An office tower in downtown Dallas, previously planned for conversion but lost to foreclosure, is now on the market. Avison Young is handling the listing for 211 North Ervay, an 18-story, 185,000-square-foot building once described as an eyesore by former Dallas Mayor Laura Miller. The firm is marketing the property as a redevelopment opportunity. Mike B. Kennedy, James Nelson, Erik Edeen and Sullivan Johnston of Avison Young are leading the sales effort.
The building was constructed in 1958 and underwent renovations in 2014. According to Avison Young, its zoning allows for redevelopment into multifamily housing, hospitality or continued office use. The property is nearly vacant and has no listed asking price.
Thistle Creek Capital currently owns the building after acquiring it with an $8 million credit bid at a foreclosure auction in February 2024. This equates to about $43 per square foot. Before that, Kenny Wolfe—founder of Wolfe Investments—owned the property.
Wolfe had announced his purchase less than a year before the foreclosure. The financing included a $13 million loan from Thistle Creek and $9 million in equity. He intended to convert the office space into 238 apartment units. Around that time, Wolfe also partnered with Bluelofts on another conversion project involving the historic Oil & Gas Building in downtown Fort Worth; that property was also lost to foreclosure.
Wolfe’s difficulties stemmed from shifting his focus from acquiring dollar stores and older apartment complexes to attempting complex office-to-residential conversions in Dallas, Fort Worth and Cleveland.
Despite recent challenges with ownership and use, some experts see potential for converting the building. A paper published in 2023 by the National Bureau of Economic Research with New York University and Columbia University identified 211 North Ervay as one of fifty buildings in North Texas structurally suitable for conversion.
New York University professor Arpit Gupta said that 211 North Ervay “met all the criteria” for a conversion candidate, including location, age and distance between its core and windows.
