Dallas, TX
Keeping up with the Thakkars, the embattled Dallas developer family
It’s been a month of extremes for Poorvesh Thakkar.
The India-born, Dallas-based developer was slapped with a lawsuit trying to eject him from a Midtown Manhattan office building he bought in 2024.
The legal challenge comes amid unseasonably sunny days for Thakkar, who recently reached a milestone in his Mustang Square development. That’s notable, because, despite launching his real estate development company in 2016, his development chops are still largely untested, as his pitched projects have mostly been delayed or aborted.
Thakkar recently sold a 3.5-acre slice of the mixed-use project in Plano to an entity tied to Carrollton-based Madewell Spaces. The buyer said its plans to build 13 “standalone luxury office condominiums. D.R. Horton bought a swath of homesites at the project.
Thakkar claims the project is “almost fully sold out and developed.”
It’ll be interesting to see what happens with the project, because Thakkar’s legal trouble in New York seems more indicative of his success as a developer than this Plano project.
The saga of the Midtown Manhattan office tower starts with an almost incomprehensible bet on the part of Thakkar:The largely untested developer struggling to get projects off the ground in his hometown of Dallas bought an office building in New York City with plans to turn it into a residential property, a tricky maneuver even for a seasoned developer.
The only thing that can explain the move is the price tag. Thakkar bought the 23-story building at 135 West 50th Street on auction site Ten-X for $8.5 million, a 97 percent discount to its 2006 sale price.
Safehold, which owns the land beneath the building, claims Thakkar’s firm failed to pay $9 million in property taxes that were due Jan. 1, 2025, and has since racked up almost $28 million in unpaid taxes, interest and other penalties.
After Thakkar failed to meet repeated extension deadlines and forbearance agreements, Safehold notified the firm that it was terminating the ground lease and demanded it surrender the building, according to the lawsuit. Thakkar refused to vacate the property, and the land owner is now seeking their immediate ejection, according to the complaint. He dug his heels in further with a countersuit in which he claims the ground landlord iced him out of his planned conversion project.
Thakkar could win his case in New York and completely sell out Mustang Square and he’ll still face question marks as a developer, thanks to the litany of lawsuits he’s faced, with allegations ranging from loan defaults to EB-5 fraud. The legal trouble appears to have peaked with real estate offering fraud charges filed by the SEC in February.
Austin’s Ayn Rand Museum
In case you missed Elon Musk’s recent embrace of Austin, the summer isn’t the only thing that’s hot in Austin. So is libertarianism. As war-tech startups set up camp in nearby Proto-Town, libertarian icon Ayn Rand is getting a museum built in her honor. The foundation dedicated to preserving the manuscripts of the Russia-born philosopher famous for her “Objectivism” theory is building a $30 million monument to Rand in the form of a library, exhibition room, office and “higher education classroom spaces.”
Fifth Third ditches Downtown Dallas
Dallas’ beleaguered downtown is still smarting from the news that anchor tenant AT&T is moving to Plano. To add insult to injury, Fifth Third Bank is ditching downtown, too, after its merger with Comerica Bank. Fifth Third is leaving a 200,000-square-foot vacancy in Comerica Tower. While the Ohio-based bank won’t settle into the still-under-construction site at 8300 Douglas Avenue until late 2028, it will leave its 200,000-square-foot lease at the 60-story Comerica Bank Tower at 1717 Main Street before the end of the summer.
Meet Poorvesh Thakkar, the Dallas owner Safehold is trying to eject from a Manhattan tower
It’s official: Fifth Third Bank will exit Downtown Dallas Comerica Tower after Comerica merger
Austin in line for $30M of libertarian development devoted to Ayn Rand
Read more
FC Dallas wraps up the first portion of the regular season tonight when they take on the Colorado Rapids.
Lineups are in from both sides. Let’s dive into what Eric Quill’s starting group looks like, who is on the bench, and who we believe will see minutes later on in this one.
What Changed From Last Match
With no Petar Musa (and Deedson), who is away preparing for next month’s World Cup, we get to see Logan Farrington return to the lineup. He’ll have Santiago Moreno and Joaquin Valiente with him in the attack.
Ran Binyamin also returns to the lineup after being on the bench last weekend in San Jose.
The defense sees the biggest shift, with Osaze Urhoghide out with an injury this weekend (more of a precaution than anything else I’m told). The defense will be lead by veterans Shaq Moore, Sebastien Ibeagha and Herman Johansson.
FC Dallas Lineup Notes:
Formation: 3-4-3
FC Dallas vs Colorado Rapids
Starting XI
Bench
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Who should come off the bench?
Given the way Quill has rotated players in and out lately, it is fair to say we’ll see Cappis and Sarver off the bench. Outside of those two, we could get either Louis or Simmonds if there is another attacking need late in the match. But if he needs to go defense, don’t sleep on either Nolan Norris or Lalas Abubakar get some minutes here.
Key Question Heading Into Kickoff
Can FC Dallas wrap up this portion of the schedule on a positive note?
Dallas has been very good in their last two road games, winning in places that they hadn’t won at in over a decade or two. Colorado is no different, as they’ve struggled to pick up results here over the years. With nearly two months off coming up after this one, getting this portion of the season under their belts with a positive result is a must. Dallas needs to come out with energy early, and work those transition moments late in the match when the Rapids have tired legs to finish this one out.
Suspended: none
International duty: Petar Musa, Deedson
Season-ending injury list: Kaka Scabin (knee)
Out: Anderson Julio (Lower leg), Bernard Kamungo (lower leg)
Questionable: none
On Loan: Tsiki Ntsabeleng (Mamelodi Sundowns FC), Enes Sali (Al-Riyadh), Malachi Molina (Nashville SC), Geovane Jesus (North Texas SC), Enzo Newman (North Texas SC)
Unavailable (off-roster): Daniel Baran, Jaidyn Contreras
Colorado Lineup:
Formation: 4-3-3
Starting XI
How to watch
📅 Date: Saturday, May 23, 2026
⚽️ Kickoff: 8:30 PM
🏟 Venue: Dicks Sporting Goods Park
📺 Streaming: MLS Season Pass
💬 Gameday Social: #FCDvCOL
☀️ Weather: 67, sunny
Waymo has suspended driverless car services in Dallas and other major Texas cities, and in Atlanta, after one of its vehicles was stranded by flooding during heavy rains that will likely also hinder travel in a large swath of the U.S over the holiday weekend.
Severe thunderstorms with large hail and gusty winds were possible Friday, May 22 in Texas and other parts of the Southern and Central Plains, the National Weather Service said.
Forecasters warned of possible flash flooding along the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana on Saturday, when rain and thunderstorms were expected across much of the central and eastern U.S.
The Waymo vehicle got stuck during a downpour in Atlanta on Wednesday that flooded streets and even part of a downtown highway. The vehicle was not occupied and was later recovered, the company said in a statement. At least one other Waymo vehicle was waylaid during the storm.
Waymo serves only the city of Atlanta in Georgia, and services Dallas, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio in Texas.
The company paused service in Texas “out of an abundance of caution for the forecasted severe weather,” the statement said.
A young mother is dead and her husband remains hospitalized after Dallas police said the couple was hit and killed by a wrong-way driver along US-75 early Monday.
“She’s been that person connecting everybody. She can get this whole group together,” said Samantha Cosio.
Amanda Martinez, Evelyn Duarte and Samantha Cosio said 30-year-old Ruby Gonzalez was the glue of their friend group.
“Ruby had this energy where we just all gravitated towards her,” said Cosio.
They say it’s hard to comprehend that someone who loved life is suddenly gone.
“It’s just a nightmare,” said Evelyn Duarte.
Dallas police said Gonzalez and her husband were driving in the southbound lanes of North Central Expressway near Royal Lane, when they were hit head on by a wrong-way driver just after one a.m. Monday.
The wrong-way driver and Gonzalez were killed.
Friends say her husband, Kevin, remains in critical condition in the ICU.
Her parents have taken over caring for their three children.
“She was always with her children. She lived for them, and now I’m so, so worried about them. I’m praying so hard that Kevin will make it and he’ll be ok, but they’ll never have what they had with Ruby being gone,” said Amanda Martinez.
The couple’s youngest is just two months old.
“He’ll never get to know how beautiful and how much of a light that she was,” she said.
Friends have started an online fundraiser for the family. They say Gonzalez gave them each other.
Now they’re stepping in to fill the gaping hole she leaves behind, while trying to live life a little more like Ruby.
“She taught me how to live and you know, take the trip, wear the dress, put the heels on, you know, enjoy your life while you can, take the pictures now,” said Martinez.
Police say the wrong-way driver died at the scene. The medical examiner identified him as 23-year-old Christopher Ourfalian.
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