Crescent, Ritz-Carlton Bless Hotel-Condo Project

The Fort Worth-based Crescent team declined comment on the announcement set to air this morning, but Ritz-Carlton confirmed the news for GlobeSt.com. The multi-million-dollar project will break ground in spring 2005. "The Residences at The Ritz-Carlton Dallas" will deliver in 2007.

The 21-story building will have hotel rooms on the first eight floors and condos on the upper bank. Unit sales have yet to begin, but some deposits have been taken. The units, ranging from 1,800 sf to 6,700 sf, will carry price tags of $800,000 to more than $6 million or $445 per sf to $896 per sf, the highest for any property type in Dallas/Fort Worth's history, according to an industry source in Dallas.

The Chevy Chase, MD-based Ritz-Carlton's combo project is a gold-plated hallmark that will shore up Dallas's standing as the "star of the Southwest." The project will rise with Crescent as the sole owner, but the REIT most likely will stay true to course and sell a partnership stake in the development.

Crescent this week began razing a one-time furniture store along Cedar Springs Road that brokers are now speculating will be used as a staging ground for construction crews. The hotel will front McKinney Avenue; the condos will face Pearl Street. And, they will build out the bulk of the REIT's vacant land adjacent to the 1.1-million-sf Crescent, a trio of European-style office towers with a 220-room hotel operated by Rosewood Hotels & Resorts and Gallery-style shops.

Uptown, with a 92% occupancy in its multifamily stock, is a hotbed of development activity, mostly condos, as builders and buyers alike juxtaposition for close-in properties with values that can only go up as Dallas pushes a revitalization plan to build synergy for a 24/7 CBD. The Ritz-Carlton's stamp of approval for its 11th residential project and first one west of the Mississippi River is the kind of blessing that Dallas dealmakers were hoping would come along. Long considered as one of "the" places to live in the metroplex, Uptown's residential rates average $200 per sf, with per unit price tags running from $400,000 to about $2 million...until now.