Matthews Southwest Has More Planned For Dallas High School Site
Later this year, Matthews Southwest will deliver the $50M renovation of Dallas High School on six acres in Downtown Dallas. The 110-year-old building on the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places will be transformed into a mixed-use space with 105K SF, including 10K SF of retail on the ground floor.
Matthews Southwest senior vice president Kristian Teleki said the company is laser focused on the renovation, but after it delivers, the firm will consider how to best use the remainder of the six acres. Smaller office developments and a hotel could be developed, but Matthews Southwest will not finalize these plans until after DHS delivers and leases up, Teleki said. Younger Partners is handling leasing for the remaining office space.
Matthews Southwest is utilizing about $15M in state and federal historic tax credits and a TIF fund of about $6.2M, Teleki said. Merriman Anderson/Architects is the historic preservation, core and shell architect. Perkins+Will, the anchor office tenant in the building, is finishing out its own space. Balfour Beatty is the general contractor.
For the ground-floor retail, Teleki said it will be largely tenant-driven and restaurant-focused.
Matthews Paradise Developments’ Mitch Paradise also is working on the project with Matthews Southwest.
Perkins+Will has leased 40K SF, including the entire third floor and part of the second floor. The architecture firm will relocate about 200 employees to Dallas High School from its current office on Central Expressway after the space is completed in September 2017. Perkins+Will is pursuing LEED CI, WELL Building Standard and Fitwel certifications for its new office.
Foundry Ventures is the second-largest office tenant in the space with about 18K SF. The Dallas-based incubator-style co-working space will move into DHS in Q1 2018.
The transit-oriented development at 2218 Bryan St. faces the Pearl Street DART station. About 320 parking spaces wrap the building. Perkins+Will estimates half of its employees will ride DART, bike or walk to work when it relocates.
The four-story space has been vacant since the 1990s. The classical revival structure has had a few identities over the last 110 years, including Main Dallas High School, Bryan Street High School, Dal-Tech High School, Crozier Technical High School and Business Magnet School. In 2000, the building became a city-designated historic landmark. In 2004, Preservation Texas called the vacant building one of Texas’ most endangered historic places.
Matthews Southwest, MAA and Perkins+Will will reuse virtually everything remaining in the building that has not been damaged.
