In Dallas, the Real Estate Biz is Real Estate Good

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Downtown office-to-loft rennovations are getting real-estate investors all giddy about the market. Least they're not turning them into parking lots.

Dallas is a hot commodity, real-estate-wise. Says so right here, in Commercial Property News, where Meridian Capital Group managing director Alex Katz insists 2007's shaping up to be a very good year, if 2006 was any indication. Katz figures 350 people are moving to Dallas-Fort Worth a day -- seriously? -- and, ya know, with numbers like that, yer gonna need the housing.

Not only that, but California investors are laying down some long green on Dallas land; there's proof of that right here, in a just-posted Dallas Morning News story about how Cali-based Younan Properties Inc. is trying to pick up the 50-story Thanksgiving Tower on Elm Street. And downtown's perking up with office spaces being turned into "urban lifestyle" lofts -- "similar to what you would see in New York or Los Angeles," says Katz. "Investors believe there is a favorable business climate here, the cost of housing is low, and real estate is relatively inexpensive in comparison to other parts of the country."

I've always said that oughta be this city's motto: "Dallas, we may not be better, but we are cheaper." --Robert Wilonsky