Choice Uptown Dallas Building Site Is for Sale If You Have Deep Enough Pockets

A prime Uptown Dallas property is up for grabs.And the sale may come close to a record for a development site in the neighborhood just north of downtown.The former location of Dallas' storied Old Warsaw restaurant on Maple Avenue is across the street from the Crescent complex.The half block building site was until recently earmarked for an office building.But now the owners have decided to put the choice property up for sale. JLL is marketing the more than 1-acre tract.It's one of the few vacant high-rise development sites available in Dallas' booming Uptown district.And property brokers are betting that the sales price will approach a stratospheric $400 per square foot.That's close to what Trammell Crow Co. and Metropolitan Life Insurance paid for the former Chase Bank site at Woodall Rodgers Freeway and Pearl Street - now home to the Park District high-rise development."It's a great piece of land," said Mike Turner with long-time Dallas real estate broker J. Elmer Turner Realtors. "That would be my first choice if I was coming to Dallas and wanted to build."You can't get a better location with neighbors like that."The vacant block is in the shadow of the huge Crescent complex and just blocks from Turtle Creek.New office buildings in the area rent for more than $50 per square foot.And the latest high-rise apartments in the neighborhood fetch more than $3 per square foot in rent.The original Old Warsaw restaurant, which was torn down last year, had been in the same location since 1948. The restaurant moved to a new location just a block away.The previous owners of the Maple Avenue site had planned to construct a 14-story office tower. But the deal never got off the ground.  Continue reading...