Renaissance Tower

From Stack of City Memos: Drought Forecast, Aquatic Plans and Tax Breaks For Downtown Biz

The city's looking to give a company $300,000 to move into Renaissance Tower.​On the other side you'll find the stack of memos City Hall sent Saturday morning, and, as usual, it's a mixed grab bag of goodies covering some familiar topics. As in: Assistant City Manager Forest Turner kicks things of ... More >>

Even Landlords Don't Want Blockbuster

The McKinney Ave. landlord figures it can do better than a Blockbuster.​Later this morning in a New York courtroom, Dish Network will turn in its final final list of Blockbuster leases it wants to keep -- some 600 total out of close to 1,600 remaining. For now, of course, Dish has said that when i ... More >>

Dish Network Gets Blockbuster For Around $230 Mil in Cash and a Pallet of Junior Mints

​The question "Why does Dish Network want Blockbuster?" was asked and answered late last week, though one Friend of Unfair Park suggested, "Twizzlers." Turns out, the Colorado-based Dish wanted it plenty bad -- more than Carl Icahn and the lenders who turned up to take the Renaissance Tower-based ... More >>

And Why Does Dish Network Want Blockbuster?

​No, seriously, it's been a long while since we've mentioned the fate of Renaissance Tower-based Blockbuster, which has been in Chapter 11 since September and been shutting stores ever since. (Per a recent filing, the store at 6760 Abrams Road had its lease rejected effective yesterday.) But that' ... More >>

On-the-Auction-Block Blockbuster Thinks Amazon, Best Buy, CVS Are Interested

​Home Media Magazine directs our attention to this Friday filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York, where Renaissance Tower-based Blockbuster filed for Chapter 11 back in September. As we noted last week, Blockbuster's up for sale now, with Monarch Alternative Capital among the interested parti ... More >>

Downtown-Based Blockbuster to Go on Auction Block. The Opening Bid? A Whole $290 Million.

​Blockbuster, which went into voluntary Chapter 11 in September, said in a statement released moments ago that it has agreed to sell to a group of noteholders -- one of whom happened to be named Monarch Alternative Capital, the very same creditors to whom Tom Hicks owed all those hundreds of milli ... More >>

Hungry on DART's Green Line? Here's a Big Honkin' List That Might Help

​It took four years and $1.8 million to complete the longest light-rail construction project in U.S. history -- says DART -- but a little more than one month since DART's Green Line opened, it's been for all intents and purposes a success. While the full line was officially opened on December ... More >>

Dallas Attorney Predicts Obama's Health Care Act Will Be Good for ... Local Real Estate

Homeland Security Affairs​Attorney Lew Lefko, a partner in Renaissance Tower-based Winstead PC, has worked in some aspect of the health-care profession for most of his career. Hence his appearance on GlobeSt.com this morning, where he tells Jennifer Duell Popovec that Texas stands to gain plenty f ... More >>

Wall Street Journal: Blockbuster's Chapter 11 Filing Could Come "In Next Few Days"

​Today could be the day Blockbuster officially files for bankruptcy. So reports The Wall Street Journal, echoing that earlier Los Angeles Times piece that said CEO Jim Keyes had been in Hollywood at August's end briefing studio heads on the inevitable next chapter in the beleaguered Renaissance To ... More >>

Blockbuster's Chief Financial Officer and Exec Vice President, Tom Casey, Has Called It Quits

Tom Casey​If that Los Angeles Times piece at the end of August is to be believed, Elm Street-based Blockbuster should be filing a prepackaged bankruptcy, oh, any day now. Question is: Does the latest bit of big news outta Renaissance Tower suggest Chapter 11's forthcoming sooner than later? In a S ... More >>

L.A. Times: Blockbuster CEO Keyes Briefed Studios on Pending Prepackaged Bankruptcy

​Fifteen days ago, Blockbuster spokesperson Patty Sullivan told Unfair Park: The company's delay in releasing its what turned out to be dismal second-quarter stats had absolutely nothing to do with a pending prepackaged bankruptcy. "There will be no news announcing that," she said. Not until late ... More >>

Blockbuster Says Delay in Releasing Second-Quarter Results Not Tied to Bankruptcy News

​At the close of business today, Blockbuster was supposed to release its second-quarter financials. It did not. And, till moments ago, it was impossible to get anyone from the company on the phone to explain why it failed to release the figures -- which has prompted widespread speculation that ban ... More >>

As Blockbuster Gets a Brief Reprieve From Creditors, Shareholders Demand An Answer

​It's been close to radio silence from Renaissance Tower for several weeks as Blockbuster tries to find "strategic partners" to keep the close-to-broke video giant-at-one-time out of the bankruptcy courts. But on Friday, Bloomberg reported that Jim Keyes and Co. will announce this week that they'v ... More >>

Shareholders Make Peace With Blockbuster and Hope for the Best. And: Another TV Ad!

​Last Friday, Blockbuster's higher-ups told Bronx bomber Niko Celentano and his ever-expanding band of shareholders that, well, sorry, but despite their demands for an emergency meeting, that ain't gonna happen. One week later, the shareholders respond to the response. And for the most part, the m ... More >>

Yo, Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes. Niko Celentano of the Bronx Would Like a Word. And An Emergency Shareholders Meeting.

​One week ago today I received an e-mail from a "large stockholder" in Blockbuster -- a gentleman high on the movie-studio food chain, as a matter of fact. He copied me on a missive he sent to the Securities and Exchange Commission in which he asked what in the wide, wide world of sports he could ... More >>

Bloomberg, Yet Again, Comes Bearing Grim News About What Lies Ahead For Blockbuster

​A little more than one year ago, Bloomberg News sent Blockbuster's stock price tumbling, from 77 cents to 22 cents, with a report that the Renaissance Tower-based company had hired outside counsel to "explore a possible bankruptcy filing," which Blockbuster quickly dismissed. This morning, Bloomb ... More >>

Greg Meyer's Gearing Up for a Nasty Proxy Fight at Blockbuster's June Meeting Downtown

Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes​On Sunday we mentioned the proxy fight brewing between Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes and shareholder Greg Meyer, the former CEO of DVDXpress (which eventually morphed into Redbox, more or less) and the man who, in 2005, told Blockbuster, look, get in the DVD-dispensing kiosk ... More >>

Inside the "Blockbuster Museum," And One Man's Plan to Save the Former Rental Giant

Historic 'Blockbuster' Store Offers Glimpse Of How Movies Were Rented In The PastGood Friend of Unfair Park "Spectator" forwards along this piece from the Onion News Network, sure to play like a Betamax at Renaissance Tower HQ. It's a look inside the, ahem, Blockbuster Video museum -- "a historicall ... More >>

Slowly But Surely, Blockbuster's Stock is Rising. Why? The Little Things Count.

​A few days ago, in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Renaissance Tower-based Blockbuster sent word: It's pushing back its shareholders meeting one month, to June 24. Said Tom Casey, the video-rental company's exec veep and CFO, "We believe the additional time will provide us w ... More >>

Twentieth Century Fox and Sony Are Really in the Blockbuster Biz With First Lien on Dallas Co.'s Canadian Assets

AfriGadgetFor now, at least, hold off turning those Blockbuster drop-off boxes into ovens, as this woman's done in Liberia.​Late Tuesday, Blockbuster announced two items of interest -- one of which, at least, has prompted a early-trading jump of 15 percent in the Renaissance Tower-based company's ... More >>

The Reverse Splits: Blockbuster Has 45 Days to Get Back in NYSE's Good Graces

​A couple of weeks back, we read the entirety of Blockbuster's annual report and discovered one significant bit of bad news that had gone unnoticed elsewhere: The New York Stock Exchange sent the downtown Dallas-based company a warning that if it didn't get its stock price back above one dollar pr ... More >>

Dallas After Dark: Tomorrow Night, It's Lights Out, Yet Again, For Earth Hour

Justin TerveenDowntown Dallas as it looked during last year's Earth Hour​Speaking of our pal Justin ...Last year we enlisted him to shoot the city as it went dark for World Wildlife Fund's Earth Hour. Only problem: Despite the lengthy list of buildings scheduled to join the 60-minute blackout, it ... More >>

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

Justin TerveenElm Place, once the largest building west of the Mississippi, in the shadow of Renaissance Tower​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 G ... More >>

Dallas Cast Reunion Leaves Fans Southforked

Thirty years after Dallas, fans worldwide came, saw and were conquered.

Darrell Jordan's Law Firm is Being Sued. His Sworn Response: "I Know Nothing."

The Grifter

Smooth-talking stockbroker Roger Turner came across as a good Christian man--one who made it his business to charm widows and retirees out of their life savings

I thought it would be fun to run a magazine

Ray Washburne's Texas Business is a case study in how not to run a business