DFW's Future Is Dense — And Parking Reform Will Be Key, BOA Plaza Buyer Says

Dallas-Fort Worth needs to embrace densification, and the way it deals with parking will be a critical element in that more close-quartered future.

That was the message from PegasusAblon founding partner Mike Ablon at Bisnow’s DFW 2025 Market Kickoff event Thursday at the Dallas Marriott Uptown. 

Densification is a trend set to rise across the country, said Ablon, who snapped up the 1.85M SF Bank of America Plaza late last year along with Mike Hoque of Hoque Global.

And he predicts that in 20 years, more than half of the country will live in multifamily or communal housing. 

“That's a trend — we'll see more people rent than own,” Ablon said. “We want densification – it's good in the right places, [though] neighborhoods fight it.”

Parking code reform is the key to that denser tomorrow, with Ablon calling it the “single most influential item” facing the region.

Large, costly parking structures for tenants are standard at multifamily properties across the nation, with most municipalities setting minimum requirements to accommodate the 90% of U.S. households that own at least one vehicle.

But growing research suggests altering this longstanding practice could help solve the nation's affordable housing crisis, and hundreds of communities are experimenting with axing parking minimums to grow workforce and other lower-cost housing. 

Ablon said developers are reluctant to work on new buildings without assurances of the necessary parking for the planned project, he said. But determining how cities will allow space to be used will be the most predictive element facing the value of commercial real estate in the future, he said.

Finding a solution could be a battle.

“If you want some places that are walkable, and if you want some places that are neighborhood, where those two come together and intersect, that's where the war is,” Ablon said. “Because that extra piece of density is what makes what we will call a really cool freaking city.”

The Metroplex's population is on a steep incline and on the brink of becoming one of the most important cities in the nation, if not the world, Weitzman Executive Chairman Herb Weitzman said at the event. 

“We're so fortunate to be here, because there's going to be at least 150,000 people moving here, based on projections, every year for a long, long time,” Weitzman said. “That just gives us all kinds of business, whatever category of real estate.”

With DFW on pace to surpass Chicago to become the third-largest metro in the country sometime next decade, housing won't be the only issue.

Ablon said industry diversification will be vital for the region.

“As long as we stay at the lead on microchip [manufacturing], like what's going on in Sherman, we stand a good chance of having high job growth,” Ablon said. “If you want to grow your economy and you want to have great growth and diversification, we build a city that nurtures and supports all facets for everybody.”

That diversification has already transformed the southern portion of the Metroplex, with data centers continuing to crop up in cities like Lancaster and Red Oak. 

“All these towns are building houses and are getting to be great places for people to work,” Weitzman said. 

The future is bright for Texas, Jackson-Shaw President and Chief Operating Officer Michele Wheeler said as she noted the state led the nation in industrial absorption last year. 

“It's great to be in Texas,” Wheeler said. “We're really blessed to be where we're at.”