Home builder Marlon McMakin isn’t worried that many of his potential buyers have never heard of his neighborhood. “No, it’s not as well-known as Uptown or Oak Lawn,” said McMakin, who’s building several townhouse projects in Bryan Place, just east of downtown Dallas. “But this area offers some spectacular skyline views in homes within walking distance of downtown.
Bryan Place has already caught the eye of many home builders.
Several developers are tying up vacant land there and are building townhouses that sell from $250,000 to more than $500,000.
The Bryan Place builders expect their customers to come from the growing number of downtown Internet company employees and from the condo and townhouse buyers who have been priced out of other fast-growing areas of Dallas. “We can build townhouses here and sell them for $300,000 that would cost $500,000 or more in Uptown or Oak Lawn,” said McMakin, whose In-Town Custom Builders has a five-unit development under way on Allen Street near Ross Avenue and is about to start a 16-unit project at Live Oak and Adair streets. “We are building the same product you see over in Uptown and selling it for less money.”
The new wave of home building is a revival for Bryan Place.
During the late 1970s and early ’80s, the neighborhood was Dallas’ first in-town redevelopment.
More than 400 single-family homes and condominiums were built, replacing old commercial buildings and aging houses. But builder Fox & Jacobs — which pioneered the development with City Hall support — pulled out when the real estate market crashed in the mid-1980s.
“They just picked up their toys and left in about 1986,” said real estate agent Patricia Levitt, who has lived in Bryan Place for about 20 years. “For a while it was as if the builders forgot about us.
“But they are back now,” she said. “I just got off the phone with a developer who wants to build a single-family home here priced right at $400,000.”
Since most of the homes and condominiums built in the ’70s and ’80s sold for less than $200,000, the jump in prices has surprised old-timers.
“Yes, it startles me, but my father was shocked by what I paid for my condo 15 years ago,” resident Sandy Barron said. “We are happy to see the growth.
Glen Vista homes, which has concentrated on the suburbs, has also discovered Bryan Place. It is buying a block on Bryan Street at Adair, where it plans to build 30 townhouses.
“They are going to start at around $260,000,” builder Clint Norton said. “We plan to have them under construction early next year.”
Norton — who, with partner George Tannous, has most recently been building in Coppell and Plano — said it’s been a lot tougher to buy land in the inner city.
“Yes, there are vacant lots,” he said. “But you have to assemble them from different owners, and it takes time.”
Land prices have risen as builders have returned to Bryan Place.
“We have seen as much as $20 per square foot and more for the better pieces of land in Bryan Place,” Norton said.
Still, Bryan Place is cheap by Uptown standards.
“We were able to buy at $15 per square foot what we would have had to pay $40 and more for in Oak Lawn,” McMakin said.
Builder Jim Moore began buying up vacant lots in the Bryan Place area four years ago and has 16 townhouses under construction.
“We now have land for about another 65 townhouses,” said Moore, whose company is called UrbanInnovations.
The company’s Bryan Place homes start at about $220,000, he said. “We have one home under contract right now for more than $500,000,” Moore said.
So far, most area homeowners say they are happy with the new construction.
The townhouse developments have been less controversial than construction of the 428-unit Jefferson at Bryan Place apartments last year.
And after declining in the 1980s — in some cases below what owners owed on the properties — existing home prices are also on the rebound, said Mrs. Levitt, who regularly handles sales in the area.
“But we are still a bargain compared with some close-in neighborhoods,” she said.
