Mark my word: the Dallas Design District is one of the hottest ‘hoods in town. Now with all the virginity down there — I mean, the new Virgin Hotel and Residences — it will only get hotter. We know that multi-family living is the norm, but did you know there are a few ginormous single family homes sprinkled in?
And from what agents tell me, more will come. I have been dying to write about 146 Payne Street, ever since Tim Schutze at ABA first drew my attention to it. It’s another incredible Design District single family home with an industrial aesthetic that is now under contract and set to close on July 17. Now here’s the amazing thing. Current listing agent Nancy Dunning tells me the house is not only effectively sold, it sold for higher than list price of $2,495,000. (Of course she cannot say how much more.) Let me repeat: $2.5ish in the Dallas Design District. She had four buyers lined up including a family with two children from Bel Aire in sunny Cali who loved it.
“I could have sold five of these homes in the Design District,” says Nancy, with Briggs Freeman Sotheby’s International. “This is not the Dallas of five years ago. People coming here are wanting a very different living style than most of us are used to selling five miles up the Tollroad. ”
They are seeking homes with an edge, a gritty roughness, and that’s relatively new for Dallas.
Surely you recall our report on 2278 Monitor Street — 10,906 square feet to be precise: 19 foot tall ceilings, oversized translucent doors, cork floors, concrete floors, a custom European closet system in the master, hidden cabinets in the bathroom, Snaidero kitchen with Viking stove-top and SubZero refrigerator-freezer, Dornbracht and Waterworks plumbing fixtures, and Miele dishwashers. No “parking austerity” for the Uber set: you get a decent two car garage with a handicap lift.
146 Payne Street is the same story, just a bit smaller. Built in 1948 for the Viking Freight Company, this industrial building was renovated in 2009 and transformed into a sleek loft-style residence. Located just a couple of blocks away from the design den of Dragon Street, it’s a former 60 by 100 foot warehouse on one acre that was redesigned by a creative couple as a home and workplace, and also a place to display and exhibit the owner’s extensive artwork collection.
The 8717 square foot home has three bedrooms, five and a half bathrooms, and loads of flowing space. There is even an attached two-car garage. The interiors are free-span construction, so walls are moveable. The kitchen is one Kent Rathbun would kill for. The feel is that of an urban loft, albeit a very spread out urban loft. This one starts with a true foyer entrance and that custom designed swing door. A sophisticated living room welcomes you with a fireplace and opens with ease to a beautiful, large dining area. To your left, a hall with gallery walls holds beautiful, original art pieces illuminated by the home’s countless skylights and wonderful lighting. The nucleus of the house is a center hall where a spherical skylight projects light onto a painted depiction of the alphabet on the floor.
The owner/designer’s eye for comfort, color and lines drew out the building’s naturally industrial reality of concrete floors, exposed beams, red brick walls and walls of windows. The result is a truly urban industrial home as big, loaded and comfortable as a North Dallas McMansion.
There is even red brick!
The master suite is huge at 18 by 24 with a walk-in custom closet, more exposed brick walls, clean built-in bookshelves, and open area for relaxing. The attached spa bath is a work of art: large basin tub and beautifully tiled glass shower. Art is evident with a dramatic wall of creeping plastic green branches art spreading like sea weed, plus multiple display shelves offering paintings, sculptures, and pottery for the viewer’s enjoyment. I am in love with that shirt painting, by the way, if any is selling art. Note the contemporary raised cabinets. Oh, if you are worried about concrete floors being cold in December, worry-not: these pups are heated!
Down the hall is a personal workout and massage room, a sleek office, and a family room filled with loft-style sunshine
The kitchen could handle a filming of Top Chef with those oceans of Stainless steel countertops, milky tiled backsplash, a wine cooler, and elite commercial appliances.
“This is the kitchen people spend their entire lives dreaming of,” said one visitor. “I can just picture my daughter coloring pictures there,” — pointing to the eat-in dining area, “while I’m finishing up dinner right here.”
Hosting a large soiree would be a piece of cake in the house given the kitchen, generous prep area and entertainment flow.
Another wing of the home is filled with walls of art with delicate track-lighting. The homeowners bred Whippets for years for the show ring and companionship. Thus the hall is loaded with canine portraits, most notably the greyhounds who were placed in loving homes (with children to love on them) who then helped train the dogs.
“Junior showmanship teaches children so much about responsibility and about animals,” said the homeowner, Donna Hurd, whose late husband was an architect. That great rotating front door was her design.
A large, no, make that enormous, utility area with another kitchen, sinks, and island offers even more space for hobbies, pets, art or a prep area for serving.
Dorothy, we are no longer in Preston Hollow or a Park Cities four square and a door. Though the building is configured as a three bedroom home, it is also zoned for other possibilities, including a gallery, showroom, restaurant, or office space.
Nancy, who has become the listing agent of many hip urban environments as of late, told me the internet exposure REALLY helped market and sell this home: first Sotheby’s posted that glorious opening shot of the front door (hello, great photography), which got the home picked up by both Architectural Digest and Curbed.com. Selling over list price? You don’t get that from a local print ad.
“There’s a whole new world of buyers out there,” says Nancy, “People were calling from everywhere.”
The buyer? Commercial, with an interesting story. Stay tuned…
