I wouldn’t call it a battle for the soul of Preston Hollow, more like the pocketbook. The Birkin handbag of Preston Hollow.
I love this graph:
The entire Preston Road/Northwest Highway intersection is
curiously underwhelming given the vast sea of money it floats upon, as if real estate icon Ebby Halliday had pressed a pause button when she moved her headquarters here in the mid-1960s. To the northeast, formerly grand condominiums built in the ’50s and ’60s decay behind the once-celebrated “pink wall,” which a half century of sun and car crashes has left a scarred and splotchy beige. The northwest corner is Ebby’s. The little white house that houses her real estate office is a jarring throwback to the 1920s, when developer Ira Deloache built it for his headquarters. She lives in an estate next door. The shopping center on the southeast corner is markedly fancier but still feels cut from an earlier era.
Developers have been lusting after these corners for decades, but their advances have been held at bay by various factors — zoning restrictions, the splintered ownership of Preston Center and the area behind the pink wall, probable opposition from neighbors. Recently, though, it’s been thrust into the middle of a battle for Dallas’ soul.
Eric does a great job trolling through the months of blog reports we have posted on both of these proposed developments since January 25. He comes up with Ashley Parks as commando of the group that killed off Transwestern’s plan to re-develop parts Behind the Pink Wall, and says she may have her eyes on the Dallas City Council. Like Jennifer Gates’ seat.
Dear Lord, does everyone who gets to City Council have to come from the trenches of fighting developers?
Then he tells us, through Luke Crosland’s eyes, the two words that killed Highland House: Laura Miller. He even interviewed her! But Eric, you forgot to ask her about that unit they own or her hubby owns at The Athena. OK for them to have a rental unit bit not anyone else?
Anyhow, this is not good but great reading. I’m hoping for a little break from this as the holiday season approaches. Please, Mark Cuban, no zoning change requests until January?
