Exclusive: Turkish developer to buy land near Dallas City Hall for $1.2B multitower project

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Jake Dean

Turkish developer Mike Sarimsakci (L) has about five acres under contract near Dallas City Hall, he stands with his broker David Jones of Jones Commercial Real Estate (middle) and Michael Hal Anderson of Chavez Properties (R), who is selling the property.

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Candace Carlisle

Staff Writer- Dallas Business Journal

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Roughly five acres of land behind Dallas City Hall is under contract by Turkish developer Mike Sarimsakci, who has started designing plans to build a $1.2 billion ground-up development to put four mixed-use towers in downtown Dallas.

The four towers include two 80-story towers and two 60-story towers originally conceived by Sarimsakci for the proposed redevelopment of Pacific Plaza Park(except he'd like to double the project). If the deal goes through, the project would be developed at 1701 Cadiz St. and 1502 Canton St., each valued at about $1 million by the Dallas Central Appraisal District.

Terms of the expected land sale were undisclosed.

"These towers would be the tallest west of the Mississippi," Sarimsakci told the Dallas Business Journal in an exclusive interview. "We are going to do it. We have the land under contract and Dallas needs to shine.

"We are under contract and we have the capital ready," he said, adding that he has a number of international capital backers eager to invest in downtown Dallas.

The tract of land — now surface parking lots — is bordered by Canton Street to the north, Browder Street to the west, S. Saint Paul Street to the east and Cadiz Street to the south.

Sarimsakci said he's working with architecture firm HOK on plans to design the four towers. On the wish list: 1,200 condo units, up to 300,000 square feet of retail space, up to 3 million square feet of office space and a 200-room ultra-luxury hotel.

He is buying the property from Chavez Properties, which has held real estate investment in downtown Dallas for decades.

For years, the properties have been under-utilized as surface parking lots for tourists and the business community in the day as the homeless population congregated at the nearby resource center. Chavez Properties, which has been investing in downtown Dallas real estate since the late 1980s, saw this as an opportunity to buy a piece of land in the middle of everything.

"Nobody eats a doughnut from the inside; you have to start gnawing on it from the outside and then you have some developer that has some dream and doesn't have a preconceived notion of wanting to be on Woodall Rodgers Freeway," said Michael Hal Anderson, a principal investor and representative of Chavez Properties.

"I've got a vested interest in Dallas and you really want to see the right thing done," Anderson told me. "You want to sell your property like you want your daughter to get married. You want her to marry the right one. I think this project would be good for the city."

The deal is scheduled to close by January 2015, with an expected groundbreaking as early as January 2016. Sarimsakci says he wants to bring luxury brands such as Prada and the Four Seasons into this portion of Dallas.

Candace covers commercial and residential real estate and sports business.