Developer Says Preston Center West Project Complies With Area Plan, Will Add 180 Housing Units 

Developers with Ramrock Real Estate unveiled plans for redeveloping Preston Center West into a mixed-use concept with retail, office space, and 180 housing units — and insisted it’s compatible with the  Northwest Highway/Preston Road Area Plan approved in 2017. 

About 70 people attended a community meeting Wednesday to express concerns about the proposal. Chief among those concerns were traffic, a lack of community outreach, and the absence of input from the Highland Park school district, which will be educating the building’s future tenants. 

The area plan calls for “a renewed, walkable Preston Center … with a balanced mixture of office, retail, residential, hospitality, and entertainment facilities, making it possible to live, work, and play without getting into your automobile.”

The plan was vetted by a task force and approved by the City Plan Commission. 

CPC members Tip Housewright and Tony Shidid attended the April 10 meeting, as did former CPC member Claire Stanard, who has been outspoken in her concerns about the project. 

District 13 Councilwoman Gay Donnell Willis and her appointed plan commissioner, Larry Hall, hosted the meeting at Christ the King Catholic School. 

A rezoning request, twice delayed, is scheduled to go before the City Plan Commission on May 2. All supporting documents are posted here. 

The Plan For Preston Center West 

Officials clarified at the April 10 meeting that plans call for 280,000 square feet of residential space, 350,000 square feet of office space, and 25,000 square feet of retail space. 

Ground-floor retail and two levels of parking are planned, in addition to an 11-story office tower and a 13-story residential tower. 

“We are in compliance … we don’t breach the residential proximity slope,” Dozier said. 

Today, the office building is 125 feet tall; Ramrock is proposing a height of 225 feet. Construction would likely begin in early 2026 for a 24-month build, Dozier said. 

Interim Planning and Urban Design Director Andrea Gilles said the area plan is a guiding document for future development. 

“We go by what the plan says absolutely; that’s sort of the planning front lines,” she said. “We also have to think about whether there have been changing conditions since this plan was adopted and think about what those impacts on changing conditions could be.” 

It’s important to have a mix of uses to ensure that each use is supported, Gilles added, explaining that residential is needed to support retail and office space, and vice versa. 

Housing And Traffic

Dallas needs housing at every price point, Councilwoman Willis said. 

“This is Preston Center in North Dallas; this is a luxury apartment project,” she said. 

Gilles explained that through the Mixed Income Housing Development Bonus, the developer has an opportunity to either provide housing at different price points on-site or pay into a fund that provides affordable housing in different parts of the city. 

“Staff will work with the developer to negotiate a percentage [of affordable housing],” she said. 

Residential housing at Preston Center is in the Dallas city limits but served by the Highland Park school district, Willis said. She acknowledged she had not reached out to school district officials or the mayor of Highland Park but said she would do so promptly. 

Dozier implied that the proposed development would not have a drastic impact on the school district; of the 2,000 high-rise units in Uptown and other areas of Dallas, about 1.6 percent are occupied by people with children, he said. 

Willis also addressed potential traffic impacts. 

“One of the things we heard about frequently is a better pedestrian experience and more safety for pedestrians,” she said. “This means crosswalks, roadway improvements, traffic signal improvements, sidewalks, pavement markings, and signal replacement.” 

Transportation Director Gus Khankarli said it takes two to three years to receive federal funding, and Dallas is just now getting its hands on the cash available for improvements to Douglas Avenue. 

Opposition to Ramrock’s Preston Center Proposal

Ramrock Real Estate submitted its zoning application for the 4.5-acre property in November 2022. More than 60 property owners were notified, and signs were posted along the site perimeter, CPC member Hall said. A public meeting was held to engage a condominium tower at 8181 Douglas, and a majority of its residents support the project. 

 Sharon Stone lives near the proposed development and asked why a community meeting wasn’t held before the matter appeared on March 7 and March 21 CPC agendas. She noted several times that there was only one notification sign posted at Preston Center. 

“I’m responding to [the] assertion that there were many [signs]; there was one,” she said. 

Several attendees at Wednesday’s meeting told CandysDirt.com that former CPC member Stanard’s assertion that the development plan is incompatible with the area plan is incorrect, Stanard said after the meeting she stands by every word of the guest column that appeared in a March 19 CandysDirt.com newsletter. 

“The Area Plan specifically stated that the traffic congestion and the obsolete city parking lot MUST be dealt with first as part of a comprehensive plan,” Standard wrote in an email to CandysDirt.com after Wednesday’s meeting. “That traffic study was ordered in 2017, where is it?  The Area Plan was a joint interagency venture with NTXCOG at a cost of $300,000 and nothing in regard to traffic has happened since 2017? The plan noted that office space creates more traffic and that there is already an imbalance between office and multifamily units. Dozier’s case report states, ‘No impact on traffic.’ How is that possible?”

Parking at Preston Center West 

Willis explained that the City owns the Preston Center parking garage for the purpose of providing parking. 

“However, the property owners surrounding the garage have to have 100 percent agreement on anything that happens to that garage,” she said. “In the plan, the preferred vision is a vision I share. That is a park at grade with underground parking. What the property owners around the garage typically want is for you to have the same type of experience you’re having now. You pull up, you park in the garage, and you walk right into … wherever you’re going.” 

The city can’t just go in and change the garage because an agreement is required, Willis added. 

“Also, to do an underground parking garage … the cost estimate is about $30,000 a space,” she said. “That’s expensive. To undertake a project like that, with park space on top, is probably at minimum $45 million.” 

Everyone involved is “highly motivated” to do something about the parking garage, Dozier said.

“You’ve got property owners investing hundreds of millions of dollars and they’re not going to want to look at that center garage in its current state,” he said. “Everyone is going to be highly motivated to get something done there.”

Willis encouraged meeting attendees to send questions to her office and said she would post the answers on her District 13 website.