As Luxury Residential High-Rises Reshape the Dallas Skyline, Developers are Cautious
Soaring new office towers and hotels are taking a backseat to the luxury residential high-rises that are reshaping the Dallas skyline, according to the Dallas Morning News.
In addition to leading the U.S. in apartment construction, Dallas-Fort Worth tops its own history for the number of residential high-rises in the pipeline.
The area’s unprecedented demand for luxury living is driven by more than 100,000 new jobs in North Texas over the last year.
Though Uptown Dallas and Oak Lawn are the hotspots for high-end digs, the first wave of new buildings is opening in Victory Park, west of downtown near American Airlines Center. And a 29-story apartment tower is also under construction in Plano’s Legacy West mixed-use development where Toyota, Liberty Mutual Insurance, and JPMorgan Chase are still transferring employees to the area.
While developers are batting 1,000 so far at staying ahead of the demand curve, many are wondering how long the market will support monthly rents of $2,500 to $3,000.
With over 50,000 luxury high-rise units under construction, time will tell.
"We have 18 high-rise buildings that are either under construction or have been delivered in this cycle," Steve Bancroft, senior managing director of Dallas-based apartment builder Trammell Crow Residential, recently told a business group. "It's about 5,400 units.
"It's kind of a game-changer for Dallas. In the last cycle, we built only four or five of these buildings."
According to Bancroft, high-rise apartment rents peaked at near $2.25 per square foot a decade ago. Now buildings are asking between $3 and $4 a square foot each month.