The first rental units from an office space conversion project are ready for prospective tenants.
Once completed, the Peridot at Santander Tower will include 228 luxury one- and two-bedroom apartments spread across 11 floors of the landmark high-rise at 1601 Elm St.
Katy Slade of Mintwood Real Estate, a partner in the project, told The Dallas Morning News that available units are already getting a lot of attention.
“We have a waiting list of prospective tenants and we’ve got tons of tours lined up,” Slade said. “Because of how pioneering this is for showing people how it is to live in an office building, we really wanted to have the leasing office open and the units open so people could understand. We wanted to be able to put our best foot forward.”
The new units are part of a massive undertaking by developer Jonas Woods of Woods Capital and Pacific Elm Properties to convert two skyscrapers (Santander Tower and Bryan Tower) into mixed-use buildings.
Santander Tower got a $18 million makeover that began with turning its top two floors into 60 luxury hotel rooms operating as The Guild Downtown.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, Bryan Tower will receive a $10 million upgrade that includes renovation work and converting several floors into 426 residential units.
Office-to-residential conversions have become a trend since the COVID-19 pandemic. So many people work remotely now that a lot of office space remains vacant. Meanwhile, a regional population boom has boosted demand for housing, as The Dallas Express reported.
However, much of the growth is being seen in the surrounding suburbs. Dallas has actually seen its population decline. Census Bureau data states that Dallas has had a growth rate of -3.36% since 2020 and a numeric population decline of around 14,000 in 2022.
Construction in Dallas can also be tricky and time-consuming due to the City’s building permit process, which has become a subject of ire for the development community, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
Still, Dallas investment firms are trying to capitalize on the city’s surplus office space with conversion, like the one at Santander Tower.
The 50-story skyscraper was built in the 1980s and received a generous $18 million facelift after being acquired by Woods Capital in 2013.
While its bottom 18 floors will still be dedicated to office space, Mintwood transformed the lobby into a more hybrid space by adding a tenant lounge area, a leasing and management center, and a boardroom.
Amenity areas were also added to the 25th and 39th floors so tenants do not have to go to the ground floor.
Once all the apartments — ranging from 600 to 1,550 square feet and boasting an unobstructed view of the city skyline — are complete, the developers will draw from the experience of the Peridot launch to inform the conversion project at Bryan Tower.
