So Ross Perot Jr. invited some reporters over yesterday to talk about land he’s purchased in Far North Fort Worth with an eye to building upon his little AllianceTexas development-empire in the area (read more about Alliance’s future on RealPoints).
The Wall Street Journal and The Dallas Morning News were represented at the confab. Each publication filed a story. Aside from the notable contrast in average paragraph length exhibited by the two pieces, I was struck by the different accounts given of what’s next for Victory Park in downtown Dallas, which many consider to be a failure.
Here’s what the WSJ wrote:
For all of Mr. Perot’s Texas-sized ambition, he doesn’t always succeed. Hillwood’s Victory Park mixed-use development surrounding the American Airlines Center sports arena in downtown Dallas is a flop by many accounts. Hillwood forfeited its equity stake in Victory Park to its German partners in 2009, followed last December by its relinquishment of its management of the project to Cousins Properties. Hillwood and partners still own 27 acres of land at Victory Park, but Mr. Perot doesn’t foresee developing it soon.
But here’s what Steve Brown has to say about the same land:
Hillwood also continues to be an owner of about 27 acres of land in the Victory Park project in Dallas’ Uptown district.
Perot said Hillwood is focusing on developing a vacant tract fronting Woodall Rodgers that’s next to the Perot Museum of Nature & Science, which is under construction.
“That’s the next development play,” he said. “We have zoning for more than 1 million square feet on that site.”
