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Developer says Deep Ellum project ahead of schedule

Developer Scott Rohrman is transforming old commercial buildings east of downtown Dallas into new restaurant and retail properties. (42 Real Estate)

Developer Scott Rohrman who’s revitalizing parts of Dallas’ Deep Ellum district says he’s lining up new restaurant and retail tenants for the area just east of downtown.

Rohrman’s 42 Real Estate has purchased almost 40 properties in Deep Ellum, which he is marketing, to new tenants with plans to renovate the old commercial buildings.

“We are about twice as far along on leases as we thought we would be,” Rohrman told members of the International Council of Shopping Centers meeting in downtown Dallas on Thursday.

He said so far the efforts have been focused on chef driven restaurants. And Rohrman also said he’s working on a craft brewery, wine bar and personal care tenants.

First he had to kick old retailers and entertainment venues out of some of the properties, Rohrman told ICSC members.

“We took our occupancy from 65 percent down to 32 percent,” he said. “Not good guys wanted to lease any buildings next door to bad guys.”

Rohrman said big changes are coming in the Deep Ellum area, including a new 400-acre parking garage and a boutique and apartment development property owner Westdale Management has in the works on Elm Street.

“Westdale is looking at doing a 15-story apartment project,” Rohrman said.

Real estate brokers say that Westdale is teaming up with apartment builder StreetLights Residential to build the project adjacent to the landmark Knights of Pythias Building at Elm and Good-Latimer Expressway.

The historic fraternal building would be remodeled into a high-end hotel.

 

Tom Thumb’s previously announced closing at Highland Park Village coming soon

Tom Thumb store at Highland Park Village.

Tom Thumb has informed Highland Park Village management that it will close its store in the shopping center sometime in the next 12 months. (Mona Reeder/Staff Photographer)

Tom Thumb’s official last day at Highland Park Village is Nov. 30.

Highland Park Village managing director Stephen Summers said he wants to assure customers and local residents that he’s talking “with potential retailers and grocers to provide some of the services and goods that will be lost when Tom Thumb closes.”

The store’s closing, first announced earlier this year, has drawn criticism from local residents about the shopping center’s direction. Several upscale boutiques have been added while everyday-needs stores like Williams Sonoma, and now Tom Thumb, depart. Safeway included the store among locations that were either closed or sold as part of its pending acquisition by Albertsons.

Tom Thumb said in February that the store was too small. Its stores average 46,000 square feet; the Highland Park store, which opened in 1939, is 18,500 square feet. There have been rumors that specialty food retailer Dean & Deluca may be coming to the center.

Highland Park Village also said these stores are coming soon:

• goop – a “pop-up” store created and curated by Gwyenth Paltrow. It opens Nov. 17 and closes Dec. 14.
• Giuseppe Zanotti – Italian designer of men’s and women’s footwear, jewelry and accessories. This is the first Giuseppe Zanotti boutique to open in Texas and will open next spring.
• Dior Beauty – a jewel box of a boutique at only 500 square feet, this is the first Dior Beauty boutique in the U.S. It is scheduled for late spring.
• Bluemercury – a multi-brand beauty and skin-care boutique. It is the first Bluemercury store to open in Texas and is expected to open in early summer.

California high-tech firm expanding to Richardson

E2v leased space in the STARTech building on Collins. (Google Streetview)

California high-tech firm e2v Inc. is expanding to Texas for the first time with an office in Richardson

The Silicon Valley-based company has rented office space 1302 East Collins Blvd. where it will locate a new operation.

E2v leased about a quarter of the STARTech building to house its engineers and research and development employees.

“This new facility, which will be fully functional by the end of the year, will provide us a local launching pad for 12 months until we acquire a permanent Richardson location after the first year,” Brad Little, e2v vice president said in a statement. “Having an operation in Richardson is a critical step in e2v’s continued strategy for growth and focus on innovation.”

E2v serves customers in the civil aerospace, defense, space, industrial and other markets.

The Richardson Economic Development Partnership recruited the Milpitas CA-based firm.

“E2v’s new operation speaks to the fact that Richardson is a welcoming and accommodating location for high-tech companies from the Silicon Valley and other locations, to consider when wanting to grow their business,” John Jacobs, Richardson’s executive vice president of economic development, said in a statement.

 

Exclusive: Dallas Fed president Richard Fisher talks about his March 19 retirement date

Dallas Fed president Richard Fisher last year testifed at a U.S. House committee hearing on too big to fail bank.s (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg)

Richard Fisher, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas and one of the nation’s most outspoken policy hawks, today said his last day will be March 19.

Fisher, 65, previously said he would retire by April, but had not set an exact date. He became head of the regional bank in 2005.

“It’s sort of a bittersweet moment,” Fisher said in an exclusive phone interview today.

“I’ll be 66 years of age on March 18,” he said about his retirement date. “I’ll have my birthday on the 18 and then I’ll be an old man. I thought it was a good time.”

In a letter Fisher sent to Dallas Fed employees today, he said the life of any Fed banker who has lived through the last few years of the financial crisis and recession should be measured in dog years at a ratio of 7-to-1. (See full letter below)

Fisher said his tenure at the Dallas Fed has been “one of the most gratifying and satisfying times” of his career. He noted that he started as a busboy and a waiter, got a Harvard degree and went on to become a banker, hedge fund manager and trade negotiator.

The Dallas Fed’s board of directors has retained the executive search firm of Heidrick & Struggles to search for Fisher’s replacement. The bank said in late September that it hired a search firm, but did not release the name of the firm then.

“We intend to consider a broad and diverse group of candidates from inside and outside of the Federal Reserve System,” Dallas Fed chairman Mike Ullman said in a statement.

The Dallas Fed’s nine-member board of directors is the official search group that will select the final candidates, a spokesman said.

Also in September, the Dallas Fed said it had formed an advisory group to help with the search as needed. The advisory group is made up of five current and former board members, including Dallas Fed board chairman Mike Ullman, who is CEO of J.C. Penney Co., and Dallas Fed board deputy chairman Renu Khator, who is chancellor of the University of Houston System.

Fisher told me last December that he planned to retire by April 30. Fed bank presidents must retire at 65, but those appointed after age 55, such as Fisher, can remain longer.

Fisher will be one of two Fed hawks to retire next year, which could change the tone of the central bank’s policy making committee. Philadelphia Fed president Charles Plosser, 66, has said he plans to retire in March.

Both Fisher and Plosser have criticized the Fed’s loose monetary policy and want the central bank to start raising interest rates sooner than the estimated time frame of mid-2015 as the economy continues to improve.

In a recent tribute video, Federal Reserve chairwoman Janet Yellen, former Dallas Fed chairmen Bob Inman, Ray Hunt and Herb Kelleher praised Richard, as did his former business partner Henry Kissinger and his friend Randall Stephenson, chief executive of Dallas-based AT&T.

Richard Fisher’s Retirement Letter to Staff 11-13-14

NorthPark has a thing for watches

An Exterior of remodeled Eiseman Jewels at NorthPark Center in Dallas on September 3, 2014. Eiseman Jewels is celebrating its 50th year at NorthPark with a newly remodeled store. (Kye R. Lee/The Dallas Morning News)

Can a mall make itself a destination for one merchandise category? NorthPark Center says it has a watch store collection that’s unmatched. And it’s proclaimed this “Watch Week.”

While many of its stores already sell watches, the mall has really stepped up its jewelry and watch tenant mix, especially in the last two years. Dallas-based Eisemen Jewels has been there since the mall opened in 1965.

It’s hard to argue with this timeline:

Eisemen Jewels 1965
Montblanc 1998
Ben Bridge 1999
Tiffany & Co. 1999
David Yurman 2006
Cartier 2007
Bvlgari 2009
Officine Panerai 2012
TAG Heuer 2012
OMEGA 2012
Rolex 2013
Hublot 2013
Tourbillon 2013

The Shops at Willow Bend in Plano decided it wanted to be a home store destination. It leveled a vacant department store for Crate & Barrel, Restoration Hardware and Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams.

Maybe there’s a trend here….I want a mall that has all the stores that sell comfortable shoes. You?

Developer says Dallas Midtown will begin taking shape on Valley View Center site in 2015

Dallas Midtown, currently known as Valley View (Courtesy Scott Beck)

[Editor's note: This item has been updated since it was initially posted.]

Come April it will have been three years since Jeff Beck and sons Scott and Jarrod bought Valley View Center with the promise of razing it and replacing it with a $2 billion mixed-use development known as Dallas Midtown. But since that initial announcement, and subsequent town halls and council votes concerning rezoning the sprawling developent, there’s been little noticeable difference: The dead mall still stands filled with good bánh mì, a few pop-art galleries, some straggling retailers and a whole lot of nothing much else.

Scott Beck says that’s about to change.

This morning he’s taking his plans to the Dallas Convention Center, where deal-makers are attending the International Council of Shopping Centers’ Texas confab, and Beck says groundbreaking is now set for early next year pending “some additional things that need to be worked out with the city between now and the end of this year.” It’s possible that come this time next year, most of Valley View will be gone.

This latest batch of renderings are part of the proposal being shopped to prospective tenants. And according to docs prepared for ICSC, the extreme makeover for the 70-acre area bound by Preston Road, LBJ Freeway, Monfort Drive and Alpha Road will include 285,000 square feet of retail; 2,440 residential rental units; 250 condos; a 500-room hotel; 1,497,000 square feet worth of office space and a sprawling park (billed in the look book as the “Largest Programmed Dallas City Park”) that will link Midtown with the Galleria. Says Beck the architectural plans are done; now it’s time to fill the expansive space with tenants, including, as you can see in one of the renderings included here, a grocery.

This is essentially all that will remain of Valley View Center once it's reborn as Dallas Midtown

“In order to put the main spine road in [that connects Preston and Monfort], you have to tear down the mall,” says Beck. “That’s how you connect the two lights. When the mall comes down, what remains is basically the AMC theater perched on the remaining portion of the mall. That remaining portion of the mall becomes parking in addition to the sub-basement, which is where the food court is now. That becomes the art community and some quick-service restaurants. At grade level, where the current mall is today, you wind up with covered parking, and then you build new construction — ground-floor retail and 100,000 feet of professional office facing that main street.”

Beck says a deal has been worked out to keep the AMC there — only, the existing theater will be upgraded “from 16-screen stadium-style seating to 16-screen ultra-luxury leather-recliner seating with the reserved seating.” And efforts are underway to build that park: Says here that the Dallas Midtown Park Foundation was created in December, and Beck says former four-term Dallas City Council member Lois Finkleman and North Dallas Chamber of Commerce President Bruce Bradford are heading up efforts to raise money a la the Woodall Rodgers Park Foundation, which pulled together the more than $100 million used to design, build and program what became Klyde Warren Park.

The grocery store planned near the Preston Road side of Dallas Midtown

“The city will own the park, but the foundation will maintain and run the park, which is why it was important for Lois and Bruce to spearhead that,” says Beck.

Bradford says Thursday morning the foundation is currently “having preliminary decisions with folks around the idea of this park and the amenity it will become and the opportunity for someone to take the leadership role from a philanthropic standpoint, like a Kelcy Warren.” Bradford says it will cost around $25-30 million to acquire the land to build the park, though it’s unclear how much it will cost to build to build it. Says Bradford, “It’s a process, but there’s an opportunity for a legacy to be built there.”

One thing to note, though: There are still several owners of the actual enclosed mall and of the surrounding parcels along Preston, Alpha and Montford Drive. Sears still owns its department store, part of the mall parking lot and its automotive center. The retailer said it has no plans to close the store.

Sears spokesman Howard Riefs said there are no negotiations underway with the developer to sell its property.

“We intend to continue to serve our members and customers at that location,” Riefs said.

So now it’s off to the convention center, where Beck and his brokers will try to sell their vision for Valley View — pardon, Dallas Midtown. Says Beck, Phase 1 could be begin taking shape by 2016. But, clearly, they’re in no rush. Not yet.

“A lot of the people we’ve been talking to are at ICSC,” says Beck, who’s hoping to leave with signed contracts. “We now have very concrete plans, very concrete timing and very concrete delivery dates beginning in 2016.”

But, for now, all we have is this latest batch of renderings and a map.

Staff writer Maria Halkias contributed to this report.

So, yeah -- this would be the park.

And if you were wondering what goes where ...

Dallas appraisal firm Crosson Dannis merging with larger national company

Chuck Dannis

A prominent Dallas real estate appraisal and consulting firm is merging its operations with a larger company.

Crosson Dannis INC. said Thursday that it has signed a letter of intent to combine its operations with Denver-based National Valuation Consultants Inc.

National Valuation Consultants is one of the country’s largest, privately held commercial appraisal and advisory firms with about 100 employees working in offices in Denver, Morristown, Houston, Atlanta, Chicago, Cincinnati and Tampa.

The company has been in business since 1991.

It’s founder Larry Stark previously worked with Crosson Dannis, which dates back to 1981.

The two companies have been in merger talks for over a year.

“With the addition of the professional staff at Crosson Dannis, we not only plan to aggressively expand our already broad coverage of the southwest U.S. market, but also increase our national litigation support group,” Stark said in a statement.

Crosson Dannis cofounder Chuck Dannis will head National Valuation Consultant’s new Dallas operation. And Steve Crosson will be an outside, independent consultant to the firm.

 

 

New Dallas-based shopping center developer is looking for deals

Steve Lipscomb

A new Dallas development group is gearing up to build shopping centers.

LRIC Properties plans to develop retail projects in North Texas.

The operation is headed by longtime Dallas commercial real estate exec Steve Lipscomb who was most recently with investor Velocis Fund .

“We’ve had this amazing job growth and population grown and new housing and a relative lack of new retail development,” Lipscomb said. “The opportunities here in Texas are as good as I’ve seen in my career.

“There have been very few retail projects done since 2007.”

LRIC plans to work on building both grocery anchored neighborhood shopping centers and larger “power” centers with multiple big box stores.

“We will identify the sites and then attract the tenants,” Lipscomb said. “We will focus on where the new housing has been built.

“We’ll go out to the new developments.”

Lipscomb said the company is looking to buy five to eight acre development tracts for most of its deals.

Brad Kempson, formerly with Retail Advisors and Archon Group, is joining Lipscomb in founding the new firm.

Denton-based Sally Beauty posts a slight profit decline, sales improved

Photo courtesy of Sally Beauty Supply

Denton-based Sally Beauty Holdings reported a slight decline in profit and posted a sales gain in line with expectations.

The retailer and wholesaler of beauty and salon products said Thursday that it’s had steady sales improvement at its Sally Beauty Supply stores during its just completed fiscal year.

Fiscal fourth quarter same-store increased 2.1 percent at its retail chain after starting out in the first quarter with a 0.9 percent quarterly gain, said CEO Gary Winterhalter. He expects the trend to continue into 2015.

Earlier this year, the company increased its marketing for its Sally stores which compete with Ulta, drugs stores and discount chains. It also introduced new brands, such as CHI and Curl Genius appliances and OPI nail polish.

The company’s Beauty Systems Group, which sells Paul Mitchell, Wella, Sebastian, Goldwell and TIGI products to salons and professionals, posted a 3.6 percent increase.

Sally Beauty Holdings reported a fiscal fourth quarter profit of $61.8 million, or 39 cents a share, in the quarter ended Sept. 30, compared with a profit of $64.8 million, or 38 cents a share, a year ago.

Total sales increased 4.2 percent to $944.3 million.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters forecast a profit of 40 cents a share and a sales increase of 4.3 percent to $945 million. The company aggressively buys back its shares on the market which lifts its earnings per share. It repurchased $333 million, or 12.6 million shares of its stock during the quarter.

For the year, Sally Beauty Holdings posted a 5.8 percent decline in profit to $246 million, or $1.51 a share, from $261 million, or $1.48 a share, in 2013. Total 2014 sales increased 3.6 percent to $3.75 billion from $3.62 billion.

In the year ahead, the company said it expects a sales increase of about 3 percent.

The company operates 4,800 stores, including 200 franchised units, in the U.S., U.K., Belgium, Chile, Peru, France, the Netherlands, Canada, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Ireland, Spain and Germany.

AutoNation set to roll out digital purchases of cars

Next month, AutoNation will allow customers at 30 dealerships in Florida to use credit cards to reserve cars in a purchase process that will be done mostly online.

AutoNation, the industry’s largest new-car retailer, says the roll-out of SmartChoiceExpress is the first phase of a new digital storefront, according to Automotive News.

 After the launch in Florida, AutoNation will take the concept to other markets beginning early next year — and Texas is one of its largest markets.

AutoNation is investing more than $100 million to transform the company’s Web sites from informational to transactional, Automotive News said.

“We see a frustrated consumer that currently has an online experience and an in-store experience that are very much disconnected,” AutoNation CEO Mike Jackson told the publication. “We see that as an opportunity.”

SmartChoiceExpress will permit consumers to search AutoNation’s inventory of 70,000 new and used vehicle and get a guaranteed price on a vehicle that interests them.

They can then reserve the vehicle and make an appointment to come to the store. AutoNation says it will take the vehicle out of inventory and place it in a special reservation area.

The company says the vehicle and paperwork will be awaiting the customer so the transaction can be completed “in just minutes.”

While the SmartChoice price can be negotiated, that will have to be done at the dealership. However, virtually all of the sales process with the exception of signatures on documents can be completed online, AutoNation says.