How Sycamore Strategies Saved the Historic Cabana Hotel in Dallas’ Design District
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The Cabana Hotel has earned its spot in Dallas folklore. The Beatles and Led Zeppelin crashed there. Raquel Welch worked as a cocktail waitress there. It was modeled after Caesar’s Palace and did a little hard time as a county jail. And now, Dallas’ historic Cabana Hotel will be redeveloped into affordable apartments.
Developer Zach Krochtengel of Sycamore Strategies joined Hunt Capital Partners, ANDRES Construction, Gensler, Pape Dawson Engineers, and StudioOutside landscape architects on Tuesday to kick off construction at the site on Stemmons Freeway.
District 6 Councilman Omar Narvaez said he did not want to lose the historic structure but was disappointed when a plan to keep it a hotel fell through. Then “fearless visionary” Krochtengel showed up and said, “What if I did housing there and made a huge component of it affordable?”
“I said I’d be sold. How fast can you get it done?” Narvaez recalled. “The Design District is a phenomenal area but we don’t have a lot of people living here.”
The project, by far the largest in Sycamore Strategies’ portfolio, will take about 16 months to complete, Krochtengel said. The Cabana will offer 60% market rate and 40% affordable units.
Preserving History at The Cabana
The 10-story, 300-room hotel was built in 1962 by Jay Sarno of Caesar’s Palace fame. It closed in the 1980s and was a county lockup from 1985 to 2009. Mehrdad Moayedi’s Centurion American Development Group purchased the hotel in 2017 for a reported $8.1 million and later sold it to Sycamore Strategies.
The housing project — aptly deemed Cabana — will include an 11-story tower with 153 housing units, a four-story tower with 22 units, and a multi-level parking garage. A rezoning was not required for the land at 899 N. Stemmons Freeway.
Jonathan Haywood, vice president of relationship development at ANDRES Construction, said the project is a fantastic opportunity to preserve an iconic building and provide unique housing options within the Dallas Design District.
“Buildings like the Cabana are rare when it comes to many of the design elements,” Haywood said. “The breeze block is a perfect example of elements not seen in modern construction. The intricate block that faces the exterior envelope provides cover for the balconies, shade into the residential units, and still provides fantastic viewpoints to downtown Dallas and westward. Additionally, the remaining original and historic elements will be restored to their former glory. A few examples include the entry Porte-cochere and original terrazzo flooring within the main lobby.”
A True Partnership
Krochtengel, his wife Jess, and architect Matthew Finn have been working on the Cabana for almost two years, the developer said.
“It took us 678 days to get here, and without all of our team, we wouldn’t be able to do it,” Krochtengel said. “I couldn’t ask for a better team. This is a project that takes …more than just the normal efforts. This is complicated and takes a level of passion that you’re not going to find in most standard projects.”
Krochtengel told CandysDirt.com back in May that he was looking forward to redeveloping the site.
“We are excited about the opportunity to revitalize such an important part of Dallas’ architectural history while providing much-needed mixed-income housing in the Design District,” he said. “The unique design elements of the Cabana Hotel will make for one-of-a-kind units with unparalleled views of downtown Dallas.”
The development was financed in part by Low-Income Housing Tax Credits and $41 million in tax increment financing funds.
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Glad this is being saved. I remember how cool it was in the 60s – different than anything else in town!