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From the corner living room in Dallas’ newest high-rise apartment, you can look out over most of downtown.
There are no signs that just 18 months ago this plush residential space was an empty office suite.
The Peridot apartments in Santander Tower are the latest generation of rental units developers are carving out of surplus office space. Close to 2 million square feet of Dallas high-rise workspace — much of it built in the 1980s — is targeted for conversion into more than 1,500 new urban housing units.
Dallas apartment builder Mintwood Real Estate teamed up with Santander Tower owner Pacific Elm Properties to transform 11 floors of the Elm Street office tower into 228 apartments.
The first of the new rental units is ready to show off to tenants.
“We have a waiting list of prospective tenants and we’ve got tons of tours lined up,” said Mintwood Real Estate’s Katy Slade. “Because of how pioneering this is for showing people how it is to live in an office building, we really wanted to have the leasing office open and the units open so people could understand. We wanted to be able to put our best foot forward.”
Built four decades ago as Thanksgiving Tower, the 50-story skyscraper has been owned by Woods Capital since 2013. Since acquiring the 1.4 million square foot office building, developer Jonas Woods – now the CEO of Pacific Elm Properties – has given the tower a more than $18 million makeover that includes new lobby and outdoor space.
Two years ago, the high-rise’s two top floors were converted to 60 hotel rooms operated as The Guild.
The apartment construction is a further step in the owner’s plan to repurpose the landmark skyscraper.
“They have a really great vision on how to execute this tower as a truly mixed-use building,” Slade said.
Mintwood took a large space on the west end of Santander Tower’s ground floor to create a tenant lounge area, leasing and management center and board room. There’s a fireplace in the lounge and a library-style common room.
“This space had been empty,” Slade said. “It had housed a bank at one point.”
Just outside the lounge windows on Pacific Street, work crews are finishing up the swimming pool and outside patios for residents. There’s a dog park going in on the east side.
WDG Architecture did the conversion design. Adolfson & Peterson was the general contractor.
Dallas-based Swoon designed the interiors. “We hired them because of their hotel experience,” Slade said. “Our vision was to have this walk the line between a hotel and residential to be able to provide that high-end experience.”
The apartments start on the tower’s 18th floor and are accessible only to building residents.
Rental units range in size from just over 600 square feet for the smallest one-bedroom apartment to more than 1,550 square feet in the biggest two-bedroom unit. Rents start at $2,100 a month.
All of the apartments have high-end appliances in the kitchen and large bathrooms.
Since the apartments don’t start until the 18th floor, renters are perched high above the streets.
“We paid a lot of attention to where the buildings are around us so not to have obstructed views,” Slade said. “I love the views because you are looking out over the city.”
The developers added amenity areas on the 25th and 39th floors so residents won’t have to always go down to the lobby area to gather.
Storage rooms were built in parts of the center of the apartment floors. “We also added little offices one floor up along the corridor that people can rent,” Slade said.
Mintwood Real Estate hopes the conversion of the Santander Tower offices will help with its next project – building 426 apartments in the 40-story Bryan Tower.
“Santander Tower is the place where we learn the lessons and sharpen our pencils for the next one,” Slade said. “We are doing things here that we’ve not done in previous projects.”
With office vacancies at a more than 20-year high nationwide, building owners are hoping to convert millions of square feet of surplus office space into needed residential units. Commercial property firm CBRE Group is tracking about 100 office conversion projects this year nationwide with about 18 million square feet of space.
A handful of office towers in downtown Dallas and Fort Worth are targeted for these redos.
Property analysts warn that not all office buildings can be repurposed as housing because of high costs and building layouts.
“You can’t do this with every building,” said Mintwood’s Nick Venghaus. “You don’t want to have so much inefficiency that it doesn’t make sense.”
About 78% of the average office floors at Santander Tower is utilized as rentable living space.
“A typical multifamily building is somewhere between 80% and 85% efficient,” Slade said. “We have a lot of different people talking to us about converting office space to multifamily.”
New York Giants quarterback Tommy DeVito is expected to be out for Thursday’s game against the Dallas Cowboys because of his forearm injury and Drew Lock is expected to start in his place, sources told ESPN’s Adam Schefter and Jordan Raanan.
DeVito is listed as questionable for the Thanksgiving Day game, but a source told ESPN on Wednesday that DeVito was considered a long shot to play.
He did not travel with the team to Dallas on Wednesday as he was undergoing further evaluation, the Giants said. The team, however, said it expected him to travel to Dallas later Wednesday.
DeVito took several big hits in Sunday’s 30-7 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He was making his first start of the season after the Giants released former starter Daniel Jones late last week.
The Giants turn to Lock after bypassing him following the benching of Jones for DeVito. Lock spent the first 10 weeks as the backup, with DeVito as the third string/emergency quarterback.
Lock has a short week and no real practices to get ready for the matchup of NFC East rivals. He also will be playing behind an offensive line without its starting tackles. Andrew Thomas (foot) is on injured reserve and Jermaine Eluemunor (quad) was ruled out Wednesday.
Associated Press
Colorado Avalanche (13-10, in the Central Division) vs. Dallas Stars (13-8, in the Central Division)
Dallas; Friday, 9 p.m. EST
BETMGM SPORTSBOOK LINE: Stars -140, Avalanche +116; over/under is 6.5
BOTTOM LINE: The Dallas Stars host the Colorado Avalanche after the Avalanche took down the Vegas Golden Knights 2-1 in a shootout.
Dallas is 13-8 overall and 4-2-0 against the Central Division. The Stars have a 4-2-0 record in games they score at least one power-play goal.
Colorado is 13-10 overall and 2-3-0 against the Central Division. The Avalanche have a 2-5-0 record in games their opponents serve fewer penalty minutes.
The teams meet Friday for the first time this season.
TOP PERFORMERS: Matt Duchene has 12 goals and 14 assists for the Stars. Mason Marchment has five goals and seven assists over the last 10 games.
Cale Makar has eight goals and 22 assists for the Avalanche. Mikko Rantanen has eight goals and seven assists over the past 10 games.
LAST 10 GAMES: Stars: 6-4-0, averaging 3.7 goals, 6.4 assists, 3.1 penalties and 8.2 penalty minutes while giving up 2.8 goals per game.
Avalanche: 7-3-0, averaging three goals, 4.8 assists, 2.6 penalties and 5.2 penalty minutes while giving up 2.9 goals per game.
INJURIES: Stars: None listed.
Avalanche: None listed.
___
The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
The Dallas Mavericks’ bad injury and availability luck this season continued into Wednesday evening, as Dallas will be without Daniel Gafford, Klay Thompson, Dante Exum, and Luka Doncic against the New York Knicks tonight.
While no one expected Doncic and Exum to play as they are both out with wrist injuries, both Thompson and Gafford had a chance at playing. Thompson will be out for the second straight game with left foot plantar fascia, and Gafford is out with an illness.
This illness has been no joke for Dallas, as both Quentin Grimes and Dereck Lively II were listed on the injury report, but both are available against the Knicks.
The Mavs have found a way to win two of the three games that Doncic has missed due to this sprained wrist that he unexpectedly suffered against the New Orleans Pelicans last Tuesday, and Mavs head coach Jason Kidd gave the first update on Doncic’s status when it comes to the wrist injury on Wednesday night.
“He looks good,” Kidd said at his pregame media availability. “Everything that has come back that he looks good and is getting closer to coming back.”
Kidd then continued to talk about how Doncic has been going through “individual workouts,” and everything that he has “heard or seen is trending in the right direction.” He went through a pregame workout at the American Airlines Center with his wrist taped despite being out, and this is a good sign.
It’s typical for Kidd and the Mavericks to limit what they tell the media when it comes to players’ injuries, but the fact that Doncic is going through workouts and responding well is a good sign. Doncic has not been able to catch a break this season, as he has dealt with a calf contusion, knee contusion, and this wrist sprain over the last two months, and this week-plus off should help get him back to being 100 percent.
He didn’t even seem to be 100 percent with his knee when he injured his wrist against New Orleans, and him getting this time of rest could be huge for him in returning to playing at an MVP level. This wrist injury happened so suddenly against the Pelicans, and even Doncic didn’t know the exact moment it happened. He said that the pain started early on in the game, and it got worse as the game went on. Doncic dubbed his wrist injury as “nothing serious” in his postgame press conference from last Tuesday night, but his availability lately says otherwise.
This season for Dallas, Doncic is averaging 28.1 points, 7.6 rebounds, and 7.6 assists per game while shooting 43.5 percent from the field and 32.4 percent from downtown, and while his numbers are down, Kidd remains confident in his superstar. Kidd emphasized that Doncic is still “human” last week when asked about his slow start to the season, and even though Dallas is finding ways to win without him, his return is going to help take this team to another level.
His teammates miss having him on the floor with them, and the Mavs are a completely different team when Doncic is fully healthy and cooking with gas. It has been a while since Mavs fans saw Doncic fully healthy considering the downpour of injuries that slowed him down during the playoffs, and he and Kyrie Irving will have the chance to help push this team back to the top of the Western Conference once he returns from this wrist injury.
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