Hunt Realty Investments released plans last week to redevelop 20 acres around the Reunion Tower in downtown Dallas at a cost of around $5 billion, The Dallas Morning News reported. The redevelopment will be located next to the $3 billion Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center that the city plans to begin building next year to replace its existing aging convention center.
The Dallas-based investment firm owns the Reunion Tower, which has become an iconic part of the city’s skyline, as well as the neighboring Hyatt Regency Hotel. Both were completed in 1978, but much of the rest of the property has since remained vacant.
Hunt’s plan calls for constructing a dozen new high-rise residential and commercial buildings with up to 3,000 apartment units, a hotel with 600 to 1,000 rooms, 150,000 square feet of retail space and up to 2 million square feet of office space, as well as a 3- to 4-acre park, according to the Dallas Morning News. It also plans to redevelop the historic Union Station, located across the railroad tracks from Reunion Tower.
The first phase of construction is likely to include hotel, retail, dining and entertainment real estate to support the convention center, as well as affordable apartments. Ultimately, the project is expected to house 5,000 people, with 1,500 units of workforce housing.
The proposed mixed-use development differs from previous development plans for Reunion, which primarily consisted of office towers. San Francisco-based Hart Howerton architects prepared the new master plan.