Renovation planned for One McKinney Plaza in Uptown Dallas

January 27, 2010

By STEVE BROWN / The Dallas Morning News
stevebrown@dallasnews.com

The owner of an office high-rise in Uptown is about to begin a major renovation.

Gaedeke Group LLC said Tuesday that it will spend more than $5 million to expand and upgrade the One McKinney Plaza tower at Hall Street and McKinney Avenue.

The 24-year-old office project has been less than 80 percent leased since a large fitness center in the building closed its doors last year.

Along with marketing that space to new tenants, Gaedeke Group said it is adding retail and lobby space to the building it has owned since 1996.

"As long-term owners, we want to protect our investment for the present and future," said Glenn Lickstein, Gaedeke's president. "We are going to take advantage of increased retail demand and street traffic from McKinney Avenue's evolution to enhance our investment."

A 14,000-square-foot, two-story wing of One McKinney Plaza facing McKinney will be remodeled for retail space, and the ground-floor lobby area will be enlarged from 2,123 square feet to 11,299 square feet with new construction.

Work will begin next month and will take about eight months.

BOKA Powell of Dallas is the architect for the renovation, and Austin Commercial is the general contractor.

Weitzman Group has been hired to handle retail leasing.

The largest block of vacant space in the building is the former Bally's fitness center on the third and fourth floors, which is available for lease as offices.