Vic's Fix

Old classic reborn in new hotel

Comments (0) By Mark Stuertz Thursday, Oct 12 2006

Double Wide founder Jim Siebert, who left the Deep Ellum bar earlier this year, is no longer involved a bid to resuscitate the legendary Trader Vic's restaurant once tucked in the circa 1967 Dallas Hilton Inn on Mockingbird Lane and set to reopen in the Hotel Palomar slowly coalescing in the Hilton's skeleton. Instead, Palomar developer Realty America Group (along with Behringer Harvard Real Estate Investments) has taken over Trader Vic's reanimation. According to Jeff Berry, partner in Realty America, Siebert took too long to build Trader Vic's financial backing. "It really made no sense to us," he says. Berry, who is currently interviewing chefs for the restaurant, says Trader Vic's will open sometime in January to complement the other Palomar restaurant, Central 214. Meanwhile, the 185-plus-room hotel is open, and its stock of 72 condos, which range in price from $350,000 for the lofts along Mockingbird to $3 million for a 5,500-square-foot penthouse atop the hotel tower, are 25 percent sold. Is Berry worried residential sales in this $100 million project are lagging in what may yet turn out to be a Dallas luxury condo glut? Not at all. He says what sets Palomar condominiums (like those at the W Hotel and the upcoming Ritz) apart are the included hotel amenities, which can command a 30 to 40 percent price premium. "We feel like we have a totally separate product from anybody else," he says.

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Trader Vic's

5330 E. Mockingbird Lane
Dallas, TX 75206

Category: Bars/Clubs

Region: East Dallas & Lakewood

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