Big changes could be coming to the Dallas skyline.
Developers Mike Hoque and Mike Ablon are closing in on a $350 million overhaul of Bank of America Plaza, the city’s tallest skyscraper at 901 Main Street, with a tax increment financing package that could provide up to $98 million in support, the Dallas Business Journal reported. The Downtown Dallas Development Authority and the Downtown Connection Tax Increment Financing District are slated to review the deal this week.
The agreement would dedicate future increases in property tax revenue to help fund redevelopment of the 72-story tower and four adjacent blocks. Staff recommended approval, setting the stage for City Council consideration.
Hoque and Ablon, through an entity called 901 Main PAHG Partners, struck a deal last year to buy the 1.9 million-square-foot tower from Chicago-based Metropolis Holdings. The price wasn’t disclosed. The Dallas Central Appraisal District valued the 1.85 million-square-foot tower at $130 million, or $70 per square foot. The purchase was expected to close mid-2025 but is now expected later this year. Metropolis bought the building in 1998 for about $300 million, or $162 per square foot.
In 2023 the building also lost its namesake tenant, when Bank of America downsized to 238,000 square feet in KDC’s in-development Parkside Uptown, leaving a 500,000-square-foot hole.
Ablon and Hoque’s plan envisions a 300-key luxury hotel inside the tower, plus streetscape upgrades designed to turn the fortress-like superblock into a more walkable downtown anchor.
Bank of America Plaza, famous for its colorful LED outline, has long been a Dallas icon but hasn’t had major reinvestment in decades. The proposed remodel could reposition the tower and reshape its surrounding blocks, dovetailing broader efforts to bring more residential and pedestrian activity downtown.
Hoque has been at the helm of major public/private redevelopment ventures, including a planned 270-acre mixed-use project in University Hills in far southeast Dallas that received a subsidy deal from the city, although his firm has missed deadlines in the past.
Similar TIF incentives have helped fund office-to-resi conversions and infrastructure upgrades along Main and Elm streets.
Meanwhile, Fort Worth is weighing its own incentive package. The City Council there will vote Sept. 30 on whether to offer up to $6 million in grants to Alcon Research, the global eye care giant founded in the city, as it considers relocating two European manufacturing lines to North Texas. The move would represent a $186 million investment and 241 new jobs.
— Eric Weilbacher
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