Landmark Dallas Morning News building still headed for a redo - The Dallas Morning News

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A Dallas developer is pushing ahead with plans to repurpose the former Dallas Morning News building on the southwest corner of downtown Dallas.

Businessman and investor Ray Washburne bought the newspaper’s longtime campus next to Dallas’ convention center last year.

The more than 8-acre property includes a landmark building that opened in 1949. The News moved its offices in 2017.

Washburne paid $28 million for the Young Street property and plans to redevelop it as a mixed-use project.

While the pandemic has caused delays, Washburne said he hopes to start construction on the first phase of the project early next year.

“Our plan was always to start construction in the first quarter of next year, and it’s about a two-year construction time,” he said in a Thursday morning presentation with the economic development group Downtown Dallas Inc.

He said the original building designed by noted Dallas architect George Dahl will be used for a luxury hotel.

“We are pushing ahead with the smaller building in front,” Washburne said. “It’s only going to be a 130-room boutique.

“I think there is going to be a market for it in 2023,” he said. “What we don’t have at that end of downtown is a cool, hip boutique hotel.”

Other parts of the old newspaper campus will be repurposed for restaurants, entertainment and residential uses.

Washburne said the former printing presses that are on the lower levels of the complex will become a performance venue. “I’m going to do an entertainment facility in there, kind of like Gilley’s or the Bomb Factory,” he said.

He said the redevelopment will complement the convention center.

“At our convention center, when you walk out the front door there is nothing to do and nowhere to go,” Washburne said. “If you are at a convention, you can walk right out there and I will have it lined up with 10 to 12 restaurants and bars.

“You are in this cool, hip retro 1940s-feeling entertainment district.”

Washburne said his development will be well positioned between the Omni and Hyatt hotels, which both serve convention center traffic.

He also plans to build a 1,100-room hotel at the south end of the old News campus.

“The big convention hotel we are having to shelve right now with the pandemic,” Washburne said. “I’m pushing ahead with the boutique hotel in front.”

He hopes the project will revive activity in that corner of downtown. “There was a lot opportunity with the Omni Hotel but nothing has been built since,” Washburne said. “What I hope to do is start that activity with my Dallas Morning News site.

“You have all the land in the world down there to do something on.”

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Landmark Dallas Morning News building still headed for a redo - The Dallas Morning News
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