An 18-story midcentury office tower in the heart of downtown Dallas is back in play, this time pitched as a full-on redevelopment bet. The building at 211 N. Ervay is being marketed as a blank-slate conversion candidate for multifamily, hotel or some mix of both, leaning into the wave of investment rolling through the nearby Convention Center district.
Owner Thistle Creek Capital has tapped Avison Young to advise on and broker the sale of 211 North Ervay, with Mike B. Kennedy, James Nelson, Erik Edeen and Sullivan Johnston leading the charge, according to ConnectCRE. The team is framing the asset as a repositioning and adaptive-reuse play aimed squarely at institutional buyers and seasoned developers.
The tower spans roughly 184,793 square feet over 18 floors and first opened in 1958, with a significant renovation wrapped up in 2014, per the property record. The listing on LoopNet routes inquiries to Avison Young and notes the property officially hit the market earlier this month.
Redevelopment Incentives And Zoning
The site is zoned CA-1, a flexible category that allows for multifamily, hotel, hybrid hotel-apartment concepts and updated office formats. That range of options gives potential buyers multiple paths through the entitlement process. The offering is also being floated with possible sweeteners such as historic tax credits and low-income housing tax credits (LIHTC) to help blunt the cost of a full conversion, according to ConnectCRE.
Recent Ownership And Foreclosure Background
211 N. Ervay landed in Thistle Creek’s hands after a foreclosure auction, effectively unwinding a previous conversion push led by local syndicator Kenny Wolfe. The Real Deal reported that Thistle Creek Capital picked up the tower with an $8 million credit bid at a February 2024 foreclosure sale, following the collapse of Wolfe’s planned 238-unit residential conversion.
Why Developers Are Watching Downtown
The real hook here is location. The building sits a short walk from the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center, which is in the middle of a massive $3.7 billion expansion that city officials say will reshape the Convention Center district through the end of the decade. The size of that project, plus other downtown investments, is a key part of the sales pitch to buyers who are effectively betting on stronger hotel, meeting and entertainment demand in the years ahead, according to The Dallas Morning News.
What’s Next For The Building
Avison Young is presenting 211 N. Ervay as conversion-ready, but the brokers are keeping the asking price under wraps for now. The firm is targeting institutional investors and developers willing to pair CA-1 zoning flexibility with tax-credit financing to make the numbers work. Interested buyers are being funneled to Avison Young’s marketing team as they run the math on renovation costs and entitlement timelines, according to The Real Deal.
