Woods buys St. Paul Place with $67M loan

Jonas Woods has tucked another Dallas office tower into his pocket.

Woods’ firm Pacific Elms Properties just bought the 22-story St. Paul Place at 750 North St. Paul Street, marking one of the few office building transactions this year in the Dallas area, the Dallas Morning News reported. The purchase was financed with a $66.7 million loan from MetLife Commercial Mortgage.

St. Paul Place was built in 1983 and comprises 275,000 square feet. The building has been owned since 2016 by Quadrant Investment, which performed a multimillion dollar renovation at the site to include a new conference center, lounge area, outdoor terrace and a revamped lobby. Cushman & Wakefield began marketing the property last summer.

Woods has become one the city’s largest property owners, investing in high-rises like Bryan Tower, Santander Tower and 2100 Ross. Woods is at the helm of various adaptive reuse projects, turning old office towers into residential complexes or mixed-use developments. Pacific Elm Properties recently invested in downtown’s 60-story Comerica Bank Tower with plans to convert the landmark building into a mix of offices, apartments and hotel rooms.

Woods intends to keep St. Paul Place running as normal, though, with only a few plans for renovations.

“We think this is a very special boutique property on Ross, and we plan to materially upgrade the lobby, common areas and amenities to reflect a class AA quality,” Woods told the outlet. “We will definitely keep this as pure office.”

Office sales in Dallas-Fort Worth totaled $227 million in the first two months of this year, which was down 80 percent from $1.1 billion in the same period in 2022. DFW still ranks ninth in the nation for office sales to start the year.

—Quinn Donoghue