The clock is ticking for the old Mission Motel in West Dallas as Trammell Crow Residential begins work on a new development on the site and adjoining lots, which will include 300 rental units, as well as 14,000 square feet of retail space.
“We are tearing it down. We just finished asbestos abatement and will start demo soon,” said Matthew Enzler, Managing Director for Development at Trammell Crow Residential.
We reported on the developer’s purchase of the Mission Motel last July. Over the holidays, the developer tore down an old bank at Fort Worth Avenue and Yorktown Street. The Mission Motel and two other nearby properties will also be cleared soon, Juan’s Body & Frame and Nino’s Body Shop. Jump to read more.
Located at 514 W. Commerce St., the Mission Motel was built prior to 1944 to cater to travelers zipping between Dallas and Fort Worth. It is one of the last surviving old motor court motels on West Commerce, and now stands derelict.
The motel was named by Preservation Dallas to the 2007 List of Dallas’ Endangered Historic Places, along with Alamo Plaza Courts Motel and the Ranch Motel. In that list, Preservation Dallas said roadside architecture is “presently underappreciated” and these three motor-court motels were in imminent danger of demolition. Mission Motel also made the Old Oak Cliff Conservation League’s list of at-risk architecture in 2012.
Three years later, Alamo Plaza was demolished by developers Oaxaca Interests and Wood Partners to make way for Sylvan Thirty, a mixed-use development which includes 201 loft and studio apartments and over 49,000 square feet of commercial space.
Nearby Belmont Hotel, another historic motor court motel, was restored in 2005 as a boutique hotel by developer Monte Anderson.
This new project from Trammel Crow Residential is part of a boom of multifamily development in West Dallas. On Dec. 19, we reported that Dallas-based Stonelake Capital Partners had closed on a 25-acre tract of industrial property on Singleton Boulevard. Along with developer StreetLights Residential, Stonelake is planning a $200 million mixed-use development at 1000 Singleton Blvd., called Trinity Village.
Near Fort Worth and Sylvan avenues, Henry S. Miller Co. is developing a $43 million, 318-unit rental community called Cliff View.
Development in West Dallas, including the Belmont, Sylvan Thirty, and the Wood Partners deals, total up to more than $140 million. All signs point to even more as developers look at ways to capitalize on the changes and growth in the area.
