The famed Cabana Motor Hotel is ready to start its new life as the Cabana Design District.
The hotel first opened its doors to visitors in 1963. It was a place of bustling activity back then. Many of the most popular touring musicians at the time would stay at 899 N. Stemmons Freeway when passing through Dallas, as would famed writers and politicians.
Actress Raquel Welch, best known for her roles in movies like “Fantastic Voyage” and “The Three Musketeers,” worked there as a cocktail waitress before heading west and making it big in Hollywood.
In the 1980s, though, the building was repurposed into a jail, which remained operational for the next two decades. It reinvented itself several more times before its eventual purchase by Sycamore Development in 2023.
Now, the historic building has been transformed into a 10-story, 175-unit apartment complex, which developers named the Cabana Design District. According to original reporting from Chron, around 40% of those apartments are rent-restricted.
Attorney and affordable housing professional Chad Baker, who works with Sycamore Development, told the publication, “We just opened up leasing this month; we’ve already had a couple of people move in. We have more people scheduled to move in by the end of this month.”
He went on to say, “So far, the excitement around the project has been pretty high and we’ve been doing lots of tours.”
A news release from October 29, 2024 previously stated that the mixed-income housing renovation project was set to cost around $116 million, though it was apparently completed for only $70 million of that.
In 2024, Baker said, “We think that having affordable housing mixed with market rate housing and in the same development is just a great way to incorporate those affordable housing units within the community instead of having them as some separate development off on their own.”
Construction was completed in April, and the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs dubbed the creation of the Cabana Design District a success. Sycamore Development’s principal, Zach Krochtengel, told the Department of Housing and Community Affairs that it was important for the company to display “deep care for the building’s history” throughout the redesign and renovation processes.
Krochtengel said, “Though many original features had been lost over time, we were able to restore elements like the terrazzo flooring, tiles, and the iconic sun shades around the pool deck, while also modernizing the building’s design and converting it into an apartment community that can serve Dallas for decades to come.”
The Cabana Design District building has an odd, but fascinating, history
When the Cabana Motor Hotel was operational in the 1960s through the early 1980s, it welcomed an array of notable guests like Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Who, The Rolling Stones, The Monkees, Norman Mailer, and even Richard Nixon. It was originally developed by Jay Sarno, who also served as developer for Circus Circus and Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas.
By 1984, the hotel fell into foreclosure and the building was officially acquired by Dallas County. Three years later it became the Bill Decker Detention Center, where it essentially served as overflow housing for inmates. In 2009 it became another jail, and then at some point along the way it was temporary housing for those displaced by Hurricane Katrina. It was also a halfway house and then a juvenile prison.
There were talks of demolition, but ultimately the former Cabana Motor Hotel remained vacant for around 10 years until Sycamore Development purchased it in 2023. Chad Baker said, “The building itself is pretty iconic, it sits just at the edge of downtown here in Dallas,” making it an ideal location for mixed-income housing.
The new Cabana Design District is being advertised on its website as “elevated apartment living,” and offers one, two, and three-bedroom options at various price points. The complex itself has a yoga and fitness center, resort-style pool, dogwash room, onsite parking garage, coworking spaces, a conference room, and more.
This article first appeared on Good Info News Wire and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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