Crow Holdings Plans $31M Renovation for Hilton Anatole in Dallas

One of Dallas’ most iconic hotels is getting a fresh coat of paint.

Crow Holdings filed plans to renovate its 1,600-key hotel at 2201 North Stemmons Freeway, the Hilton Anatole. The developer expects work to cost nearly $31 million and cover some 475,000 square feet, according to the filing.

On top of new paint, Crow plans to replace carpets, sinks, vanities, outlets, switches and lighting. Work is expected to start in July and run through mid-February. The Washington, D.C., architecture and interior design firm BBGM is also listed on the application.

The hotel is a major draw for conventions, with its 600,000-square-foot event space and nine ballrooms.

When the Anatole opened in the mid-1970’s, it was the largest hotel in the Southwest and one of developer Trammell Crow’s “favorite things” in his Market Center complex, according to Texas Monthly. Crow’s massive commerce center included a 9,000-key portfolio of hotels that Crow built in the area as his company weathered an oppressive pile of debt.

Whatever the owners do to the rooms, it will be hard to compete with the hotel’s art collection. A pulsing orange sculpture by Reuben Margolin floats like a cloud in the Anatole’s 150-foot atrium. The piece’s creation and installation were so involved that Wired filmed a 45-minute documentary about it. During a $125 million remodel in the 2010’s, Crow added an air-conditioned corridor connecting the complex which contains two pieces of the Berlin Wall. The hotel even hosted several conventions for the National Federation of the Blind, where the group’s publication noted that much of the collection’s art would be open for tactile examination.

The hotel market across Texas has been patchy in the buildup to summer travel season, but Dallas is experiencing a record supply increase, with more than 30,000 guest rooms in the pipeline at the start of the year.

Crow Holdings has continued building in the face of recent scrutiny over its chairman’s friendship with Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Other recent projects include a $38 million warehouse in Dallas and a tilt-wall industrial project outside Chicago.