciel is nearing completion, but it’s in Uptown, a different vibe than MT. With homes starting at $1.25 million, or about $800 per square foot, any real estate savant knew the building would not sell in a two or three year time period. 

What is the chief attraction?

“Services,” says Steve firmly. “Our residents will tell you first hand how special our level of service is.”

We have written about Tanya Mendenhall, Director of Resident Relations, basically responsible for “facilitating the spectacular,” as she told me. As we said when we wrote about her:

Many of the buyers at Museum Tower are, and will be, owners of high net worth who have multiple homes. In a recent survey of 500 affluent homebuyers conducted by Wakefield Research, conducted this past spring, 58% own multiple homes. Further, 53% prefer owning multiple “lifestyle” homes to support recreational activities like skiing, the beach and theater-going. Tanya’s job is to meet the often demanding needs of an executive family or couple, a jet setter, much as a private house manager/social assistant/concierge might. The difference is that she facilitates the spectacular for 115 homes, with a staff of 8 concierges, and is dedicated to making each one of those owners feel happiest when they put their feet up in Dallas. If Museum Tower is the owner’s ONLY home, she wants to make their life here as smooth, exciting, and engaging as possible.

While a resident relations director is not a novel concept for wealthy homeowners who usually have staff on hand to facilitate their home arrivals and social life in-between residences, it is a unique concept for high rise living in Dallas. Museum Tower is, thus far, the ONLY high rise with this level of personalized “home manager” type service for all. We won’t be at all surprised if other units out there still churning dirt might not have a Tanya or two in their ownership line up.

But it’s not just Tanya (and everyone’s) outstanding service. Museum Tower has organically grown a strong community within those oval-shaped glass walls. Standard is the weekly social hour on Thursday night for residents — it hasn’t stopped, continues to grow. Never know who’ll you see there. But in addition, the homeowners are hosting private philanthropical events and inviting each other. In fact, they recruit each other.

“You know our grilling area by the pool?” asks Steve. “well, now there is a Wednesday night grill group that keeps expanding.”

Steve says many MT residents are buyers downsizing from a big house or two, a major life change for an empty nester.

“They end up just delighted by the service culture and the community,” he says. “Part and parcel was the empty nester change,  wanting to step into lock and leave lifestyle, but maybe a little anxious about it.”

Other developers have been watching MT for a long time, says Steve, and if they have designs to offer a similar level of service,  that’s a form of flattery. After all, Museum Tower drove a new $800 psf price point in Dallas real estate, in a town shifting from a spread out single family home model to dense, urban luxury living.

“We are not empty, and we sold 80% of the highest priced condos this city has seen in a five year time frame,” says Steve. “Luxury high rise living is really happening here as per the vision, in the Arts District, and right on the edge of Uptown.”