Trammell Crow’s Office-to-Multifamily Conversion Project Slated For June 26 City Council Agenda

A zoning change that could repurpose three office towers into a mixed-income multifamily housing development will go before the Dallas City Council in late June. Trammell Crow Company’s proposed redevelopment is on nine acres at 5550 Lyndon B. Johnson Freeway east of the Dallas North Tollway. 

Developers with Dallas-based Trammell Crow Company are requesting a Planned Development District with conditions that deviate from base zoning to allow smaller front and side setbacks, according to a staff report. Staff and the City Plan Commission recommended approval. 

“The immediate surroundings of the site are a mix of office, retail, and residential uses,” the staff report states. “The corridor around LBJ Freeway is substantially developed with high-rise buildings as well as one- and two-story buildings. Immediately south of the subject site is a multifamily development with a two-story apartment complex. Staff supports the requested Planned Development District as the area is suitable for more intensive multifamily development.”

How Adaptive Reuse Is Converting Downtown Dallas Boardrooms to Residential Bedrooms

Office Vacancies Lead to Housing Conversions

Dallas Director of Housing and Neighborhood Revitalization Cynthia Rogers-Ellickson told CandysDirt.com that several large corporations have recently approached the city about converting vacant buildings into housing. 

Office conversions to residential properties have been viewed as a lifeline for buildings suffering from occupancy problems, according to a May 20 report in The Dallas Morning News. 

“Downtown Dallas has seen a handful of similar projects, such as the recently opened Sinclair development from Todd Interests,” writes DMN reporter Anna Butler. 

The Texas Tribune reported late last year that Texas’ work-from-home population has more than doubled since 2019.

Harold Hunt, a research economist who studies commercial real estate at the Texas Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M University, told the Tribune that office conversions to residential housing is a concept that has gained attention as the nation faces a glut of vacant offices and shortage of homes. 

But not every office building is a suitable conversion candidate, the article points out. 

“What do you do with a million and a half square feet if nobody wants it anymore?” Hunt said. “Everybody just sort of scratches their head.”

Trammell Crow Company’s Preliminary Plan 

The Trammell Crow site between Noel Road and Montfort Drive currently houses a 10-story office tower and two six-story buildings, which would be demolished to make way for two five-story properties, according to a plan presented by WDG Architecture Dallas.

The developer’s presentation before the City Plan Commission showed that what is now “virtually obsolete office space with a taxable value of about $10.75 million could receive an investment upwards of $300 million,” according to the Dallas Morning News report. 

The site of the adaptive reuse would be reframed to improve walkability with enhanced landscaping and screening for the existing parking garage, the article states. 

Trammell Crow’s redevelopment proposal was originally scheduled for a City Council vote on May 22 and deferred to June 26.