M. Thomas Lardner: Dallas developer transformed blighted area into Uptown
by JOE SIMNACHER / The Dallas Morning News
jsimnacher@dallasnews.com
M. Tom Lardner had the inspiration for Dallas’ Uptown neighborhood more than 30 years ago – when it was just a blighted area north of the central business district.
He was running a Chicago-based real estate investment firm when he first saw the potential of a high-density residential and commercial development here. In 1978, he moved to Dallas. After nearly a dozen years of advocacy and many land transactions, he began to see his dream take shape with the construction of a 130-unit luxury apartment building, the first of many.
Mr. Lardner was what a good developer ought to be, said Trammell Crow Jr. “He had a vision, not just for a profitable, long-term real estate project, but he really knew what he was doing,” Mr. Crow said. “He knew full well that it would transform the central business district.”
Mr. Lardner purchased much of the land roughly bounded by McKinney Avenue, Pearl Street, Hall Street, Woodall Rodgers Freeway and North Central Expressway. He also worked with city officials to create a tax increment financing district that paid for street and other infrastructure improvements.
The State-Thomas area of Dallas, where the Uptown development started, is now the most densely populated part of the city, officials said. Roger Staubach was a partner with Mr. Lardner in Uptown’s first luxury apartment development, the Meridian building, which started in 1990. “Tom will be missed – he was a great visionary,” Mr. Staubach said.
The Meridian was the first test case in Uptown. “That was to prove there was a market and demand for Intown housing,” said his son Colin Lardner, who followed in his father’s real estate footsteps. “Developers were afraid at that time to do any investment or building. The Meridian proved there was a market- a strong market.”
Although Mr. Lardner is best-known for the role he played in Uptown, he remained civic-minded, through efforts that included his support of Texas Business for Clean Air, Mr. Crow said. “TXU was trying to get permits for 11 coal-fired plants all at one time,” Mr. Crow said. Mr. Lardner was one of the first of about 10 major Dallas business leaders who opposed the fast-tracking of the coal-fired plants, Mr. Crow said. The group was concerned that the electric-generating plants would hurt North Texas’ air quality. “Perhaps more than any other member, he helped us with strategy, with contacts in Austin and with other business people,” Mr. Crow said.
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