The East Quarter: A Lesson in Restoration And Adaptive Reuse

Sometimes it takes a village to create change. Sometimes it only takes two people with a passion.

For Dallas’ downtown core, many who are close to the project know that without Reggie Graham and Patrick Todd, we would not have the East Quarter, the hottest new neighborhood in Dallas.

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Let’s start at the beginning.

About 40 years ago, Reggie Graham’s dad was in the oil business and happened to have a building. He sold it to a group putting together the West Village development, and with the proceeds, Reggie convinced his dad to buy the old Magnolia Petroleum building, which at the time was the former KLIF building. 

“I thought it was a cool building,” Reggie said. “I had attended Harvard for my architecture degree when all the old buildings around Cambridge were being restored and repurposed. It was a wonderful thing to watch. They take historic buildings seriously in the northeast.”

Reggie came back to Dallas to work at Omniplan and was convinced there would be a renaissance here like he’d seen in Cambridge.

“I forgot at that time, in Dallas, no one had the sensibility to restore old buildings yet,” he said. “We were still in the phase when buildings went through several owners, were recarpeted and repainted over and over until they got torn down. Then, of course, the 1983 recession hit. ” 

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Reggie had a simple plan to buy and renovate one building at a time in the neglected neighborhood, starting with the KLIF structure, and filling them with tenants. And that’s what he did, eventually collecting 17 historic buildings on a total of 4.2 acres.

“There is some magic that happens when you redo an old building well,” Reggie said. ”I wasn’t interested in a museum type of renovation, but I would take a building to the bones and begin from the inside out to restore and recreate them until they were transformed.”

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Plenty of Dallas areas with historic buildings became popular for redevelopments, such as the West End, Deep Ellum, and the Farmers Market, but what we now call the East Quarter was overlooked and quietly existed.

Although Reggie had been contacted by developers a couple of times over the years, they wanted to tear everything down, which was not his vision. He knew that one day this neighborhood would come into its own. 

That’s when our second knight in shining armor comes along, Patrick Todd.

For those of you who may not be aware, Todd Interests acquires and develops traditional real estate of every sort. They gained considerable recognition in the preservation community, and needless to say, a Preservation Dallas Preservation Achievement Award for their restoration and redevelopment of The National at 1401 Elm Street.

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Patrick Todd grew up in a family that loved historic architecture. “We always lived in homes that we were redoing,” Patrick said.

After earning his graduate degree, he returned to Dallas in 2014. He spent time at HFF in debt and equity, but soon realized his passion was real estate development. That led him right back into the family fold at Todd Interests.

“I was actually advised at HFF that my skill set would complement my dad’s,” Patrick said, “so I called his business partner, took him to lunch, and he agreed.”

Then kismet happened.

“I was sitting at a red light on Commerce Street one day and looked over at the old KLIF building,“ Patrick said. “Then I looked around and saw a lot of vacant properties and thought how beautiful these historic buildings were. The idea popped into my head that this area could really be something special.”

As the saying goes, timing is everything.

What Reggie Graham saw was the future. He had the passion and the patience to wait until it arrived and until the right company came along to ensure his vision was not reduced to a pile of rubble.  

One day, a former tenant called Reggie and said if anyone could do development right without tearing anything down, it is Todd Interests. Reggie had never intended to sell, but he came up with five reasons that he would consider selling. Those reasons were met and a deal was struck and closed in 2018. Along with Reggie’s properties, the Todds acquired a few others, bringing their total purchase up to 30 properties, over eight city blocks, and all under one ownership.

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Fast forward, and the East Quarter is genuinely the hottest new neighborhood in Dallas, all because of the shared vision, decades apart, of two passion-driven men.

Working with Omniplan (remember Reggie Graham worked for them, so you see the connections never end) and Merriman Anderson for a ground-up tower, office, and retail at 300 Pearl, the neighborhood has been completely revitalized. 

“We knew creative and innovative tenants want office space that represents their brand,” Patrick said. “They don’t want to be in a glass tower. They want non-traditional office space, and we decided to provide that in these historic buildings.”

I toured the area a couple of weeks ago with founder and publisher Candy Evans. We are a hard duo to impress.

However, we were not just impressed but overwhelmed at the thought, care, and detail put into planning the area, and into these historic buildings, the new residential tower, and the consideration for the tenants. A private club was created specifically for tenants in the neighborhood — The Leather Apron — and housed in the century-old Meletio Electric building.

Can you imagine the networking that is going on here?

Anchor tenant Nick Badovinus opened National Anthem in the former Magnolia Oil/KLIF building on October 6 and treated us to some of the best food we’ve ever eaten. 

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The first tenants have moved into the luxury high-rise tower, which has more amenities than we’ve ever seen or heard of, more restaurants are on the horizon, and the neighborhood is hopping with activity. 

Adaptive reuse is vital for maintaining the character of a city.

Without it, we are a bland place no one wants to live in or visit. Developers should not have to be convinced that this is the right thing to do. We hope the phenomenal success of the East Quarter serves as a lesson to any developer to think twice before you take down a historic building and as inspiration to anyone that thinks it takes a village to save a neighborhood.

It just takes two knights in shining armor.