25-Story Tower Proposed in $800M Preston Hollow Development

A proposed $800 million mixed-use development at the southwest corner of Preston Road and Royal Lane would bring a 25-story hotel and condo tower to Preston Hollow, but organized neighborhood opposition is already pushing back on the project’s height before Dallas City Hall has even scheduled a hearing.

Developer Leland Burk, who owns the seven-acre site through Burk Interests, wants to build a 299-foot hotel and condo tower alongside a 21-story apartment building at 250 feet and an 11-story office property. The project, designed by GFF Design, also includes retail, restaurants and a half-acre of green space at the center. One problem: the current zoning cap at that corner sits at 54 feet.

Burk’s land is what’s left after the October 2019 EF-3 tornado carved through the neighborhood, reducing two-story medical office buildings to broken concrete. Burk Interests is partnering with Greenway Investment Co. on the project.

“This is a very special location in our city,” Burk said. “What we want to build will be here for 150 years.”

GFF Design architect Evan Beattie framed the half-acre green space as a defining feature for the broader neighborhood. “There will be an opportunity that comes to this development to create a gathering place, a real kind of green heart for Preston Hollow,” Beattie said.

Not everyone sees it that way.

Black and red yard signs reading “no skyscrapers, no rezoning at Preston and Royal” have appeared on lawns near the site. The opposition has taken organizational form. Margaret Chabris, a spokesperson for Preserve Preston Hollow, a nonprofit that started after the first version of the project was filed last October, told reporters she bought her duplex more than 20 years ago and watched her street rebuild after the tornado. A 299-foot tower rising beyond her backyard fence, she said, doesn’t belong here.

“We are for development,” Chabris said. “We are for something beautiful in that 7-acre space, but we want it to stay within the current zoning of 54 feet.”

That’s a gap of 245 feet between what Preserve Preston Hollow will accept and what Burk Interests is requesting. It won’t close easily.

The rezoning request hasn’t reached the City Plan Commission yet, and Dallas City Council hasn’t scheduled a vote. Under city procedure, the commission hears the case first and sends a recommendation to council before any final decision. No date has been set for either body. Neighbors gathered Tuesday for a community meeting to coordinate ahead of those hearings, whenever they arrive.

Burk didn’t dismiss the friction. “I did learn you don’t make a lot of friends filing zoning cases,” he told reporters on Monday. “But we really welcome the engagement, we think it’s going to be a better project because of that.”

What makes this fight worth watching isn’t just the dollar figure. Preston Hollow doesn’t have a lot of undeveloped seven-acre parcels sitting at major intersections, and NBC DFW’s earlier coverage of the proposal confirmed that Burk sees this as generational, not speculative. That framing matters in a neighborhood that has rebuilt slowly and carefully since the 2019 tornado, with residents paying close attention to what goes up and what fits.

The 54-foot zoning limit reflects the two-story medical office character the site held before the tornado. A 299-foot tower would be roughly five times the height of anything the current code allows and would stand taller than virtually any structure north of LBJ Freeway. Residents along the streets just south of Preston and Royal are the ones who’d look at it every morning.

Burk said he welcomes continued discussion and expects the project will improve through the public process. Whether that process produces a tower closer to 299 feet or something closer to what current zoning allows depends on how much ground each side is willing to cover.