The article about the three hotels in two buildings needs clarification.

This article here by Steve Brown of the Dallas Morning News is written in such a way that I fear it might go under the radar in significance.  By block of buildings, Steve Brown is talking about two buildings blocked together to an extent that they are positioned side by side and, to the untrained eye, appear to be a single building.

This is why Steve Brown quotes Jerry Merriman making the comment that, “It’s unusual to have three different hotel concepts going together on the same block like that.”

Again, this isn't the kind of a block that is surrounded by four streets.  It is two buildings blocked together in such a way that they appear continuous as a single building.  This amount of hotels in those two buildings is incredible.  And, understand, it isn't going to be incredible in a Houston sort of way.  As always, what separates the two cities is the retail.

First, here is another article by Steve Brown about a resurgence that is happening in and around Main Street and Commerce of downtown.  Shoot, we aren't just talking about a resurgence here, but about the establishment of a luxury retail district in downtown Dallas.  Why is this so important?  Well, in order to establish street level retail, one first has to establish a pecking order.  This entails developing both a district of luxury stores and a district of larger stores if not department stores.  In this way everyone knows there place in the scheme of retail.  

Second, it is incredible what central Dallas in general has going on.  Its centerpiece, the Crescent complex in the heart of Uptown, is fast growing to rival both Highland Park Village and Northpark Center Mall in stature.  The Lemmon Avenue corridor between Uptown and Love Field airport is becoming the place to shop for luxury automobiles.  Then there is a lot of shopping on both sides of Turtle Creek within the West Village and along Oak Lawn Blvd (the redevelopment of Turtle Creek Village).  And let us not forget about the Knox / Henderson retail district about a mile north of there.