The nation's third Virgin Hotel is to open soon in the Dallas Design District.
The building nearing completion at the corner of Hi Line Drive and Turtle Creek Boulevard will be the first hotel in the neighborhood, which has been booming in recent years with new apartments and restaurants.
Bill Hutchinson's Dunhill Partners is a developer for the Dallas Virgin Hotel.
He spoke exclusively with NBC 5 Thursday about the project.
"We wanted a flag that would be very exciting to the city of Dallas, a flag that the city didn't have yet," Hutchinson said. "They thought that the cool fact of the Design District mixed perfectly with the edginess of the Virgin brand."
The hotel will have 200 of what Virgin calls "guest chambers," along with a first-level lobby restaurant called "Commons Club." A pool deck and ballroom are also included.
The building will have a white laced exterior design that conceals the parking garage area. It is intended to complement the Design District and the attention-getting Virgin brand that English business magnate Sir Richard Branson started.
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"Richard Branson is an explorer. He's an adventurer," Hutchinson said. "He wants to do it better than it's been done before. He wants to reinvent things and do it better."
Neighboring businesswoman Olivia Boone runs Horizon Italian Tile, a block away on Hi Line Drive. She can see the new hotel from the window of her porcelain slab showroom. Boone said the hotel would be good for business people who visit the Design District.
"I think it will be an asset for sure," she said.
Boone tripled the space of her Dallas location since first opening in 1996, growing with the Design District neighborhood. She's watched the area around her transition to a place where people live, work and play.
Virgin Hotels | Dunhill Partners"It's changed a lot. But it's a good environment. It's good for Dallas," Boone said.
Resident Christel Ray is not as excited about the new Virgin Hotel.
She lives in an apartment directly across Hi Line Drive and worries about traffic.
"I think it's good for Dallas to have another hotel that has some amenities, but I don't want to live across from it," she said.
Hutchinson's firm also owns Ray's apartment building. He said the new Virgin Hotel would be a good neighbor.
"With the amenities, the restaurants, the congregating areas, a beautiful ballroom for special events, this is going to be great for the area," Hutchinson said.
The new Virgin Hotel is due to open in six months. Two other Virgin Hotels are already open in Chicago and San Francisco. Eight more are slated to open, after the Dallas location, over the next two years.
