Centurion American Planning Office-To-Resi Conversion Of Former Mary Kay HQ In Dallas
The former headquarters of Mary Kay Cosmetics is set to be converted into a 176-unit multifamily development.
Farmers Branch-based Centurion American plans to convert the two-building Eldorado Towers business park at 8787 N. Stemmons Freeway in Dallas into a 211K SF apartment complex at a cost of just over $43M. Work on the project is expected to begin in August and wrap up by April 2028, according to a filing with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation.
Centurion American President and CEO Mehrdad Moayedi told The Real Deal the project will be named The Founder in honor of its history as the longtime home of Mary Kay. The cosmetics company left the gold-glass office complex in the mid-1990s for its 546K SF campus in Addison.
Eldorado Towers comprises an eight-story building of 110K SF built in 1976 and a five-story building of 101K SF constructed in 1985.
Centurion American secured $15M in historic tax credits to help offset the office conversion’s nearly $245K per-unit cost. While office-to-residential conversions can be difficult to do, Moayedi said these buildings were constructed in a way that will allow each unit to have windows.
Dallas-based The Ricchi Group bought the office park in 2019 for $6.5M and is partnering with Centurion American on the repositioning. The two previously did business when Centurion bought the historic Statler Hotel in Dallas from The Ricchi Group in 2014 before renovating it into the luxury Statler Residences.
Eldorado Towers was previously owned by Miami businessman Mordechai Korf, whom the U.S. Department of Justice accused of laundering money through the property. In a 2022 civil asset forfeiture suit, the Justice Department said Korf embezzled funds from the Ukrainian PrivatBank to maintain and improve the office park.
Proceedings in the government’s legal action as well as a Korf countersuit are ongoing.
Also ongoing is Centurion American’s redevelopment of the former Collin Creek Mall property it purchased in 2018. Moayedi said last year he expects the project’s first retailers to open sometime in 2026.
Centurion American also broke ground on its portion of the 3,100-acre Preston Harbor project at Lake Texoma in October. The developer is building 1,184 residential lots and 115 estate lots as part of the project, which is expected to nearly double the size of Denison.
Mary Kay’s current headquarters could also soon change hands as WFAA reported the cosmetics company is exploring a sale of the property due to the high value of land in DFW. The company said it only uses around 20% of its 33-acre headquarters.
