The White House has half as many bowling lanes than this place.

​The wife and I are house-hunting, looking for something modest and sensible: good school district, open floor plan, lots of windows, pool out back, pool inside, bowling alley, racquetball court, theater, tennis courts, and -- this is a must -- a conservatory. You know: Your average East Dallas rebuild. We've been having a helluva time, but a release just hit my inbox that brightened our spirits:

Champ d'Or is on the auction block.

The Champ is a 48,000 square-foot Denton estate built for $45 million in 2002 by Alan Goldfield, former CEO of CellStar, and his wife, Shirley, who reportedly was urged by God to build the home. (God and Countrywide: Pretty much the same guys!) The home's been for sale pretty much ever since, and on March 30 it will go to auction, where it can be had by anyone with $10 million and a lot of Windex.

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Concierge Auctions

​We virtually toured the splendor that is the 48,000-square-foot Champ d'Or up in Denton County in August 2010, when the asking price was, oh, $70 million, give or take -- not quite The Nice Price. But it didn't sell -- shocking -- not even when the price tag dropped to half that, which is why Concierge Auctions announced today it's putting the 39-acre spread and an adjacent 37-acre commercial parcel on the auction block on March 30, with the reserve set for this $46-million build-out at the low, low, low, low, low price of ... $10.3 million.

Says Joan Eleazer of Briggs Freeman Sotheby's International Realty in the just-dispatched press release, "Champ d'Or is a perfect fit for the auction platform, as it is truly one-of-a-kind, with nary a detail missed. The estate could be used as a residence or for a business venture. The possibilities are endless, including development potential as an exclusive executive retreat, medical or spa facility, or recovery center."

Details here. Me, I've always have wanted a house with a two-lane bowling alley and movie theater with opera seating. Split it with you .. and you ... and you ... and you ... and you ... and you ...

​Sunday's supposed to be my last day 'round here, but I just may stick around till Monday. The reason: The just-posted agenda for Monday's meeting of the council's Economic Development Committee promises that Karl Zavitkovsky, head of the city's Office of Economic Development, will walk council through a PowerPoint titled "Dallas High School Redevelopment." And I was just saying the other day ... Anyway. I really don't want to miss that.

I just called Michael Jackson -- vice president at Wynne/Jackson and son of Plaza of the Americas developer Clyde Jackson -- to see if he could shed any light on the proposed redo before next week. Last we spoke was in August, when Jackson confirmed that they had the landmark 104-year-old building under contract.

No specifics, he said today, if only because the property's still under contract and the deal's not quite yet done. But, he said, "We're moving forward," meaning: By week's end Wynne/Jackson will send the appropriate documents to the Landmark Commission and Economic Development.

"We are submitting an application to Economic Development because we need some help on this project," Jackson said. "It's complicated and expensive, and we think there's great potential there." Again, for what he's not quite yet ready to say. "And we're submitting to the Landmark Commission since you have to them to them for approval for renovation. They want to know how you're cleaning up the brick, repairing the mortal, the facade, landscaping -- everything. So we're moving forward. That stuff just takes time to see what works and what doesn't and get it right."

Jackson also said he's been meeting with the Crozier Tech Alumni Association, making sure that very active and very vocal group's pleased with Wynne/Jackson's plans for the building. "There are so many groups involved," he said of the process. But, you know, nothing specific. Not yet. Except, he said: "I think you'll be pleased with what you see."

​Speaking of the assassination of John F. Kennedy ...

For a long while now we've written about the ongoing fight between the city of Dallas and Jane Bryant, owner of the decaying apartment complex on 600 Elsbeth near Bishop Arts where, in 1962, Lee Harvey Oswald and wife Marina briefly lived. Just last summer, matter of fact, Bryant and First Assistant City Attorney Chris Bowers traded blows on Unfair Park, with Bryant insisting the city was attempting to raze the building so it could hand over the parcel to a private developer. Bowers said that wasn't the case at all, reiterating the city's long-held contention that the circa-1925 complex "is structurally unsound, has had at least one fire already and constitutes a public nuisance."

Now, this: A swim through LoopNet reveals that 600 Elsbeth is for sale at an undisclosed price. I've called Realtor Joe Lumbley for further details, but he's out till later in the day. So we'll let the listing speak for itself:

This 12,870 SF of land has a 8668 SF 10-unit on it. The building is just a shell. The value is in the land and in its historical significance. The property is under a demolition order from the City of Dallas and is priced just slightly above land value. Lee Harvey Oswald lived in the building for several months and it's mentioned five times in the Warren Commission Report. Whether that's a pro or a con is up to the market, but it certainly makes the property interesting.

Located with 130 feet of frontage on Davis a block from the Bishop Arts District, this property is zoned Multipurpose District 3. Buyer needs to investigate zoning as the Bishop Arts District gets a lot of political interest. Possible uses could be to restore as an apartment with historical significance, convert to office, retail, or restaurant, or to use as parking in the booming district. Property is located next to a Sonic.

I see on the Dallas County's website there hasn't been much action in Bryant's case against the city since December. Attorney Michael Jung, who's repping Bryant in the fight with the city to keep the wrecking ball stashed till further notice, tells Unfair Park "they've kinda slowed the litigation while she tries to sell it, but we're still in court" with an October 15 trial date currently on the court's docket. He doesn't know how much Bryant's asking for the property currently on the tax rolls for $65,350. But you're free to make an offer. Just keep in mind: It's missing a door, though it never sold, per Heritage Auctions' policy of not selling off items tied up in litigation. The door was returned to Bryant.

​I haven't been to Paperback Plus's La Vista location in about, oh, two months or so, when I picked up a copy of Schutze's book ... for Schutze, who collects such things. But a Friend of Unfair Park says it's gone -- has been for two weeks. That's because the shopping center in which the used bookstore sits was sold February 1 to Austin-based SL Lakewood LP, according to Dallas County records, and the owners of the East Dallas mainstay couldn't reach an agreement with the new owners. So that's that. There, at least.

But our Friend directs us to the Lucky Dog Books' website, where on Friday it was announced that the bookstore's found a new home at 633 W. Davis in Oak Cliff, of course. Says the announcement: "It will take a couple of weeks for some interior work to be done before we can start in earnest to get it ready inside, but as you can see, there is some stuff to do outside as well while this is happening." I called over there today, and word is they hope to have the doors open in about a month or so. And, of course: "The store on Garland Road's up and running, and the store on Mesquite's still there." But, as Oak Cliff People notes this morning, neither one of those is across the street from Bolsa Mercado.

From Wednesday's briefing, a look at Bishop Arts in 1982 and today

​Turns out there's nothing at all random about the day the city chose to debut its Seeds of Change website devoted to Southern Dallas. It comes just three days before Mayor Mike Rawlings unveils his so-called Southern Dallas Economic Growth Plan at Jack Matthews's movie studio on S. Lamar, which was funded with Your Tax Dollars. Then two days after that the full council will be briefed on "A Plan for Growth in Southern Dallas: Leveraging Assets and Focusing Resources."

Click to enlarge the Venn Diagram that shows how to succeed in Southern Dallas! Beneath the heading "Drive Performance and Accountability with Goals and Measures."

​Leverage -- second time we've heard that word this week coming out of City Hall. And that too is no coincidence: On Monday the council's Quality of Life Committee will discuss ways to get people back to Fair Park. And, no, they aren't listening to Schutze. Here's that provocatively underwhelming PowerPoint, "Fair Park: A Great Public Space For Special Events and Programs."

But the Southern Dallas sneak peek's on the other side -- a 63-page, four-part strategy for getting the south side to rise again. Actually, insists the briefing, things are actually pretty good in that part of town -- or, at least, better than the perception, which is why the city and the adman cometh intend to "develop an ambitious and effective marketing communications plan" for Southern Dallas. (And, no, it doesn't say who's paying for it or how.) Among the stats offered as proof: "Crime is Lower in North Oak Cliff than in Northern Dallas." Well, then.

Back to that four-part strategy for revitalization:

1. Encourage an Environment for Growth
2. Change Perceptions about Southern Dallas
3. Target Investments in Successfully Growing Areas
4. Drive Performance and Accountability with Goals and Measures for Each Priority

The doc below fleshes out each, to a point, using as positive examples, oh, Bishop Arts (which the city wants to expand from Bishop Ave. to Jefferson in the hopes of turning the latter into "a 'model Main Street' for Southern Dallas"), the Inland Port (which "will provide quality jobs to attract residents"), Pinnacle Park ("Build on traction generated by City and private investors by leveraging business recruitment and redevelopment success") and the Cedars (which needs "more housing choices and [to] enhance the live-work-play environment").

The doc's below, and it ends with the reminder: "Key investments and plans must be put in place today or new development will not be orderly and sustainable in the coming decades and overall growth will be lower and slower than it could be." So go, read it. Just make sure to leave your 15 percent first.More >>

​Can't say for sure how long the former fire station on Walnut Hill Lane near Marsh has looked like this, only because I haven't taken Walnut Hill to work since Monday, when it did not look like this. (I've been taking Marsh to Lemmon to Inwood to Maple, if you must know -- for tacos, delicious tacos.) But it looks like this now -- and, to be honest, it is a bit of an upgrade from its usual appearance as just one more city-owned structure allowed to go to seed.

The fire station, ol' No. 35, was built 'round '53 and replaced by its fancy across-the-street upgrade in December 2008. As recently as March 2010, the fire station wasn't boarded up; maybe you remember. But after windows were broken out, the city broke out the wood; can't believe it took this long for the building to serve as a canvas.

The city still owns the building, valued at around $180,000. For how much longer, I'm not sure: City Manager Mary Suhm said back in May that the city's willing to sell off some of its surplus properties, but only when the time -- and the price -- is right. Said Suhm, "We don't want to just give them away." But just last week Suhm and CFO Jeanne Chipperfield told the council they will try to offload surplus properties to balance the books that appear to be short anywhere from $48.9 million to $87 million, let's wait and see.

I'm still waiting on City Hall to send a list of surplus properties it's hoping to offload. I'll post when it arrives.

Oh, and if this is a Dallas Contemporary spin-off, well, my apologies.

​It's been close to five months since Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins went after Mortgage Electronic Registration System over what Watkins claimed were "tens of millions in uncollected filing fees owed to the citizens of Dallas County." But since then little has been said about the suit, which was filed in county court and moved to the federal docket in October. Turns out, there was quite a bit of action involving the suit only yesterday.

For starters MERS had tried to get the court to move Dallas County's case to federal court in Arizona, where a judge in October dismissed dozens of suits filed by homeowners against MERS. But Dallas and Montgomery County, Pennsylvania -- which is trying to get $15.7 million from the company tasked with recording and transfer mortgages on behalf of, among others, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- didn't want that to happen. Neither does John G. Heyburn, a federal judge for the Western District of Kentucky, who signed an order yesterday refusing that motion, writing:

While Dallas County shares some general background questions of fact regarding the formation and operation of the MERS system, there are important distinctions that weigh against including Dallas County in [the Arizona cases]. Most importantly, all existing [Arizona] actions were brought by homeowners or borrowers who brought suit concerning their impending or completed foreclosure. In contrast, Dallas County involves the propriety of the MERS system's failure to pay recordation fees under Texas's recording statutes.

Then, based on that ruling, U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor here told Dallas County and MERS to huddle up by no later than February 22 and sort this thing out -- or, more accurately, "consider the nature and basis for their claims and defenses [and] the possibilities for a prompt resolution of the case." He wants a joint report from them by no later than March 7, which should answer: Do they still want to go to trial, or are they willing to consider mediation to settle the suit? We'll know soon enough.

Dallas Area Rapid Transit

​When The Ambrose and DART's Baylor University Medical Center Station on the Green Line finally, formally married three short years ago, Dallas Area Rapid Transit hailed it as the "consummate example of the new transit-oriented lifestyle." After all, the complex at Indiana and Malcolm X consisted of 325 apartments and a city block's worth of retail right on the rail. Said DART's Green Line Report from the spring of '09:

In a tough market for retail, the ground floor is nonetheless gradually filling in. A Jimmy John's sandwich chain will open in the near future. And things are already hopping at It's A Grind, the first Dallas location of a national coffeehouse franchise. On a recent weekday afternoon, there was no shortage of customers bantering with one another, ordering pastries, drinking coffee, and settling in with their laptops. Initial popularity notwithstanding, the store's staff is anticipating a serious boost in business when the station opens. "September can't come fast enough for us," says Cindy Chaffin, the store's marketing director. "That's why we chose our location -- train service will be huge for us."

But the Jimmy John's lasted about as long as it took to finish a sandwich. And It's a Grind shuttered suddenly last October, with owner Serena Connelly acknowledging "the overall project has not proven to be feasible financially." And now that 13,913 square feet of ground-level retail space sits vacant. The reasons are myriad: Rent's high (said to be double normal Deep Ellum asking prices), the location's hard to find unless you're riding the rail, and, in the words of Deep Ellum Public Improvement District president Barry Annino, "There still are not that many people riding the train yet. It's not yet an urban world."

Which is why Broadstone Ambrose will go to the City Plan Commission this afternoon and request a zoning do-over: The complex owner will ask the city for the OK to rewrite its small piece of the Deep Ellum Special Purpose District that will allow it to convert the ground-floor retail into "multifamily units." Says the CPC doc prepped by an approving city staff: "The applicant has indicated that the retail space has been difficult to lease or to maintain tenants due the location of the development."

Prange Way/Labelscar

​The place: the north side of the George Allen Courts Building, below the overhang. The date: February 7. The time: between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.

That's your invite to the foreclosure auction for Valley View Center, which, since August 2010, has been in the hands of LNR Partners out of Miami, who took control of the mall when Arizona-based Macerich said it couldn't make the $125-million note due in 2011. LNR -- or, at least, the bond holders it's repping -- has decided enough's enough and is looking to get what it can for the 38 acres at LBJ and Preston. Though as a friend in the real estate biz reminds this morning, sure, the slate will be wiped clean, but the new owner will still have to contend with, say, the owners of the old Macy's space, whatever their plans may be.

This morning I asked Bruce Bradford, interim president of the North Dallas Chamber of Commerce, how the foreclosure auction affects those visioning plans we discussed last year. Says he: Not sure, but only because the owners of the mall property and the hundreds of acres around it have walked away from the table. The chamber's "level of engagement has been nil" in recent months, he says.

"Our understanding was the property owners group, the finance committee of that group, was going to step aside and arrange the capital for the next step -- the visioning document by HKS. And we've lost connection since then. ... It's a diamond in the rough, and the city has a strong focus on polishing that diamond, and I still think some day that'll be the diamond we need it to be. Just don't know when that'll be."More >>