Dallas Is Building Up. The Question Is Where.

What we know now about the residential developments reshaping Dallas—and the questions they are raising along the way.

For a city long associated with single-family homes, generous lots, and room to spread out, Dallas is beginning to offer a much broader answer to the question of what it means to live well here.

High-rise living is not new to Dallas. Turtle Creek has offered it for decades. Uptown and Victory Park followed, building districts where residential towers feel like an expected part of the landscape. Downtown has increasingly converted underused office space into apartments, hotels, and residences.

What is changing now is the map.

A new generation of residential development is moving beyond the places where Dallas traditionally built upward. Knox is becoming a more complete urban district. Preston Center is preparing for a significant mixed-use redevelopment. Hundreds of apartments are under construction around the SMU/Mockingbird DART station. And at Preston Road and Royal Lane, an ambitious proposal has opened a much larger debate about height, density, and where the character of a neighborhood begins and ends.

The question is no longer whether Dallas will continue to build vertically.

The more interesting question is where—and what kind of Dallas life those buildings will create.

Downtown’s Second Life

Some of the most consequential additions to downtown Dallas have not been built from the ground up. They have come from reconsidering buildings the city already had.

The National transformed the former First National Bank tower into a combination of residences, hotel, dining, retail, and office space. The National Residences share the building with Thompson Dallas, giving residents access to a level of service and hospitality that would once have been associated almost exclusively with a hotel stay.

Nearby, Peridot Residences introduced 291 apartments into 14 floors of Santander Tower. At 1900 Pacific, the former Corrigan Tower found new life as a residential building overlooking Pacific Plaza.

These projects matter for reasons beyond their individual apartment counts. They bring people into buildings—and parts of downtown—that were once primarily occupied during office hours. They also demonstrate that Dallas does not always need to erase an older building to create a new way of living.

East Quarter offers a slightly different version of the same idea. Historic automobile showrooms were restored and joined by new offices, restaurants, retail, and East Quarter Residences. Rather than separating residential life from the surrounding district, the building was conceived as part of it.

Together with The Victor in Victory Park, a 39-story rental tower with 344 residences, these developments have helped establish that sophisticated urban living in Dallas can take several forms: adaptive reuse, hospitality-branded residences, new rental towers, and genuinely mixed-use neighborhoods.

They are not simply additions to the skyline. They are proof that more people can live in the center of Dallas when the right homes, services, and experiences are brought together.

Knox Becomes More Than a Street

Knox may be the clearest example of how the geography of high-rise living is changing.

Novē at Knox, a 19-story building with 310 rental residences, demonstrated that there was demand for vertical living beside the Katy Trail and within walking distance of the neighborhood’s restaurants, shops, and everyday conveniences.

The much larger Knox Street development is now taking that premise considerably further.

Spanning more than one million square feet, the project brings together offices, retail and restaurants, a half-acre park connected to the Katy Trail, The Lora apartment tower, and The Knox Hotel and Residences.

The Lora includes 186 rental residences across 27 stories. The Knox, operated by Auberge Collection, combines a 140-room hotel with 48 private residences and is expected to debut in late 2026. The residences were nearly sold out well before completion—an indication that there is a market in Dallas for homes that combine ownership, privacy, hotel-level service, and immediate access to a walkable neighborhood.

The next proposal is already emerging. The Savannah, currently in predevelopment and design, is envisioned as a 20-story boutique tower with 100 large-format rental residences near McKinney Avenue and the Katy Trail.

Each project is different, but together they point to the same larger shift. Knox is no longer merely a street where Dallas goes to shop or have dinner. It is becoming a district where more people can live without separating their homes from the places they already spend their time.

For a closer look at the neighborhood’s larger transformation—including its evolving mix of residences, hospitality, retail, restaurants, and public space—read The New Knox.

Around SMU, Density Takes a Different Form

Not every important residential development needs to be a luxury tower.

At the SMU/Mockingbird DART station, High Street Residential and Trammell Crow Company have broken ground on a 394-unit apartment development expected to be completed in late 2027. It is the first residential phase of a larger 16-acre, transit-oriented plan that will eventually include additional uses and replace underused surface parking with a more connected district.

At seven stories, the apartment building will not redefine the Dallas skyline. Its importance is closer to the ground.

Residents will be able to live beside a DART station, near SMU, Mockingbird Station, the Katy Trail connection, and established East Dallas neighborhoods. A new underground public garage will continue to provide parking for transit riders, while 20 percent of the apartments will be offered at qualifying income levels.

Dallas frequently talks about becoming more walkable. The SMU/Mockingbird development is an opportunity to see what that can mean when housing, transportation, and existing neighborhood destinations are planned together.

Preston Center Moves Up

Farther north, 8300 Douglas introduces vertical residential living into a part of Dallas where high-rise homes have existed, but have rarely been incorporated into a new mixed-use project of this scale.

The redevelopment is planned around a 12-story office building and a 17-story tower with 147 luxury residences. Approximately 24,000 square feet of restaurant and retail space and a 35,000-square-foot rooftop park are intended to make the development feel less like two isolated towers and more like a connected place.

The project is scheduled for completion in 2028.

Its location is what makes it particularly significant. Preston Center sits between the Park Cities and Preston Hollow, surrounded by established residential neighborhoods whose residents already use the district for offices, restaurants, shopping, and services.

The residential component could appeal to people who want to remain close to those neighborhoods but no longer want—or need—the responsibilities of a large single-family home. It also creates another option for executives, frequent travelers, and people who value a lock-and-leave lifestyle without wanting to move into Uptown or Downtown.

8300 Douglas is not bringing an unfamiliar destination into North Dallas. It is adding a new way to live beside one that already exists.

Preston–Royal Tests the Neighborhood Line

Just a few miles away, another proposed mixed-use development is receiving a very different response.

Developers Burk Interests and Greenway Investment Company are seeking zoning approval for an estimated $800 million redevelopment at the southwest corner of Preston Road and Royal Lane.

The revised proposal covers approximately seven acres and includes six buildings. Plans call for approximately 175 apartments, no more than 50 condominiums, up to 150 hotel rooms, a 12-story office building, and new restaurant and retail space. The tallest building could reach 19 stories, or approximately 240 feet.

Current zoning generally limits buildings at the site to 54 feet.

That difference has made the proposal one of the most closely watched development conversations in Preston Hollow.

Supporters see an opportunity to replace aging commercial buildings with a substantial investment that brings new housing, offices, restaurants, retail, and public-facing improvements to a prominent intersection.

Many nearby residents support reinvestment in the property but oppose the requested height and density. Their concerns include traffic, neighborhood compatibility, privacy, infrastructure, construction disruption, and the precedent that the zoning change could establish along Preston Road.

The Dallas City Plan Commission voted 10–4 in August to recommend approval of the zoning request. The final decision belongs to the Dallas City Council, whose hearing has been postponed until October 14, 2026.

Until that vote occurs, it is important to describe Preston–Royal for what it is: a proposal, not an approved development.

It is also the project that most clearly exposes the larger question Dallas will continue to face.

Most people can agree that an aging commercial property should not remain frozen in time simply because redevelopment is difficult. Most can also understand why residents want new construction at the edge of an established neighborhood to respect the scale and daily life around it.

The disagreement is over where thoughtful growth ends and overdevelopment begins.

That line will not be the same in Downtown, Knox, Preston Center, and Preston Hollow. Nor should it be. A city made up of distinct neighborhoods cannot treat every intersection as interchangeable.

But as Dallas grows, we will have to become more precise about what we mean when we ask for greater walkability, more housing choices, and better mixed-use development. Those things require change. The difficult work is deciding where that change fits—and what it should look like when it arrives.

The Architecture Is Only Part of the Story

The most revealing feature of Dallas’s new residential developments may not be their height.

It is the way they are being designed around daily life.

The newer projects increasingly combine residences with restaurants, retail, green space, offices, hospitality, or transportation. Many emphasize concierge service, secure access, fitness and wellness spaces, pet amenities, guest accommodations, and places to work or entertain without leaving the property.

For some residents, those amenities are the attraction. For others, the real luxury is simpler: being able to lock the door, travel for several weeks, and return without worrying about a yard, a pool, or an aging house.

That does not mean high-rise living will replace the single-family home in Dallas. It does mean the city is beginning to offer more credible choices between the two.

A longtime Preston Hollow or Park Cities resident may want to downsize without leaving the people and places that define daily life. A relocating executive may prioritize convenience and service while learning the city. A young professional may value walkability more than square footage. An SMU parent may want a secure second home near campus. A frequent traveler may simply want a home that asks less of them.

“High-rise buyer” is not one type of person, and high-rise living is not one type of experience.

What We Know Now

Some of these buildings are complete. Others are under construction, approaching delivery, awaiting approvals, or still being designed. Names, timelines, unit counts, and even entire plans can change before a project opens its doors.

That uncertainty is not a reason to ignore what is being proposed. It is a reason to distinguish carefully between what is operating, what is underway, and what remains an idea.

What we know now is that Dallas’s next chapter of residential development will not be confined to one skyline or one neighborhood. It will unfold in several different parts of the city, shaped by the needs and character of each.

The projects may be vertical, but the questions they raise are very much at street level:

Can you walk somewhere you genuinely want to go? Does the building contribute to the neighborhood around it? Does it offer a meaningful alternative to a single-family home? And does its scale make sense where it is being built?

Those are some of the questions guiding the new Dallas Curated High-Rise Living Directory, now in development.

The directory will bring Dallas’s condominium and rental buildings together in one searchable place, with filters for location, ownership or lease, amenities, services, and the features that affect how a building actually lives. It will also connect the buildings to Dallas Curated’s neighborhood guides—because choosing a high-rise is never only about the view from the residence.

It is also about the life waiting downstairs.

Project details and anticipated timelines reflect publicly available information as of September 2026 and are subject to change.