New building in downtown Dallas’ west end has new owner

By Steve Brown / July 19, 2022 / Dallas Morning News

A new office building in downtown Dallas’ West End district has quietly changed hands.

The Luminary is a seven-story office building that opened in 2019 on Houston Street at Ross Avenue.

A project of Crescent Real Estate, the more than 169,000-square-foot building was designed by Dallas architect Corgan and was built in partnership with Long Wharf Capital LLC. The building includes a rooftop deck with sweeping views of downtown.

The high-profile property is 70% leased to tenants including Lerma Advertising.

The building has just sold to Dallas-based Harwood International, county deed records show.

The purchase was financed with a $55.935 million loan from New York-based Alliance Bernstein L.P.

Harwood International is the developer building the 19-block Harwood District, along McKinnon Street and Harry Hines Boulevard in the Uptown Dallas area.

“We are thrilled to acquire an institutionally-developed asset like The Luminary in the urban core of Dallas,” Harwood International’s Christopher Cauthen said in a statement. “We are seeing demand surge for creative space like that offered in The Luminary, which competes as the lowest-priced, Class A new construction in Dallas.”

The developer is building a 27-story office tower just north of downtown on Harry Hines Boulevard near the entrance to the Dallas North Tollway.

The West End building is Harwood International’s second Dallas office acquisition. In 2019 the commercial property firm bought the 11-story Citymark building located near the entrance to the Dallas North Tollway.

“This acquisition is the first of several to come,” Harwood International’s David Roehm said in a statement. “We are targeting two to three acquisitions per year going forward and will continue to grow.”

Crescent Real Estate has sold several historic buildings it owns in the West End over the past couple of years. Crescent is selling the Luminary at the same time it is marketing its McKinney & Olive office and retail tower in Uptown.

Opened in 2016, the $225 million high-rise is fully leased and has been one of the most successful new projects north of downtown. The 536,000-square-foot property is being marketed for sale by commercial property firm Jones Lang LaSalle.

The Luminary’s sale to Harwood International is the latest North Texas office transaction.

More than $2.4 billion in Dallas-Fort Worth area office properties sold in the first half of 2022, one of the highest totals in the country, according to the latest estimate by Yardi Systems Inc.