There's considerable work to be done before 1512, 1514 and 1516 Elm Street will be ready for next year's debut. (Sarah Blaskovich)
Three established eateries in Dallas have plans to open new stores on Elm Street in downtown Dallas. Several storefronts in the 1500 block of Elm Street will get a dramatic redo, according to Jack Gosnell, partner at UCR Urban, a brokerage firm in Dallas.
Three of the companies that have signed leases are: Mudsmith, a coffee and wine bar that originated on Greenville Avenue; Southpaw’s Organic Grill, a calorie-counting fast-casual restaurant with existing places in Uptown and Park Cities; and Londoner Pub, a British-style restaurant and bar with a pub in Addison.
Each new tenant has an estimated opening of summer or fall 2015.
Here's a mockup of the exterior of Mid Elm Lofts.
About two-dozen residences called Mid Elm Lofts will be constructed above the new businesses, Gosnell told me a week ago.
Developer Scott Remphrey is charged with redeveloping the decades-old buildings. And historic buildings are a hot topic in downtown Dallas right now, as a 129-year-old building on nearby Main Street was demolished in late September.
Gosnell says Remphrey’s Mid Elm Lofts project will be “faithful to the older feeling of the building.”
Here’s more about each known tenant:
Mudsmith will be located at 1516 Elm Street and will occupy the ground level plus a small space above it. It’ll be like its sibling on Greenville Avenue — that means coffee, juice, beer and wine, light bites — and comes from owner Brooke Humphries (who has been involved with Dallas businesses Barcadia, Beauty Bar and It’ll Do Club). Humphries hopes to turn the second floor of Mudsmith into a coworking space with rentable work stations.
“This will be a great addition to downtown,” Humphries told me via email. “We couldn’t be happier to be a part of it!”
The Londoner Pub will occupy 1514 Elm Street, both the street level and the basement. The owner of the Londoner did not return repeated phone calls, but Gosnell explains that the pub will have “transparent panels in the sidewalk so you can see down into the bar.” It’ll also have a full food menu, he says.
Southpaw’s will go in at 1512 Elm Street and will occupy the ground level only. It will be 500 square feet larger than the Uptown fast-casual restaurant. Low-carb bowls and build-your-own sandwiches with healthy options are the thing here, though the company’s new focus for downtown will be quickness, says co-owner T.J. Frank.
“We want to be convenient more than anything,” he says. He and business owner Reza Anvarian will put a heavier focus on breakfast — to jive with the downtown’s busy mornings — and add a retail grab-and-go component that its existing restaurants don’t have.
A fourth tenant is expected to sign a lease soon and will be part of the Elm Street redo. More to come on that.