But the owners of the building claim it ain't that simple.
Hong Kong-based Hamsher International, which bought the building in the early 1990s, said in its 2000 financials sent to shareholders that it planned to spruce up the joint: "We have decided to undertake a complete and major renovation programme which will commence early next year. As the convention market in Dallas is expanding, we are confident the hotel will do well once renovated." Nine years later, though, and nothing.
The former Statler Hilton Hotel sits in the midst of substantial downtown renovation, which is why, preservationists think, cityofficials would like to see it torn down. Mayor Leppert disagrees.
On October 14, Mayor Tom Leppert and other city officials held a press conferencedowntown to single out as threats to public health and safety such addresses as211 N. Ervay (at left), 1902 Commerce (at top) and 1604 Main (at bottom).
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Tom Keen, the Plano-based attorney representing Hamsher, says the owners would prefer to sell—absolutely, good riddance. He even claims it was under contract in October, when he too received the clean-yer-mess-up letter from an assistant city attorney. But the buyer backed off, he says, and a deal that was supposed to close by year's end disappeared. As a last resort, Keen says, Hamsher might let one of its "sister companies" develop it as a hotel. "But," he adds, "I don't even know if they want that. Our preference is to sell."
Rinse, lather, repeat: Interested developers, including Larry Hamilton, say Hamsher simply wants too much for the building, which is on the notoriously unreliable tax rolls for $3.5 million and needs at least that much to cover environmental remediation, developers and city officials say. (Oddly, the Dallas Central Appraisal District said in 2003 the building was worth almost twice its current valuation—and that was when downtown's east end was little more than an open-air toilet.) Some insist it's not only too far gone to merit redemption, but also too impractical to redo thanks to low ceilings made of concrete too thick to easily rip out without doing serious structural damage. And there's the fact that many folks just think the thing's a giant heap of antiquated ugly clogging up progress in that end of downtown.
Conspiracy theories abound that Leppert's been gunning for the Statler all along, that this whole clean-up effort is aimed at demolishing the building once and for all. He vehemently denies this, saying demolition's a "last resort," but something he'd rather not even address just yet.
Preservation Dallas executive director Katherine Seale just wants the building properly mothballed according to government standards till someone can do something with the behemoth. She too was at the October press conference, merely as a spectator, and says now she was "pretty surprised at the number of times the Statler was called out" by city officials. She agrees with Leppert: The building can't be allowed to fester any longer. But she agrees with Keen as well: The city needs to pony up some significant financial incentives. And Seale isn't above a little conspiracy theorizing herself. Maybe, just maybe, City Hall would like to see it gone, no longer a nuisance worshipped by those in awe of its faded mid-century splendor.
"There is a long-held misbelief that an empty lot is more desirable than a building in disrepair," Seale says. "It's clear the Statler is the No. 1 priority for the city on this list. They're not preservationists. The city [attorneys] are not used to seeing buildings in deplorable shape. But we've seen buildings in far worse shape in the city that have been revitalized, including the Dallas Power & Light building," which Larry Hamilton turned into apartments. "People treat historic buildings like they're so fragile. Trust me, they're not."
Keen says he's had no contact with anyone at the city outside of code enforcement and city attorneys; he insists folks from economic development don't return his calls, perhaps because they have nothing to offer him, since the Mercantile is first and last in line for revenues generated in the tax increment financing district in that part of downtown. As for historic-renovation tax incentives, it is a non-issue: The Statler sits inside the Downtown Connector TIF depleted by the Mercantile, and TIF-eligible projects can't get such tax breaks anyway.
So he and the city are playing a game of chicken. Keen says he's hired a contractor to begin the process of turning on the lights, but only so he can properly inspect the building and see what repairs it needs. "We're not necessarily taking the path the city is laying out for us," he says. Whether or not it's enough to stave off litigation remains to be seen, but Keen doubts it.
"The city has a heavy investment in the Mercantile and the park, and both of those things are good for downtown Dallas," he says. "But they gave all the money away. Now, they are holding a gun to our heads."
Soon enough, he—and the rest of the owners of downtown's vacant buildings—will find out whether the thing's actually loaded.
