How about the Rangers, the Stars, the Mavericks and the Dallas development scene? Lots of winners—right? (Well, kind of …) But more to the point, how are they all managing to put some W’s up on the board in spite of a lot of naysayers?
The Rangers started this season with a bunch of new players, half the team in the trainer’s room, few starting pitchers, and a lot of “hope,”—but also lots of possible concerns. Heading into May they are miraculously leading the AL West in spite of all the concerns.
The Stars have a new owner, a lot of young players, and went down to the last game of a long season just to get a spot in the playoffs. They weren’t even supposed to be there, and they are giving the Ducks a run for their money in this Stanley Cup quest! (Editorial update: Turned this article in on Monday and the Stars miraculously gave up two goals in the last 2 minutes to go to OT and lose! Hope this isn’t foreshadowing for later in this article!)
The Mavericks are older, added some new parts and pieces, trying to ride the last hurrah of Dirk and also, barely held onto a really tough Western Division to make it into the playoffs. Their reward is to play the black/grey evil empire from down south that happens to own the best record in the NBA, and happens to still play ridiculous defense. Well, who’d of thunk it, but we split the home series in San Antonio and could have won both and took game 3 at home to hold a 2-1 lead in the series! (Update: The Mavs trail 2-3 now, but are perfectly capable of winning on the road and have a chance to tie it up Friday.)
Sp … Dallas development? Well, Dallas has certainly outperformed the national economy and has been very competitive in demand and absorption. But, we are not a “gateway city” and haven’t been one of the darling cities with industry concentrations of tech or energy, like Houston, Austin, San Francisco, San Jose, etc. So, in sports terms we have kind of hung around the rim, so we could make it to the next level.
It feels like the “hope” part is well on its way, and that means the incredible real estate talent in Dallas cranks up the supply machine. This is the part of the sports story where some naysayers come out of the woodwork who remember the “Dallas development machine of the past” and start to talk of the possible concerns of overbuilding … like not having pitching, or too young to compete on the ice, or even too old to go deep in the playoffs.
This is our opportunity to show the world that the Dallas development community is a winner and can put up points (OK … buildings) and play defense (OK … not too many buildings). I am confident that between our cities’ whole development team—city leaders and planning staffs, lenders, developers, equity investors, architects, engineers, contractors, etc,—we can collectively match supply with demand and “go deep this post season” with a positive result.
Hmmmm, just imagine it … hoisting a MLB trophy, a ticker-tape parade for the Stars (update: OK, not this year), followed by one more for Dirk and the Mavs … and institutional investors worldwide coming to Dallas for long-term value due to the balanced development to meet demand. Ahhh, now that would be the good days!!!!
Michael W. Dardick is president and CEO of Granite Properties Inc., which he founded in 1991. Contact him at [email protected].
