DFW CRE Insider
Your weekly edge on Dallas-Fort Worth commercial real estate.
176
The number of apartment units planned for the Eldorado Towers on Stemmons Freeway — the gold-glass office buildings Mary Kay built as its headquarters in 1976. Fifty years later, the towers are becoming apartments. Somewhere between then and now, the entire office market shifted underneath them. (More below.)
In This Issue:
1. Profile: Jesse Pruitt — 50 years, 30 million square feet, and a career that started with a garage apartment in Highland Park and a guy who said "why don't you get in the real estate business?"
2. Deal: The Gold Towers Get a Second Life — Centurion American is turning Mary Kay's original Stemmons headquarters into apartments. Meanwhile, Mary Kay is selling its current HQ too.
3. Trend: Bed Bath & Beyond Buys The Container Store — Marcus Lemonis adds 100+ stores and 2.2 million square feet to his growing home-goods empire. Smart play or house of cards?
4. Data: $300M Uptown Tower with Affordable Housing — Nobody builds affordable units in Uptown. These guys are.
5. Analysis: The World Cup Effect — DFW hosts 9 matches, short-term rental bookings are up 238%, and homeowners are listing their houses for $479 a night.
6. Macro: The Mary Kay Exodus — The cosmetics giant is selling its 33-acre Addison campus. What it means for the Dallas Parkway corridor.
🏛️ PROFILE: Jesse Pruitt — 50 Years of DFW Dirt, Deals, and Cold Calls
Jesse Pruitt has been making deals in Dallas-Fort Worth commercial real estate since March 14, 1974. That's not a rough estimate — he remembers the exact date. It's the day John Ulick offered him a job at Vantage Companies for $650 a month and a four-door Chevrolet.
Pruitt didn't come from the real estate world. He grew up in Glen Rose, Texas — population small enough that he graduated with 25 kids, ten of them cousins. His family had been in the area since before the turn of the century. His great-grandfather was the town's first doctor around 1910. The family was in banking, ranching, and — during Prohibition — running whiskey to the speakeasies in Dallas and Fort Worth. "There's a book out about my family," Pruitt says.
He played football at a Class A high school with 109 kids and rode horses before he could drive. He had a paper route on horseback at seven years old — delivering the Fort Worth Star-Telegram across the river from his uncle's tailor shop.
A scholarship took him to Texas Tech, where he lettered in football, earned a degree in biology with a minor in chemistry, and crammed a four-year program into five and a half years. He was a graduate assistant for two years — and played semi-pro football for the West Texas Roughnecks out of Odessa on the side.
After Tech, Pruitt came to Dallas and went into scientific equipment sales at Sergeant Welch Scientific Company out of Chicago. He was on the road two weeks out, one week in — covering North Texas, part of Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana with a roll of dimes for the pay phone. He spent six years there, rising from salesman to regional manager overseeing eight salesmen. Along the way, he made a hire that would've raised eyebrows in the 1970s: he replaced a guy in Oklahoma with a woman with a biology degree. She tripled the territory in her first year.
How a Garage Apartment Changed Everything
The pivot to real estate reads like a Texas tall tale, except it's true. Pruitt was renting a garage apartment in Highland Park from a man named Joe Wroe, who worked for Vantage Companies. Joe was a World War II major — officer of the day at Pearl Harbor, if the story is right — and an Aggie.
One Friday afternoon, Joe invited Pruitt up to the big house for a drink. Pruitt told him Sergeant Welch was about to ship him to Chicago for a national sales manager role, and he didn't want to go "further north than Denton County."
Joe's response: "Why don't you get in the real estate business?"
Pruitt's response: "Joe, I'm a pretty good salesman, but I don't think I'd sell something that's not there." The scientist in him was skeptical. You can't hold a lease in your hand.
Joe got him a meeting with John Ulick, Vantage's president. And that was that.
Building an Empire — One Cold Call at a Time
His first day, Joe Wroe handed Pruitt his business card. Pruitt scratched out Joe's name and started walking down Fairington Street, cold-calling warehouses. He got his first lead from a guy who said he needed "more clear height." Pruitt went back to Joe: "What in the world is clear height?"
He figured it out fast. Within a few years, Pruitt was Salesman of the Year — multiple times. Ulick promoted him to VP of Marketing, then to senior roles running the Dallas division. At Vantage, he was responsible for the development, management, and leasing of more than 30 million square feet of office, warehouse, build-to-suit, and design-build facilities across DFW and the United States.
Vantage wasn't a small shop. They had offices in Houston, Denver, Atlanta, Memphis, Tampa, Orlando, Columbus, Cincinnati, Chicago, and more. And in DFW, Vantage and Trammell Crow were essentially the only two industrial developers in town. "Crow and us were the only two developers doing industrial," Pruitt says.
The Crow connection runs deep. Ulick and Crow had been partners before a dispute broke them apart. The story Pruitt heard: Crow told the banks not to extend credit to Ulick when he went out on his own. Ulick found financing through contacts in Kansas City, built his first building off Belt Line Road, and eventually the banks came around. Republic Bank became Vantage's primary lender.
Pruitt's cold-calling style was legendary — and occasionally illegal. He once taped his business card inside every men's room stall in an office building at 2300 Mockingbird after finding out the tenants were about to be displaced. He made three deals. Ulick called him in: "Did you do this?" Pruitt said yes, sir. Ulick's response: "Good job."
He also had the cops called on him "four or five times" while cold-calling office buildings. His escape route: the fire stairs.
One of his favorite stories: a trucking depot owner named Mrs. Johnson on Irving Boulevard. He found her 25,000 square feet, but before he could close, another Vantage agent had already leased the space. Mrs. Johnson "called me several names and told me never to come back." Pruitt waited three weeks, bought a dozen roses, walked in, and made a 30,000-square-foot deal.
The Companies, The Crashes, and The Comebacks
Pruitt spent nearly 20 years at Vantage — until the late-1980s real estate crash. In 1987, Ulick walked into Pruitt's office and said: "Jesse, you and none of your people work for Vantage anymore." He'd sold the management and leasing operations to a British group.
Then Ulick handed Pruitt a map of England and told him to pick the name of his new company. Pruitt pointed to Bradford. That's how Bradford Companies got its name. Most people in Dallas commercial real estate don't know that story.
Pruitt ran Bradford until the early 1990s, completing over 2,500 transactions totaling more than $950 million and managing over 20 million square feet of industrial and office space.
From there, the resume reads like a map of DFW deal-making:
- Wilcox Realty Group (co-founded 1992) — partnered with Ray Hunt
- CMC-Commercial Realty Group (partner/principal) — responsible for 10 million square feet of speculative and build-to-suit product, with a German capital partner funding development in Dallas, San Antonio, Denver, and beyond
- Somervell Commercial Realty (current, 15 years) — project consulting, development management, and owner representation on over 5 million square feet
Through it all, Pruitt has used the same architect, the same engineers, the same lawyers, and — since 1983 — the same contractor: Bob Moore Construction. "They've built 40 buildings for me," he says.
On the Market Today
At 79, Pruitt still gets up at 5:30 every morning, eats his oatmeal, and wears a tie to work. "Ulick said you never know when you're gonna meet a prospect," he explains. It's the philosophy he drilled into every salesman who ever worked for him.
He's focused on smaller metal buildings in growth markets — Frisco, Denison, and beyond — where small companies want to own their own space and vacancy is tight. "The bigger buildings have vacancy problems," he says. "The smaller buildings? You can't find them. Like hen's teeth."
Ask him about the current market and he'll tell you straight: "Development is never done to the need of supply and demand, but to the cost of capital. When it's 4%, you're gonna build like hell. When it's 7%, you're not gonna build at all."
Ask him when he's retiring and the answer is simpler: "My last deal is going to be a casket." His wife said she'd scatter his ashes on the football field at Glen Rose.
Jesse Pruitt has been rich and he's been poor — his words. But what's lasted through 50 years, multiple companies, real estate crashes, and comebacks is a handshake philosophy that's become rare in the business.
"My handshake is my deal," he says. "I've never screwed anybody around. And that's how I've been successful."
🏢 DEAL: The Gold Towers Get a Second Life — And Mary Kay Gets a For-Sale Sign
Two Mary Kay stories in one week — and together, they tell you everything about where DFW office is headed.
The Conversion: Centurion American Development Group filed this week to transform the Eldorado Towers at 8777 and 8787 N. Stemmons Freeway into a 176-unit apartment complex called "The Founder." The $43 million project will span 211,000 square feet, with construction starting in August and completion expected by April 2028.
The gold-glass towers are a DFW landmark. Mary Kay built the first eight-story tower in 1976 as its corporate headquarters, adding the five-story building in 1985. The cosmetics giant left for Addison in 1995. The buildings changed hands several times — rebranded from Optima Business Park to Eldorado Towers when the Ricchi Group bought them in 2020. Centurion American acquired them from Ricchi in October 2025.
Centurion American's reasoning was blunt: "Converting the office into residential space made more sense long term because of recent shifts in the office market." The Medical District location positions the complex to attract healthcare professionals working nearby. Plans include a pool, fitness center, business center, and pickleball courts.
The Sale: Meanwhile, Mary Kay is looking to sell its current headquarters — the 500,000+ square foot, 13-story campus on 33 acres at 16251 Dallas Parkway in Addison. Cushman & Wakefield is marketing the site, calling it "one of the nation's most compelling redevelopment prospects."
Here's the kicker: Mary Kay has only used about 20% of the land for its headquarters since purchasing the site in 1994. That's roughly 26 acres of prime Dallas North Tollway-adjacent land that's been sitting underutilized for three decades.
The company said "now is a good time to consider a sale, reassess our campus footprint, and align it with our long-term needs and goals." Translation: the real estate is worth more than the operations justify.
The backstory adds texture. Mary Kay's founder launched the cosmetics company in 1963 from a 500-square-foot storefront in Dallas' Exchange Park. The Addison headquarters took nearly ten years to complete — it was originally designed for SunBelt Savings before the 1980s crash left it unfinished. Dallas businessman Don Carter bought the shell from federal regulators for $22.6 million; Mary Kay purchased it nine months later.
Now, family drama compounds the real estate story. Mary Kay Ash's descendants are battling over the company's future. Her son Richard Rogers is accusing current CEO Ryan Rogers — his own son — of mismanagement, alleging comprehensive income swung from a $51 million gain in 2021 to a $46 million loss in 2025.
The Takeaway: When the same company's old headquarters and current headquarters are both in transition at the same time, that's not coincidence — it's a market signal. DFW's office-to-residential pipeline is growing, and even well-located corporate campuses aren't immune to reassessment. The Addison site, in particular, could become one of the most significant mixed-use redevelopment opportunities on the Tollway in years.
🛒 TREND: Bed Bath & Beyond Buys The Container Store — 100+ Stores, 2.2 Million Square Feet, and a $150M Bet on Home Goods
Marcus Lemonis just made the boldest move yet in his ongoing effort to resurrect Bed Bath & Beyond as a brick-and-mortar brand.
Bed Bath & Beyond (now owned by Beyond Inc., formerly Overstock.com) announced this week that it will acquire Coppell, Texas-based The Container Store for $150 million. The deal brings 100+ locations representing over 2.2 million square feet of retail space under the Bed Bath umbrella. The acquisition is expected to close in July.
The plan: Container Store locations will be rebranded as The Container Store/Bed Bath & Beyond. Lemonis wants to expand the product mix beyond storage and organization into the full range of home goods — bedding, bath, kitchen, entertaining, home services. The combined stores will average about 21,000 square feet each.
"This transaction will fill critical gaps in both our retail and home services strategy," Lemonis said in a letter to shareholders.
The bull case: Container Store locations are positioned "next to the top malls and have very good lease terms," according to retail consultant Rudy Milian. Adding the broader Bed Bath & Beyond product assortment — "the bedding, the bath, textiles, the kitchen, entertainment essentials" — significantly widens the customer base. Fitch Ratings' David Silverman noted that with the original Bed Bath chain gone, "there is a space in the market that this company could fill."
The bear case: Bed Bath & Beyond is assembling a portfolio of struggling brands. Beyond Inc. already owns Overstock.com, Kirkland's, and Buy Buy Baby. Morningstar's David Swartz didn't mince words: "The stock has been straight down. This is just a conglomerate of failing businesses that they're trying to make into something." The strategy has changed multiple times — first online-only, then Kirkland's conversions, then store-level conversions, and now Container Store.
The CRE angle: This deal reshuffles over 2.2 million square feet of prime retail real estate. Container Store's locations tend to be well-positioned in high-traffic retail corridors. If Lemonis delivers on the $40 million in projected cost savings and the expanded format works, those locations become more productive and more likely to renew. If it doesn't work, landlords with Container Store leases should be watching closely.
For DFW specifically: Container Store is headquartered in Coppell. The corporate implications of this acquisition — jobs, HQ decisions, local operations — are worth tracking.
📊 DATA: A $300 Million Uptown Tower — With Affordable Housing
Here's a sentence you don't hear often: developers are building affordable housing in Uptown Dallas.
Dallas-based Sycamore Development and Stratega Capital plan to build a 30+ story, 398-unit mixed-use tower at 3300 McKinney Avenue. The 376-foot tower will span nearly 600,000 square feet, with a price tag between $250 million and $300 million. Gensler is the architect.
The headline is the unit mix: 273 market-rate units and 125 mixed-income apartments, including 63 affordable units for residents making around 80% of area median income. For a single household in Dallas County in 2025, that's $65,700.
"Nobody builds affordable housing in Uptown," said attorney Philip Kingston, Sycamore's consultant on the project. "The developments that have gone in there or that are under development now are paying large fees in lieu of providing affordable developments. These are actual affordable units for normal working people on McKinney Avenue."
The market-rate and affordable portions will have separate entries, amenities, and ownership — a financing requirement. Plans go before the Oak Lawn Committee on April 7. If all goes well: City Plan Commission review in September, permitting by late winter, groundbreaking as early as summer 2027, and completion by mid-2029.
Sycamore Development has form in this space — they're behind the $200 million renovation of the Magnolia Building at 1401 Commerce St. (hotel + mixed-income rentals) and the $103.2 million West End Lofts (154 mixed-income apartments, with a $49 million city incentive package).
Why it matters: Uptown has been one of the most active development corridors in Dallas for two decades, and affordable housing has been conspicuously absent. If this project delivers, it could set a precedent for how future Uptown developments are structured — and give the city a model for embedding affordability in high-value neighborhoods without killing the economics.
⚽ ANALYSIS: The World Cup Effect — DFW's Short-Term Rental Boom Is Already Here
The 2026 FIFA World Cup runs June 11 to July 19, and AT&T Stadium in Arlington will host nine matches — more than any other city in the tournament. The first DFW match is June 14; the last is July 14.
The short-term rental market is already reacting:
- Bookings up 238% year-over-year as of February — the second-highest increase for any U.S. host city, behind only Kansas City
- Average nightly rate for available rentals: $479 in Dallas, $407 in Fort Worth
- Average booked rate (what people have actually paid): $213 in Dallas, $241 in Fort Worth
- Occupancy during the group stage: 28% in Dallas, 29% in Fort Worth — up from 7% and 10% when matches were first announced
- Highest occupancy growth areas: West Dallas, Cockrell Hill, the Cedars, and Mesquite
Deloitte estimates roughly 305,000 tourists requiring accommodations will visit the Dallas area, with about 42,000 expected to use Airbnb.
DFW homeowners are jumping in. First-time hosts are listing their primary residences on Airbnb and Vrbo for the tournament window. Experienced operators are riding the price surge. AirDNA data shows the gap between what's already booked and what's still available is widening — early bookers locked in at ~$210-240/night, but remaining inventory is listed at nearly double that.
The takeaway: If you own property near AT&T Stadium, the entertainment districts, or in areas with good highway access to Arlington, the next three months represent a once-in-a-generation rental income opportunity. The smart operators already have bookings. The rest are scrambling.
🏢 MACRO: Mary Kay's 33 Acres — What the Addison Sale Means for the Tollway Corridor
When a 500,000+ square foot campus on 33 acres along the Dallas North Tollway hits the market, the entire corridor pays attention.
Mary Kay's Addison headquarters at 16251 Dallas Parkway has been the cosmetics company's home since 1995. But only about 20% of the land has been developed — the 13-story tower houses 1,200+ employees, with the rest of the acreage largely underutilized. Cushman & Wakefield is marketing it as a potential corporate campus or mixed-use redevelopment.
The timing is notable. The Tollway corridor through Addison, Far North Dallas, and into Plano/Frisco is one of the most competitive office and mixed-use markets in DFW. Recent years have seen significant development activity at Legacy, the Star in Frisco, and along the 121 corridor. A 33-acre blank canvas in Addison — with existing infrastructure, Tollway frontage, and proximity to Galleria Dallas — is rare.
The buyer profile matters. A single corporate user would maintain the status quo. A mixed-use developer could fundamentally reshape that stretch of Dallas Parkway. Given the current economics — office demand is selective, multifamily absorption is healthy, and experiential retail is growing — a mixed-use play seems most likely.
What to watch: The sale price, the buyer's identity, and the zoning conversations that follow. This is one of the most significant land opportunities to hit the Tollway in years. It won't stay on the market long.
📚 What We're Reading
Quick links worth your time this week:
- Stemmons Freeway Gold Towers Becoming Apartments (https://www.dallasnews.com/business/real-estate/article/stemmons-freeway-gold-towers-home-mary-kay-22183630.php) — DMN's full story on Centurion American's conversion plan
- Mary Kay May Sell Its Addison HQ (https://www.dallasnews.com/business/real-estate/2026/03/30/cosmetics-giant-mary-kay-sell-dallas-area/) — 33 acres, 500K+ SF, and a family feud
- Bed Bath & Beyond Acquires Container Store (CoStar) — $150M deal reshuffles 2.2M SF of retail
- $300M Uptown Tower with Affordable Housing (https://www.dallasnews.com/business/real-estate/article/uptown-300mtower-22184250.php) — Sycamore Development's McKinney Ave. project
- World Cup Short-Term Rental Surge (https://www.dallasnews.com/business/real-estate/article/world-cup-airbnb-vrbo-short-term-rentals-22183900.php) — AirDNA data on the DFW booking boom
💭 Deep Thought
“If you ever drop your keys into a river of molten lava, let'em go...because man, they're gone!”
— Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy
📬 Next Week
More DFW deal flow, market data, and the stories behind the numbers. If you know someone who should be reading this, forward it along.
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