Case Study: HRI Properties
The Mayflower
Location
Dallas, TX
Type
Mixed Use
Year
2016
Size
367,000 SF
Units
215
HRI Properties’ 2016 adaptive-reuse of the historic Mayflower Building transformed an abandoned former office building into 215 mixed-income apartments, on-site parking, and approximately 14,000 square feet of ground floor retail and restaurant space.
Situated on a one-acre site on the edge of downtown Dallas at 411 N. Akard Street near Ross Tower, the 1962 new-formalist building, designed by noted architect Thomas Stanley, consists of nine aboveground floors and a six-story subsurface parking garage.
This development required creative solutions in many disciplines, including real estate, design, urban planning, construction, preservation and financing. The unit consisting of the nine upper floors and exterior envelope was sold to HRI Properties by the owner of Ross Tower, who owns the 780 below-ground parking spaces for its office tenants in the adjacent building. To allow HRI to purchase the upper floors for redevelopment, a condominium regime was implemented to establish the land as the only common element between the garage and the upper floors.
One of the noteworthy features of the building is a massive six-story interior atrium, once home to a 1960s computer center space. Given the one-acre floor plate, the naturally ventilated atrium was designed to allow for the construction of an additional 16 residential units per floor, with the base serving as a gathering space for residents. To provide exclusive parking for residents, a new ramp entrance was constructed for approximately 160 parking spaces on the first three aboveground floors. The National Park Service required that this parking garage have the appearance of finished office space, including ACT ceilings, knee walls, and headers.
Without incentives from the Federal Historic Tax Credit program, the recently created State Historic Tax Credit program, and a $10,000,000 rebate from the City of Dallas’ Downtown Connection TIF District, the development would not have been financially feasible. To unlock these incentives, HRI Properties worked to have the building individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places, renovated the building in accordance with National Park Service standards, created public sidewalk improvements and activated the streetscape with additional retail as required by the Dallas 360 plan and city design review requirements, and set aside 43 units as affordable to households earning at or below 80% of the area median income for a period of 15 years.
The project, which was constructed by Andres Construction Services and designed by Merriman Anderson Architects, was completed on time and within budget, with the residential units and anchor commercial spaces fully leased within a year of opening in the fourth quarter of 2016.
