Wondering What to Do With the Former First National on Elm Steet? Wonder No More.

No need to mourn the demise of Elm Place, set to shutter for good on January 29 -- not when someone's already figured out what to do with the former First National Bank of Dallas, among George Dahl's myriad local icons. That someone: Colliers International, which is handling the sale...

By Robert Wilonsky

January 16, 2010

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No need to mourn the demise of Elm Place, set to shutter for good on January 29 -- not when someone's already figured out what to do with the former First National Bank of Dallas, among George Dahl's myriad local icons. That someone: Colliers International, which is handling the sale of the 50-usable-stories, 1.1-million-square foot tower with a Dallas Area Rapid Transit light rail station right downstairs.

A good Friend of Unfair Park forwards along Colliers's conceptual plans for 1401 Elm Street, which includes the financials and makeover suggestions provided by Merriman & Associates, whose namesake, Jerry Merriman, writes, "The Tower at Elm Place is ideally designed for residential uses. We wouldn't change it if we were designing it from the ground up." The asking price is $51.5 million, but after the conversion to retail-residential (with some office space -- your 51.5 mil, your choice), you stand to pocket close to $4 mil annually. Done.

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