SINCE THE WORD GOT OUT IN 1992 that Rosewood Property Company was going to build a high-rise residence adjoining The Mansion on Turtle Creek Hotel, the rumor mill was churning-everyone from Madonna to Queen Elizabeth to Jerry Jones supposedly bought a place at The Mansion Residence. The Madonna rumor was quite elaborate: The Mansion, the buzz had it, was her Dennis Rodman love nest. The rogue rebounder would fly up from San Antonio, and Madonna in from Los Angeles, to meet at the oh-so-secure and private high-rise.
Though The Mansion can’t count Madonna or the Queen of England or the owner of the Dallas Cowboys as residents, it remains one of the most amazing residential real estate ventures in local history. Rosewood broke ground on the project at 2801 Turtle Creek in the fall of 1992, hiring high-rise specialist Judy Pittman as the exclusive agent. Pittman is regularly the top-grossing real estate agent in town and had an impressive track record selling The Claridge, another luxury residence along Turtle Creek (where, by the way, Jerry Jones does own an apartment).
By July 1994,when the building shell was completed, Pittman had closed sales on 20 of 23 total units. The half-floor units range roughly in size from 3,500 to 5,000 square feet. (Rosewood had originally anticipated a total of 25 units-two on each of 12 floors, and a penthouse of 5,655 square feet. However, one owner, Irvin L. Levy, bought the entire 9,638-squarc-foot 11th floor, and another, Doyle Hartman, combined two units,one above the other, to make a two-level apartment.)
With 20 apartments sold, talk was again plentiful-now, the subject was sale price. The Mansion Residence, which the owners quickly renamed a more discreet 2801 Turtle Creek, supposedly was selling for $100 to $200 per square foot. This time, however, the rumormongers underestimated Dallas’ capacity for consumption. In reality, some units ran as much as $300 per square foot.
What did residents get for these incredible prices? Great views from a bare concrete shell without a single interior wall. Finish-out was not included. However, an infrastructure was in place like no other high-rise residence in Dallas. Each unit had false floors, so that owners were completely free to design interiors, unencumbered by existing plumbing that mandated where baths or kitchens must go. Unlike many high-rise buildings, gas was available for kitchens. Exterior columns and high ceilings allowed architects to dream and create without restriction. But the top selling points were the configuration-only two units per floor make the property extremely private-state-of-the-art security, and the availability of all of the world-class Mansion Hotel services.
After paying between $1 million and $2 million for a shell, residents began spending two, three, and four times that much for interior finish-out. Craftsmen from all over the world traveled to Dallas to work on apartments in the building. By April of this year, all but one of the original units had been sold. Apartment 1W, with 4,562 square feet of living space, was listed at $1.1 million.
To date, the building has only two potential resales, of which one is listed at $1.8 million.
The Moguls Down the Hall
According to county tax records, some of Dallas’ most prominent and privacy-loving people own apartments at 2801 Turtle Creek. Among them:
●Norma H. Campbell, real estate heiress
●Richard W. Crée, Sr. Sammons Cable fortune
●Basil Georges, oilman
●Mrs. J.W. Griffith, Longview, Texas, oil money
●Nancy B. Hamon, philanthropist and oil heiress
●Doyle Hartman
●Lawrence R. Herkimer. cheerleading pioneer (invented the “Herkie” jump)
●Amelia Lay Hodges, philanthropist and Frito-Lay heiress
●Jogwen Holdings, Inc., (Braniff founder Harding Lawrence)
●Caroline Rose Hunt, Rosewood visionary
●Kenilworth Trust
●Dr. Charles B. Key, cataract king
●Irvin L. Levy, NCR Corp.
●Kenton McGee
●T. Boone Pickens, oilman
●Lawrence S. Pollock, Jr., philanthropist, Pollock paper king
●Bill D. and Wylodean Saxon, oil folks
●C.J. Thomsen
●Darlinda M. Trammell
●Bradley and Ernestine Wayne
Related Articles
Local News
Bill Hutchinson Pleads Guilty to Misdemeanor Sex Crime
The Dallas real estate operator and erstwhile reality TV star will serve time under home confinement and have to register as a sex offender.