70 replies to this topic

[Austin55]

 

Drama involving banks, Burnett Plaza ownership, and renovation contractors. The current vacant rate of the building is 26%.

 

https://www.bizjourn...uits-liens.html

 

That would make a heck of a hotel or apartment building.

 

 

Of all of the big ofice highrises in Fort Worth, it seems to me Burnett has the easiest floorplan for residential conversion (outside of The Tower, of course!)

 

Burnett Plaza

 

City Center Towers

 

777 Main

[rriojas71]

 

Drama involving banks, Burnett Plaza ownership, and renovation contractors. The current vacant rate of the building is 26%.

 

https://www.bizjourn...uits-liens.html

 

That would make a heck of a hotel or apartment building.

 

I think mixed use would be great as well.  That way we don't lose all that office space.  Hotel on the lower 10 floors, office on the next 15 and then residential on the top 15.  Or that could be mixed around in whatever way they want. 

[Dylan]

Can we please not eliminate more office space than we already have over the past decade?

EDIT: If Burnett Plaza is 26% vacant, that means it's 74% occupied. I'd rather those companies not be forced to move to a different city. We don't have other office buildings for them to move to, because we converted almost all of our other office buildings to hotels, apartments, condos, a college, and a city hall.

[elpingüino]

Here's a free version of the Dallas Business Journal article, https://www.wfaa.com...4f-31ff0025a008

[steave]

I've been inside City Center a few times and the offices there are full of light. Each of those wings that stick out are giant executive corner offices. I think in the future if they turned some floors into condos or hotel suites then they would be able to take those sections and make really nice living spaces out of them. City Center has different elevator banks for different sections of the tower so that would also simplify them turning half of part of the tower into something else.

 

But 777 Main and the City Center towers have to be the nicest office skyscrapers in the city, I can't imagine them becoming vacant unless all offices everywhere also go obsolete.

[John T Roberts]

My office does most of the interior work in City Center.  If you have been inside a few offices, there is a good chance that you have seen what our Interior Designer has done.  Most of the work we do has been on the interiors side, but if the interior work involves architecture, then one of the architects in our office gets involved.

[Austin55]

Can we please not eliminate more office space than we already have over the past decade?

 

I should mention that with the residential pipeline the way it is, I would be shocked if Burnett Plaza gets any sort of work done anytime soon. 

[JBB]

I ask this question because I really don't know.  Does Burnett Plaza have the elevator capacity to handle 3 separate uses like hotel, residential, and office that are all going to want/need their own secure access?

 

Edit: Okay, maybe it does.  Just looking at the floor plan closer, it seems like there are more elevators than I originally thought.  It just looks like not all of them provide access to that particular floor.

[John T Roberts]

JBB, the answer to your question shows up on the western facade of the building.  The elevator cores were used as a design feature due to the narrowness of the building.  Each back of elevators stops at a certain height and the office floors pick up above the terminated elevator shafts.  The levels where the elevator lobbies exist have windows looking out to the west.  It appears that there are four banks of elevators that serve approximately 10 or 11 floors each. 

[Austin55]

Somewhat related: GM has announced that it will be leaving the Renaissance Center for the currently-under construction Hudson Site tower in 2025:  https://www.detroitn...te/73326824007/

 

I always get nervous that GM will one day want to consolidate GM Financial to Detroit. GM Financial is HQ'ed in Burnett Plaza and has major operations in Arlington as well. 

[Jeriat]

Even though nothing else has been announced, I feel like this is going to age well. 

 

I said some years back that BP would be better for residential and replace by one of the several skyscraper ideas in proximity I had for office.

 

Honestly, I feel that it's inevitable... 

[John T Roberts]

As I had mentioned before, it does have a more narrow floor plate, which could better lend itself to residential redevelopment.  With the four separate elevator banks, it could be quite possible to convert this building into true mixed-use.  (Residential, Hotel, Office)

[Austin55]

Opal Holdings has defaulted on another property in Arlington: https://www.wfaa.com...43-94c307875b3d

[Austin55]

Pinnacle Bank is Burnett Tower's new owner: https://www.bizjourn...nett-plaza.html

[rriojas71]

Pinnacle Bank is Burnett Tower's new owner: https://www.bizjourn...nett-plaza.html

That's good news I suppose.  $12.3 million? They got it for a great price and it's basically a steal.

[Austin55]

 

Pinnacle Bank is Burnett Tower's new owner: https://www.bizjourn...nett-plaza.html

That's good news I suppose.  $12.3 million? They got it for a great price and it's basically a steal.

 

 

A low number for sure. I don't quite understand how auctions work. Is the $12.3M just a down payment of sorts? Does Pinnacle Bank take all the previous owners debt? 

Opal Holdings bought the building for $137M in 2021. 

[Urbndwlr]

Not sure but wouldnt you think that Opal and its investors will continue to sue Pinnacle over this?

I only know what I read, which was vague, but if they basically forced a vulnerable Opal to pull out its checkbook at a time when they knew they could not, and therefore got a screaming discount in a foreclosure, I'd think the investors would at least try to recover some $ for what seems like an absurd discount.

 

75% isnt horrible occupancy I think.  Have been in the building several times and think it has and will continue to age very well. 

 

and regarding GM Financial wanting to move a Fort Worth office to Detroit?  That would seem like a foolish move given our strong base of financial services talent and strong inward migration here in Greater Fort Worth plus the challenge of recruiting people to Detroit and its net losses in migration.

[Austin55]

The Burnett Plaza story has started to blow up and I've seen it all over. It hit Fox Business the other day and has been a big talking point since about the decline of commercial office property. 

I'll paste a comment that I saw in an FB group that explained the situation,

 

the missing info here is that this was a bank buy-back after the buyer defaulted on their loan. So the bank is only paying a fraction of the cost, because they already basically owned the building given that the buyer hadn't paid off the loan they took out from the bank to buy it. It still represents a decline in the commercial office space market, but not a 90% decline

[JBB]

It was the top story on the Daily Mail's US website for part of the day yesterday.

[FortWorthian]

It was the top story on the Daily Mail's US website for part of the day yesterday.

 

https://www.dailymai...price-drop.html

[Stadtplan]

 

The Burnett Plaza story has started to blow up and I've seen it all over. It hit Fox Business the other day and has been a big talking point since about the decline of commercial office property. 

I'll paste a comment that I saw in an FB group that explained the situation,

 

the missing info here is that this was a bank buy-back after the buyer defaulted on their loan. So the bank is only paying a fraction of the cost, because they already basically owned the building given that the buyer hadn't paid off the loan they took out from the bank to buy it. It still represents a decline in the commercial office space market, but not a 90% decline

 

 

Cody Copeland with the S-T does a deep dive into the truth behind the foreclosure / sale of Burnett Plaza

 

Burnett Plaza foreclosure: Has Fort Worth’s downtown real estate really ‘bottomed out’?

By Cody Copeland May 14, 2024 2:45 PM

 

https://www.star-tel...l#storylink=cpy