With less than 20 percent of downtown Dallas' Elm Place tower occupied and a foreclosure on nine floors of the total 52, the tower, once the tallest building west of the Mississippi, is now shutting down.
“We’ve tried our best, but there’s nothing else we can do,” Guerrino Savio, who represents the owners, told the Dallas Morning News. “Most of the tenants have left or are in the process of leaving.”
Owners of the building have reportedly spent $12 million in recent years to stay operating. “It got to the point it was impossible to keep operating,” Savio said. “For every dollar in rent we receive you have to spend five dollars in expenses.”
The one million square foot tower will be the largest unoccupied building in downtown when all tenants have vacated. When it opened in 1964, the tower held the offices of First National Bank; up until last year, Bank of America had a large operation in the tower.
As an older building, Elm Place was one of the worst hit office towers during last year's financial crisis. By the end of 2009 almost 30 percent of downtown Dallas' office space was vacant.
