An office building in downtown Dallas, once planned for conversion to apartments, is now being offered for sale after foreclosure. Avison Young is handling the listing for 211 North Ervay, an 18-story office tower built in 1958 and renovated in 2014. The firm is marketing the nearly vacant, 185,000-square-foot property as a redevelopment opportunity. The listing does not include an asking price.
The building’s zoning allows for a range of redevelopment options including multifamily housing, hospitality, or continued office use. The team leading the effort at Avison Young includes Mike B. Kennedy, James Nelson, Erik Edeen and Sullivan Johnston.
Thistle Creek Capital currently owns the property after acquiring it at a foreclosure auction in February 2024 through an $8 million credit bid, which equates to $43 per square foot. Prior to that sale, Kenny Wolfe of Wolfe Investments owned the building and had announced plans less than a year earlier to convert it into 238 apartment units. That plan involved financing from Thistle Creek with a $13 million loan and $9 million in equity. Around the same period, Wolfe also partnered with Bluelofts on a similar project involving another historic building in Fort Worth; that property was also lost to foreclosure.
Wolfe’s approach represented a shift from investing in dollar stores and older apartment complexes toward attempting complex office-to-residential conversions in cities such as Dallas, Fort Worth and Cleveland.
Despite these setbacks, experts see potential for repurposing the tower. A study released by the National Bureau of Economic Research together with New York University and Columbia University identified this building as one of fifty structures in North Texas suitable for conversion due to factors like its location and architectural layout.
New York University professor Arpit Gupta stated that 211 North Ervay “met all the criteria” needed for successful conversion projects—including its age, location and floor plate configuration—according to his report.
