A Canadian developer has joined forces with a Los Angeles financial services firm with plans to build a $60 million condominium tower in Dallas’ Turtle Creek corridor.
Fram Building Group of Toronto and SunAmerica Inc., a major U.S. insurance, mutual fund and annuity firm, say they will build the 23-story, 168-unit residential high-rise overlooking Lee Park on Lemmon Avenue near Turtle Creek Boulevard.
Construction on the Mayfair at Turtle Creek condominium is scheduled to begin in early 1998.
Sales of the condominiums which will be priced from $325,000 to more than $1.2 million will begin next month.
The developers already have begun construction of an elaborate marketing center on the one-block site.
“Now is the right time to bring an architecturally significant, while technologically superior, landmark high-rise residential condominium tower to the market,” said Fram Building Group president Frank Giannone. “There is a high demand for a carefully conceived, hassle-free, luxury residential development near Dallas’ center city.”
The planned residential tower will be the largest such project built in the Dallas area in more than 10 years.
The classical style tower, designed by KSNG Architects, will have homes ranging in size from 1,128 to 3,000 square feet. The building also is planned with a rooftop spa and club, sun decks and gardens. Construction is expected to take 18 to 24 months.
In conjunction with the project, the developers are contributing more than $350,000 to help renovate adjacent Lee Park and its historic buildings.
Although the Mayfair building is large compared with recent apartment and condominium developments in the Dallas area, consumer appetite for such units is strong, real estate agents say.
“I’m not at all surprised that other buildings are going to be built because there is the demand,” said residential agent Judy Pittman. “The market is wonderful this year for high-rise sales. I’ve already had almost 60 sales this year.”
The Mansion condominium tower, which was completed about three years ago on Turtle Creek, was almost fully sold when finished.
And a new high-rise apartment building built between Turtle Creek and Oak Lawn on Gillespie Street has leased ahead of schedule.
Developers planning to construct a luxury Ritz Carlton Hotel in the Turtle Creek area also have been considering an adjoining condominium project, property brokers say.
Both Fram Building Group and SunAmerica Financial have a long track record in residential construction.
Founded in 1981, Fram has built more than 2,800 homes in Canada, the Northeast and, most recently, Texas. In the last three years, Fram has built almost 900 apartments in the Dallas/Fort Worth suburbs of Carrollton, McKinney and Euless.
The Canadian builder is constructing a 17-unit townhouse project just north of downtown Dallas and a 232-unit apartment complex in nearby Plano.
SunAmerica is a $48 billion financial services firm that was the original parent company of Kaufman & Broad Inc., one of the nation’s largest single-family home builders.
In 1989 SunAmerica spun Kaufman & Broad off to concentrate on the insurance and mutual fund business. But it has continued to invest in housing, with more than $4 billion in real estate assets nationwide.
