Developers at Alamo Manhattan are willing to demolish their own offices to make way for their next big project—a really, really high-rise Uptown apartment tower across the street from the Marriott Hotel they built earlier this year.
A rezoning request was recently approved to make way for Fairmount Tower, and architects with WDG Dallas are in full design mode on the site at Fairmount and Carlisle streets.
Alamo Manhattan president Matt Segrest said his team, which includes builder Andres Construction Services, plans to break ground early in the second quarter of 2023. The project will take about 27 months to complete.
“There’s been a ton of neighborhood outreach,” Segrest told Candy’s Dirt last week. “We developed the Marriott across the street, which has been a huge hit for the neighborhood, particularly the pedestrian experience. We’re going to have a restaurant and retail component, and people are really excited about that. We like to think we are setting a standard for pedestrians, something people find attractive and want to replicate.”
The high-rise building is in City Council District 14, less than a block away from the Katy Trail, the city’s most active biking and pedestrian trail. More than 60 restaurants and bars and 5 million square feet of office space surround the site.
Bonus points for those with fur babies: Fairmount Tower will have the highest rooftop dog park in the city.
“You can take the dog out in your slippers,” Segrest said.
Movin’ On Up
While building height has been a point of contention with developers building apartments in residential areas, the 320-foot Fairmount Tower hasn’t had any organized opposition, Segrest explained.
“We’ve had pushback in previous rezonings,” he said. “But people aren’t as concerned with height in this area.”
Alamo Manhattan representatives worked with the city to determine a 9.4 Floor Area Ratio to build 319 units on 29 stories over a below-ground parking garage.
Skyrocketing construction costs affected Alamo Manhattan along with the rest of the industry during the COVID-19 pandemic, but lumber prices are beginning to stabilize, and experts say the housing market is predicted to stay strong through the end of the year, albeit with a nationwide housing shortage.
“The huge challenge in the industry is material cost increases,” Segrest said. “We’re having to pull every lever to build cost-effectively. It’s a really challenging environment.”
In addition to building Fairmount Tower, the team at Alamo Manhattan will have to find a new place to work. The company was founded in 2010 and has been at its Fairmount Street location for about six years.
“We love officing here, but we bought the property to develop,” Segrest said. “The goal is to stay in Uptown.”
Alamo Manhattan’s other Dallas projects include Routh Street Flats, Stella, and Monaco in Uptown; Victor Prosper in North Oak Cliff’s Bishop Arts District; and Moda in Victory Park.
They are the largest multi-family developer in Portland, Oregon, and also has projects in Dallas, San Antonio, Austin, Nashville, and Bellevue, Washington.
Luxury Living
Segrest wouldn’t comment on how much of an investment Fairmount Tower is for Alamo Manhattan other than to say, “It’s a lot.”
Alamo Manhattan has $805 million in completed projects, $285 million under construction, and $990 million in the pipeline, according to the company website.
“It’s luxury, but there’s an affordable component that we negotiated as part of the rezoning,” Segrest said.
Fairmount Tower will offer 5 percent affordable housing and 5 percent “micro units that are well-designed at a price point that’s equivalent to affordable housing,” Segrest said.
“It plays like it’s 10 percent affordable,” he said. “This is a drop in the pond as far as the overall need, but all supply helps. When you’re adding luxury apartments, people move up in the chain. The C’s move to B’s, and the B’s move to A’s. It helps with housing affordability.”
The remaining units are in the “mid-3s” per square foot, the developer said.
“These will be the nicest apartments in Uptown, the tallest apartments, with incredible rooftop amenities,” he said.
