Asana Partners investing $27M in Design District retail redevelopment

Real estate investor Asana Partners has more designs on Dallas.

The Charlotte, North Carolina-based investor filed plans for a $27 million makeover of the seven-building campus in the Design District it acquired less than two years ago, the Dallas Business Journal reported. 

The Oak Lawn Design Plaza covers nine acres at 1444 Oak Lawn Avenue.

The work is expected to start in February and finish by the end of 2025. Plans call for interior, exterior and landscape renovations to the 54-year-old, 165,000-square-foot campus. Dallas-based GFF Inc. has been hired as the designer on the project. The renovations are expected to cost $164 per square foot, although filings with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation are preliminary and subject to change.

An Asana Partners spokesperson did not respond to the outlet’s request for comment.  

The company specializes in retail-led mixed use developments and has $7 billion in assets under management. It’s no stranger to Dallas, and besides the Design District complex, it has purchased shops and offices in Victory Park, three dozen properties in the dining-and-entertainment hub of Deep Ellum, and a 200,000-square-foot retail center called The Hill, in Lake Highlands.

Brad Kantrowitz, senior director of investments at Asana Partners, referred to Oak Lawn Design Plaza’s “prime location” as an opening to shift from the center’s heritage as a showroom center to boost retail offerings on the site, the Dallas Morning News previously reported.  

“We try to find neighborhoods that we believe in, are ready to grow and have a lot of economic underpinnings,”  Asana Managing Director Tom FitzGerald previously said. “A lot of times, that’s workforce already living there, or people being drawn to it.” 

Asana also purchased the 155,000-square-foot former International Harvester showroom, at 155 Turtle Creek Boulevard in the Design District, last year. It was converted to offices in 2005. 

The Design District’s largest landowner, HN Capital Partners, added an 80,000-square-foot parcel on Hi Line Drive, near the Trinity Strand Trail, to its holdings last year.

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