Trammell Crow, Dell expand Knox Street plans

Two real estate titans just picked up another block of Knox Street in Dallas.

Michael Dell’s MSD Partners and a subsidiary of Trammell Crow Company have started construction on a $268 million project that will include office, residential and hotel high-rises on a 4-acre stretch along Travis Street, the Dallas Morning News reported.

Crow’s High Street Residential, which now owns more than a half-acre block of retail buildings at the southeast corner of Knox and McKinney Avenue, acquired adjacent property, more than half an acre, through a 99-year lease with the owner of the Knox Street corner, Nabholtz KMCK Partners LP. MSD Capital also owns properties on the same block, the outlet said. 

Current tenants of the one-story retail buildings slated for redevelopment include Chuy’s Tex-Mex and Mattress Firm.

Woods Bagot is the architect of the project, set to include a luxury hotel, high-rise apartments and ground floor retail space. The exterior will feature a landscaped plaza where the complex meets the Katy Trail.

The move comes five years after Dell acquired more than 11 acres of property in the neighborhood. The tech guru has completely immersed himself in the world of real estate over the past decade. MSD paid $200 million for a roughly 9 percent stake in the ground-lease company Safehold last year, and it owns a 7.5 percent stake in the $60 billion Related Companies.

Meanwhile, a handful of other developers have targeted the Knox Street area in recent years. San Antonio-based Kairoi Residential bought land north of Knox Street in February, with plans to build 250 multifamily units. Stockdale Investment Group and Hines have teamed up to build a mixed-use development with 300 residential units, a 250,000-square-foot office and a senior housing high-rise with 225 homes. 

—Quinn Donoghue