A half-century-old Dallas real estate development is getting a new start with plans for a convention hotel and workforce housing that could bring 5,000 new people to downtown.
The Downtown Reunion Project was revolutionary when it began in the southwest corner of the central business district in the early 1970s. The iconic Hyatt Regency Hotel and Reunion Tower forever changed the Dallas skyline.
Reunion's owner, Hunt Realty Investments, just reviewed plans for the more than 20-acre site as Dallas prepares for a roughly $3 billion replacement for its aging convention center.
“We think the timing is right given what's going on at the convention center,” said Chris Kleinert, CEO of Hunt Investment Holdings. “This will be a great asset to the city.”
Hunt Realty's new vision for Reunion is its most ambitious yet.
The longtime owner of one of the largest pieces of undeveloped real estate downtown, he plans to build 3,000 apartment units, a 600 to 1,000-room hotel, 150,000 square feet of retail space, and up to 2 million square feet of land surrounding three- to four-story buildings. We are planning an office of sq.ft. Acre park.
“This equates to probably $5 billion in development costs,” said Colin Fitzgibbons, president of Hunt Realty Investments. “It will house 5,000 people, one-third of the current downtown population, which is a significant increase.
“There could be as many as 1,500 affordable units,” Fitzgibbons said. “It will be workforce housing for nurses, teachers, firefighters and police officers.”
Reunion's previous development plans had surrounded the landmark Hyatt Regency with a series of glass office towers.
New York and San Francisco-based Hart Howerton Architects has created a new master plan that includes a variety of high-rise residential and commercial buildings between the convention center site and the rest of downtown.
Hart Howerton is also the designer of Hunt Realty's 2,500-acre Fields development in Frisco and North End projects on the edge of downtown, including a $500 million office project for Goldman Sachs.
“They're very good at placemaking and walkability and the human experience in large-scale urban development,” Fitzgibbons said. “What we're planning is 5 million square feet, which is a pretty modest plan from a density standpoint.
“The first phase will likely be a combination of hotel, some retail dining and entertainment to support the convention center and the first phase of workforce housing,” he said. .
Architects' renderings of the Reunion development show 12 new high-rise buildings between Interstate 35E and Houston Street. Construction across the tracks will provide a more direct connection between Union Station and the Hyatt.
“We have big goals to redevelop Union Station,” Fitzgibbons said. “Other stations across the country are also being redeveloped for other uses.”
Opened in 1916, Union Station serves as a passenger station for the Dallas Area Rapid Transit, Trinity Railroad Express, and Amtrak.
When the Reunion project began in the early 1970s, Hunt Realty and original builder Woodbine Development sought to transform an underutilized railroad yard and industrial area into a new development.
However, after the hotel and distinctive observation tower were completed in 1978, much of the remaining site remained vacant. The old Reunion Arena, where the Dallas Mavericks and Dallas Stars once played, was demolished in 2009, freeing up more land for development by Hunt Realty.
Kleinert said developers have long held hopes that the Réunion property could be developed for corporate offices.
He said, “350,000 people pass through Interstate 30 and Interstate 35 every day. What a great gateway for a city and a Fortune 500 company. That's what we wanted. However, it never materialized.”
Kleinert said Réunion's owners resisted the temptation to demolish the property.
“I can't tell you how many inquiries I've gotten from people wanting to buy two acres or this or that,” he says. “We've heard over and over again that you haven't done anything there for decades. We'd rather have something we can be proud of than something that was put together without careful planning.” I am.”
Hunt Realty estimates that the Reunion development has generated $350 million in tax revenue for local governments to date.
Over the next 20 years, planned new development will generate an additional $750 million in tax revenue, the company said.
“We're talking about over $1 billion in tax revenue all together,” Fitzgibbons said. “Hunt has owned that land for 50 years. They have been patiently waiting for something to happen that would accelerate the redevelopment, and here the convention center was born.”
The Reunion development plan would be the largest new real estate investment unveiled in the southwest corner of downtown since voters approved funding for a new convention center last year. Funds from the hotel and motel taxes will be used to pay for the replacement of the existing Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center.
It's one of the last areas of downtown to undergo major redevelopment, with other new real estate projects slated.
“A convention center requires all surrounding landowners to strive to bring the entertainment, restaurants, and other uses that convention attendees and the people of Dallas will love,” said the company hired to oversee the convention center project. said Jack Matthews. .
In September, the Dallas City Council approved a six-year, $65 million contract with Matthews' company. Construction is expected to begin next year and be completed by 2028. The deck park, which will be attached to the convention center and built above Interstate 30, is expected to open by 2030.
Hunt Realty is rethinking its plans for Reunion while building another megaproject on the northwest edge of downtown.
The 11-acre North End project on Field Street, just north of the Woodall Rogers Freeway, will include a more than 800,000-square-foot office campus housing thousands of Goldman Sachs employees. It will be done. Other sections of the site adjacent to Victory Park are planned for high-rise residential buildings, a hotel, and more office and retail space.
“Even with Goldman, we still have six acres left,” Fitzgibbons said.
Located on the Dallas North Tollway in Frisco, 35 miles north of downtown, Hunt Realty is a partner in the $10 billion Fields development, planned to include more than 10,000 homes and apartments, a new commercial district and a Universal theme park. . It is built around the PGA of America headquarters, resort, and golf course.
The project was launched in 2018 with Hunt Realty and Callahan Company working together to acquire the largest remaining vacant property in Frisco from the estate of the late Dallas businessman Bert Fields. Investors Chief Partners and Crosstie Capital have partnered on this huge property.
