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City Hall is finally selling The Worst Building in Dallas \u2014 and, no, I don\u2019t mean the decaying, leaking, sinking Dallas City Hall<\/a>. Not yet, anyway.<\/p>\n No, I\u2019m referring to 7800 N. Stemmons Freeway<\/a>, otherwise known as the building that cost taxpayers $29 million, including the $14.17 million purchase price. <\/p>\n The 11-story dump, built in 1981 and renovated a decade ago, was supposed to be the glass box in which the city stuck its permitting office. Except \u2014 and this is the part that always kills me<\/a> \u2014 the city couldn\u2019t even get a permit to occupy the Stemmons building because it was, to use the technical term, jacked up beyond repair even after City Hall spent another $15 million trying in vain to make it inhabitable. <\/p>\n Even now it\u2019s costing the city $73,000 a month<\/a> just to maintain and secure the property, according to City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert\u2019s April after-action report. <\/p>\n I swung by 7800 N. Stemmons, which is just north of Mockingbird Lane, because a friend in real estate sent me the CBRE listing<\/a> which describes it as an \u201coutstanding redevelopment or owner-user opportunity located at the gateway of Dallas\u2019 preeminent Medical District.\u201d <\/p>\n Opinion<\/p>\n By signing up, you agree to our\u00a0Terms of Service<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n I went out there Wednesday to wander the withered, sad, overgrown grounds and peek inside the barren, busted building. Two permits are taped to the front door, each issued in June 2024 \u2014 after permitting staff was forced to retreat back to its moldering home on East Jefferson Boulevard. They\u2019re for the installation of a new fire alarm system at the cost of $648,949. <\/p>\n The front of 7800 N. Stemmons, where the front door doesn’t lock, thus necessitating 24\/7 onsite security.<\/p>\n Robert Wilonsky<\/p>\n The city\u2019s about to take a multimillion-dollar bath on a bad purchase. In the words of Tolbert, and the Dallas City Hall T-shirts I\u2019m having printed up at Bullzerk<\/a> any day now, \u201cCritical mistakes were made<\/a>.\u201d <\/p>\n Those mistakes begin with the purchase of the building, which was approved by the City Council in August 2022<\/a>, when Tolbert\u2019s former boss, then-City Manager T.C. Broadnax, was getting regularly shellacked by developers waiting forever to procure building permits. Broadnax and his staff \u2014 none of whom, save for Tolbert, still work in City Hall \u2014 needed an easy fix, which it found on Stemmons after real estate firm JLL conducted what Tolbert later referred to as \u201conly a surface-level review of the building\u201d and advised Broadnax to buy it.<\/p>\n I, too, made a surface-level review of the building and nearly busted my tuchus on a loose paver along the walkway leading to that front door that doesn\u2019t lock. The city\u2019s currently paying for 24\/7 on-site security, which recently spent three weeks stuck inside a building without air conditioning.<\/p>\n CBRE\u2019s listing for the building, its parking garage and the five acres upon which it sits touts its \u201cflexible mixed-use zoning\u201d and its \u201cstrategic location\u201d and \u201cstrong market fundamentals.\u201d But the most interesting thing about the listing is what it lacks: a price tag.<\/p>\n The courtyard between the building at 7800 N. Stemmons and its parking garage \u2014 a very scenic, welcoming site<\/p>\n Robert Wilonsky<\/p>\n CBRE says only that \u201cthe offering is being made unpriced and on an \u2018as-is, where-is\u2019 basis,\u201d which means what you see \u2014 and can\u2019t see \u2014 is what you get, no backsies. A few commercial real-estaters to whom I\u2019ve spoken this week all figure it\u2019s a teardown, if anyone even wants the property along the moribund Stemmons Corridor, which remains to be seen. CBRE often lists properties as unpriced to gauge the market\u2019s interest.<\/p>\n The Dallas Central Appraisal District doesn\u2019t ascribe a value to the property since it\u2019s owned by the city, but in 2022 the property was valued at $10.5 million. A similarly sized property and office building next door is on the books for $6.7 million total<\/a> \u2014 down $300,000 from its previous market value.<\/p>\n I called Patrick Benoist, CBRE\u2019s first vice president listed on the flyer, to chitchat about how the property might best be used by a prospective buyer \u2014 ya know, to find out how they\u2019re selling a building so bad that its purchase led to the suspension of all real estate purchases by city officials.<\/p>\n But when reached Tuesday, Benoist said, \u201cUnfortunately I am not going to be able to comment on that one. Appreciate the call, but I\u2019ve been told no comment.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWho told you that?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n \u201cMy client,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cYou mean the city of Dallas.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cRobert,\u201d he said, \u201cI am not able to comment at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n The front of 7800 N. Stemmons, which can be yours for the low, low price of … well, look, make an offer, OK?<\/p>\n Robert Wilonsky<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/YL4VGOFDJZCIFMKSQL5ST2WQTY.JPG\")
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