Dallas Officials Halt Work On Henderson Avenue Project
Less than two weeks after the groundbreaking on a highly anticipated 161K SF mixed-use development on Henderson Avenue, the city of Dallas issued a stop work order for the project.
The order, dated Monday and signed by a city zoning inspector, says the project and its building permit are on hold and all construction-related work is to cease, according to CultureMap Dallas.
The project is being overseen by Acadia Realty Trust and Ignite-Rebees, a partnership between Dallas developer Tristan Simon and Newmark Chairman of Global Retail Mark Masinter.
The development team told Bisnow it expected work would resume on Friday. The work stoppage occurred because the city wanted more details on permit drawings that had previously been approved.
When it recommences, the project is slated to bring 75K SF of walkable retail, 12K SF of restaurants and 74K SF of office space to the east side of Henderson Avenue between Glencoe Street and McMillan Avenue, the Dallas Business Journal reported. The developers plan to build 10 buildings and a two-floor underground parking garage as part of the project.
The project has been compared to those on Austin’s South Congress Avenue, Masinter said.
“What we didn’t want to do was build a ‘development’ — this is a street, and we wanted to maintain it feeling like a street,” Masinter told the DBJ.
The office portion of the project will be known as Henderson East, with the 74K SF spread between two of the 10 buildings. The developers hope to divide the space, with smaller tenants from industries such as wealth management, private equity, technology and energy taking between 5K SF and 10K SF each.
Henderson East tenants will have access to exclusive bars and lounges and will be able to easily order from one of the three planned restaurants in the development.
“The idea for Henderson East is to really blend high-end boutique offices with boutique hotel and private social club programming,” Simon told the DBJ.
The Henderson Avenue area was formerly zoned for low-density residential, but neighborhood association feedback secured that change in 2018. Eight of the 10 planned buildings could be built on land that has been vacant for decades.
It could be close to a year before the underground garage goes vertical, Simon told the DBJ. Full construction on the project is slated to be completed by the end of October 2026.
The development is another drop in a flood of mixed-use developments underway throughout the Metroplex, with many under construction in the northern suburbs where population growth has outpaced that of Dallas County.
But it comes as office availability throughout the region remained elevated during the third quarter. A study by Switch on Business showed Dallas had around 53M SF of empty office space.
