An office tower in downtown Dallas once slated for conversion but lost to foreclosure is on the market.
Avison Young has the listing for 211 North Ervay, the blue-paneled office tower once called an eyesore by former Dallas Mayor Laura Miller. It’s marketing the 18-story, 185,000-square-foot office building as a redevelopment play, according to a release from the firm. Avison Young’s Mike B. Kennedy, James Nelson, Erik Edeen and Sullivan Johnston are leading the effort.
The property was built in 1958 and renovated in 2014. Its zoning would allow for redevelopment as multifamily, hospitality and office. The building is nearly vacant and being listed with no asking price, Avison Young said.
The current owner is Thistle Creek Capital, which bought the property in an $8 million credit bid — $43 a square foot — at a foreclosure auction in February 2024. It was previously owned by troubled syndicator Kenny Wolfe, who founded Dallas-based Wolfe Investments.
Wolfe announced his purchase of the tower, whose capital stack included the $13 million loan from Thistle Creek and $9 million in equity, less than a year earlier. He had planned to convert it from offices to 238 apartment units. Around the same time, he partnered with Dallas-based developer Bluelofts and purchased the historic Oil & Gas Building in downtown Fort Worth with similar conversion plans. He lost that building to foreclosure, too.
Wolfe’s downfall was defined by his attempt to stick the landing on an ambitious pivot from collecting a portfolio of dollar stores and older apartment complexes to executing the notoriously challenging office-to-resi conversion in downtown Dallas, Fort Worth and Cleveland.
Despite the building’s complicated recent past, conversion experts agree it has potential.
A 2023 paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research in coordination with New York University and Columbia University identified the midcentury-modern tower as one of 50 North Texas buildings structurally ripe for conversion.
New York University professor and report author Arpit Gupta said 211 North Ervay “met all the criteria” for a conversion candidate, including location, age and the distance between the building’s core and its windows.
