DALLAS – (Realty News Report) – Can the creation of a grassy park to cover a depressed, below-grade freeway attract new development?
Yes, it can.
The recent groundbreaking for a 30-story office tower adjacent to the Klyde Warren Park in downtown Dallas proves the point once again.
The Klyde Park Warren, a popular gathering spot for families, urban dwellers and other citizens, is built above the Woodall Rodgers Freeway. Traffic rumbles along underground while picnics occur on the lawn above.
“Klyde Warren Park has completely changed the dynamic of Dallas’ urban core in a very positive way. Buildings that are nearby and adjacent to the park have thrived since it opened in 2012 and it has been the real connector of the CBD and Uptown,” said Harlan Davis, executive vice president in Dallas for the CBRE real estate firm. “The park has and will continue to be an amenity to those that are nearby and has forever changed the landscape of our city.”
The same thing could happen in Houston someday if government leaders can move ahead with the North Houston Highway Improvement Project. It will relocate Interstate 45 (the Pierce Elevated) to the eastern edge of Downtown Houston. A sizable portion of downtown’s freeways will be depressed below ground-level, clearing the way for a park to be built over the noisy traffic.
The result: a beautiful new park will be located behind Houston’s George R. Brown Convention Center to complement the popular Discovery Green park in front of the convention center.
With a new park energizing the east side of downtown and the EaDo district, new residential projects, entertainment places and commercial development will follow. A few billion worth of new construction will create business opportunities on the east side in addition to an extended gusher of property tax revenues for public schools and municipal needs for decades to come.
In Dallas, the new skyscraper, called Bank of America Tower at Parkside, is just one of a number of new developments that have been built around the over-the-freeway Klyde Warren Park, which opened in 2012.
Earlier this year, CBRE announced it is moving its global headquarters into 67,000 SF at Park District tower near Klyde Warren Park.
CBRE, the largest commercial real estate firm in the world, has advised millions of clients about selecting business locations. When CBRE locates its world headquarters near an over-the-freeway deck park, people in Houston, including government officials, should notice and consider.
The new park-facing building in Dallas – called Bank of America Tower at Parkside, is a 500,000-SF office tower rising at the corner of North Harwood Street and Woodall Rodgers Freeway.
The building will house 1,000 Bank of America employees in 238,000 SF of office space.
The Bank of America Tower at Parkside project team includes:
Miyama USA Texas – land owner;
Pacific Elm Properties – developer;
KDC – developer;
Design Team: Kohn Pedersen Fox; Corgan; OJB Landscape Architects
The Kohn Pedersen Fox-designed building is scheduled to be complete in the first half of 2027.
“With unobstructed Downtown Dallas views, tenants will enjoy an abundance of natural light and the beauty of the five-acre Klyde Warren Park from any floor in the tower,” the developers said. “One of the greatest vantage points will be on the 12th-floor Sky Lobby and Lounge, which will feature shared tenant space equipped with a coffee and cocktail bar, as well as outdoor terraces to encourage collaboration and relaxation.”
Klyde Warren Park deck park, which connects Uptown and Downtown Dallas, features gourmet food trucks and café-style seating.
Nov. 27, 2023 Realty News Report Copyright 2023
Image: Developers’ rendering of Bank of America Parkside, which is under construction adjacent to the Klyde Warren deck park on the edge of the Woodall Rodgers Freeway in Dallas.
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File: Texas Skyscraper Rises Near Downtown Freeway Deck Park