KNIGHTS OF PYTHIAS HOTEL PROJECT
Westdale, which has previously redeveloped a number of historic buildings such as the Adam Hats Building and Deep Ellum Lofts, has announced plans to convert the Knights of Pythias Temple (2557 Elm Street) into part of a 160-room hotel.
The five-story Knights of Pythias Temple is historically very significant (it received City of Dallas Landmark Status in 1989) and is situated at a highly-visible location between both downtown and Deep Ellum. It was constructed in 1916 as the headquarters for a black fraternal order and was designed by William Sidney Pittman, who was the first African American architect to practice in Dallas Reflective of the eclectic Beaux-arts architectural style, it served as a major social, professional, and cultural location for the city’s black population until 1939 when the building went into receivership. Over the next twenty years, the building changed hands several times before being acquired by the Union Bankers Insurance Company in 1959. This firm owned the building until 1995; however, the building had become vacant at least a decade before this sale, and numerous efforts since then to renovate and re-occupy the building have been unsuccessful because of the financial challenges involved.
Westdale proposes spending approximately $50 million to restore and renovate the building and to construct a 96,000-square-foot structure that will connect with it (it is also recognized that without this connecting structure the project will not be financially feasible and that the Temple would otherwise remain vacant and dilapidated). The $50 million that Westdale anticipates spending makes this one of the larger adaptive re-use projects undertaken in the city. To help facilitate this conversion, the County has agreed to provide a ten-year 90% abatement on real property.
The Temple’s visibility and proximity to the DART Deep Ellum station, downtown, and Deep Ellum should help facilitate additional economic activity in the area. Project construction is scheduled to begin Summer 2018 and to be completed Summer 2020.
Project Updates
