Property sales turn up the heat on North Oak Cliff’s hot development market
Apartment builders are scrambling to find sites across the river from downtown Dallas.
Kairoi Residential apartments are under construction at 120 E. Colorado Blvd. at the intersection of Beckley in North Oak Cliff.(Allison Slomowitz / Special Contributor)
By Steve Brown
6:00 AM on Jun 3, 2022
When Cienda Partners made its first purchase in Oak Cliff and West Dallas in 2006, the area was still not on most developers’ radar.
But after the investor sold its 8-acre trailer park site on West Commerce Street to one of the country’s top apartment builders, the real estate market took notice.
“The dam broke, and everybody started coming over the river,” said Cienda Partners co-founder Barry Hancock. “We’ve had a good run in Oak Cliff, and we are partial to it.”
Cienda Partners just did its biggest deal yet in the neighborhood, after more than a decade of buying and selling Oak Cliff real estate.
A developer known as the “condo king” of Miami just snapped up 8 acres from Cienda Partners at the Oak Cliff end of the Jefferson Street bridge.
The company — Related Group — plans to build more than 400 luxury apartments on the high-profile site that Cienda Partners acquired in 2015.
The builder of some of Florida’s most successful residential high-rises, Related Group is now scouting the country for development locations. Its first Texas buy is in North Oak Cliff.
“Sometimes it takes someone from out of town who doesn’t have preconceived notions to see the obvious,” Hancock said. “Once word about Related got out, every one saw the obvious.”
Related Group’s purchase has turned up the heat on what is already one of urban Dallas’ hottest apartment building markets.
Developers are putting up thousands of new rental units in the area stretching from Singleton Boulevard in West Dallas to Interstate 35E.
Apartment builders Banyan Residential, Columbus Realty, Stonelake Capital Partners and Kairoi Residential are just a few of the major builders working on new rental communities across the river from downtown.
Local builder Mintwood Real Estate just bought an almost 2-acre site from Cienda Partners near the corner of Colorado Boulevard and Jefferson. The land was part of the property Cienda Partners acquired around the old Oak Farms Dairy in North Oak Cliff.
“We invest in sites that are proximate to established neighborhood amenities, such as parks and retail, and to job centers,” said Mintwood’s Katy Slade. “Our property is minutes from downtown Dallas, Bishop Arts and Jefferson Boulevard — three of Dallas’ original walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods.
“It also benefits from continued public investment in infrastructure like the deck park, streetcar, Trinity River trails and new highway exit.”
Mintwood is finalizing plans for about 200 rental units in its project on Colorado.
Cienda Partners purchased the former Oak Farms dairy site in 2014 near the Jefferson Street bridge and Colorado. (Allison Slomowitz / Special Contributor)
After the sales to Related Group and Mintwood, Cienda Partners still has about 22 acres left in North Oak Cliff.
“The whole site is zoned walkable mixed-use with 20-story zoning and very dense,” Hancock said.
Cienda Partners is working with Southern Asset Service Corp.’s Harold Ginsburg to market additional building sites at its property.
Hancock said that along with apartment builders, the company is talking to hotel and office developers.
“We have sort of the last big, good properties on the rim of downtown,” he said.
Cienda Partners bought the Oak Farms Dairy in 2014 and has been in no hurry to develop the land, holding out for the right deal. “We are glad we waited,” Hancock said.
Oak Farms was one of the Dallas properties that was pitched to Amazon when the big e-commerce retailer was looking around the country for potential second headquarters sites.
“I think over the next 18 to 24 months we will be sold out of the property,” Hancock said.
Cienda Partners has built a business around buying edgy real estate outside the mainstream. It has acquired and sold real estate near the Design District, in Oak Lawn and all across West Dallas and Oak Cliff.
“Not everybody wants to be in Uptown,” Hancock said. “We have a pretty good track record of finding sites other people overlook.
“We’ll keep looking in North Oak Cliff and push farther south.”
Developer Alamo Manhattan Corp. is about to begin its second apartment community in North Oak Cliff — 210 units on Zang Boulevard. The apartment and retail building is next to a similar project Alamo Manhattan completed in 2018.
“What we thought would happen there has happened — this has turned into one of Dallas’ great neighborhoods,” said Alamo Manhattan’s president Matt Segrest. “We expect to break ground this summer.
“Dallas is a dynamic city, and nothing shows that more than North Oak Cliff.”
Cienda Partners did master plans for its North Oak Cliff sites when Amazon was shopping for a campus location in 2017.(Cienda Partners )