Luxury homes and condos continue to hit the auction block. In the Dallas area, homes and condos which once were priced over $1 million will be available at bargain prices during an auction on November 7. Fifteen luxury homes in McKinney's Craig Ranch area and 29 high-end condominiums in Dallas' Preston Hollow neighborhood will be auctioned by the Kennedy Wilson Auction Group. Bidding on the homes will start at $125,000 to $370,000 and starting bids for the condos in Park Hollow, in the Preston Hollow area, will range from $215,000 to $495,000. The auction will take place at the at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas and Kennedy Wilson is holding informational meetings in advance of the event.

We've become accustomed to sports venues selling naming rights but increasingly it's not just the stadiums that get the big deals. Performing arts centers are getting in on the act too. It was recently announced that the new performing arts complex in Dallas, Texas which is set to open October 12 will be called the AT&T Performing Arts Center. The $354 million facility will offer hundreds of performances every year in four different venues and a ten-acre urban park.

It has not been revealed how much AT&T is spending for the honor. Most of the funds for the center have been raised through public donations and the funds from AT&T will help boost the operations budget. The center is part of a growing trend of entertainment facilities which are branded and for technology companies entertainment venues have particular allure. Nokia in particular has lent its name to several theaters across the United States. Given the incredible downturn in private donations to the arts over the past year as well as a trimming in city, state and national arts budgets, it's easy to guess that this will be an ongoing trend.

The first iBidcondo auction took place last months and a $690,000 condo at the Star Riverside complex in Austin sold for around $87,000. The beat goes on with iBidcondo's announcement that the will be auctioning off a unit in the Beat Condos in Dallas Texas on July 27.

Up for bid is a two-bedroom unit on the 4th floor, with a "retail price" of $280,000 which is expected to sell for between $50,000 - $100,000. The building is a ten-story concrete, steel and glass tower with a salt water pool with spa, poolside cabanas and a multiuse facility perfect for entertaining guests; controlled access entry and gated, garage parking.

The way iBidcondo works is that you buy a seat for $100. The seats cover the cost of the property so that the auction price is donated to a charity. You can see an interview with the winners of the first auction on the iBidcondo website.

Race car drivers often do a variety of things to promote a race but handsome racer and Dancing with the Stars Helio Castroneves can now add sous chef to his resume. This week saw him cooking with chef Stephan Pyles of Stephan Pyles Restaurant in Dallas as part of his promotion for the upcoming Bombardier Learjet 550k at Texas Motor Speedway on June 6. Wearing a chef's coat, Castroneves cooked up several meals and was served a chocolate cake in honor of his recent birthday. Castroneves is feeling good after a jury acquitted him on six counts of tax evasion and hung on the conspiracy charge.

Stephan Pyles serves food that he terms New Millenium Southwestern Cuisine, a fusion repertoire that mixes Tex-Mex cuisine with touches of other global flavors. His restaurant includes a tapas-ceviche bar and dinner entrees include housemade boar sausage and pickled peaches, beef tenderloin with sweet potato chilaquiles and pineapple mole, spit-roasted chicken Paneer-Peruvian potato salad and young coconut Madras curry, and seared red snapper with aji-creamed corn and crab ceviche.

Today's Mediterranean style home in Dallas is notable for its exquisite interior design. Designer Deborah Owens has enhanced the design by architect Robbie Fusch to create an elegant and refine home. The home was the 2008 LUXE Showhome. One thing that really impresses me about the six-bedroom home is the use of the color blue, from cobalt blue and turquoise accents to sky blue walls, the use of blue ties the rooms together and creates a nice counterpoint to the mostly beige decor.

The home is built around a sunken central courtyard which is set 11 feet below ground level to keep the outdoor area 15 degrees cooler than outside areas above ground, a nice feature for Texas summers. The courtyard has a double-sided fireplace. The home includes a theater and game room with a kitchenette, a spa and exercise area with a steam room, and a wine cellar with dining area and an eight-car garage. The ground floor includes the dining room, great room, two-story library and the master suite and two kitchens. The home also includes a mother-in-law suite, elevator and a smart home system that will send you a message when anything is wrong with the house no matter where you are. It is listed at $11.5 million.
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One of the biggest real estate scoops was gotten by Candy Evans of Dallas Dirt this week who reported that President George W. Bush and Laura Bush have picked up a home on Daria Place in Dallas's Preston Hollow neighborhood. The new Bush home is far more modest than the White House. It is a four-bedroom, ranch-style home that according to the Dallas Morning News, appraises at nearly $2.1 million, but sold for considerably more. It is more than 8,500 square feet and has an estimated annual tax bill of about $44,000.

Traffic has already jammed up the home's quiet cul-de-sac with people stopping by to check out the house. The home was purchased in the name of longtime Bush family accountant Robert McCleskey and backs up to the estate of Mr. Bush's friend and former business partner Tom Hicks (an estate that includes a handy helicopter pad). Bush may be buying a house next door for added privacy.

Today's estate is a rather fancy new home in the Highland Park area of Dallas. The home was designed by Richard Drummond Davis and built by Sharif-Munir to be the height of faux-French lavishness. The chateau-like home has an ironwork doorway that opens to an impressive two-story foyer. Extravagant details include high ceilings with carved wooden coffers, an imported 18th century French marble fireplace, inlaid wood floors, and custom plaster ornamental detailing. The master suite has a fireplace and an additional sitting room as well as his and hers bathrooms with marble details. An additional l private residential suite with full bath and sitting room is located in the basement and there are six bedrooms total. Outside there is a deep outdoor living loggia that overlooks the pool with fountains and spa below. This home is one of several elaborate new homes in the area built on a grand scale and priced at the top of the market. Doubtlessly planned in more exuberant times I wonder how they will fare in this market. This home is listed at $11.25 million.
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In the hot summer months, hotels with rooftop pools have a special allure. One of the most striking is located at the top of The Joule in Dallas. The Joule is part of the Luxury Collection and is located near attractions such as Victory Park, the Dallas Museum of Art and the original flagship Neiman Marcus. The building's 1920s Neo-Gothic façade has been restored and added to with a new 10-story tower which is topped by the cantilevered rooftop pool and bar area. The pool actually juts out over the edge off the building with just a heavy layer of glass separating water and the swimmers from the city below (check out an amazing shot by The Urban Fabric on Flickr here). Simply amazing.

The hotel also includes Charlie Palmer's new signature restaurant - Charlie Palmer at The Joule and Next Vintage, a retail wine store. Palmer's restaurant will also offer light-fare menu at the rooftop pool bar. Rates for the hotel start around $250 per night.

Photo by Grant Mudford

The Lone Star State, which was part of Mexico until 1836, is not particularly known for its architectural treasures. There are some amazing estates scattered among its vast tracts, however, as author Lisa Germany and photographer Grant Mudford reveal in their excellent new book, Great Houses Of Texas (Abrams, $50). The Texan landscape -- "combined with the larger-than-life personalities who were drawn to the brutal hardships of the frontier and the architects who designed these extraordinary homes" -- is the unifying theme of the 25 houses, ranging from the intimate to the ornate, collected in the book. Among them is the beautiful Crespi Mansion in Dallas, designed by Swiss architect Maurice Fatio in 1939, pictured above; and the Nowlin House in Austin designed by Paul Lamb in 2002, which was partially based on Mayan ruins. See the gallery for more.

I found today's home in North Dallas,Texas interesting because it's a home built in the late 1960s which has been given a modern makeover. The home looks fairly traditional on the outside but inside it's bright white and contemporary with a large atrium, gallery, and a beautiful garden room with glass walls. The home sits on three acres on the Preston Trails golf course with views of a creek, fairways, waterfalls. The five bedroom home also includes an exercise room, home theater, maid's quarters and more over 14,000 square feet. Outside there is a pool and spa with an odd patio arrangement and a pool house that is also home to a wine cellar. This home is listed at $8 million.

For the next couple of weeks we will be checking out some homes in the most expensive zip codes in the United States, up today, 75220. This zip code refers to a part of Dallas, Texas. This zip code includes the prestigious Preston Hollow area and has a median price of $1,530,000 with an appreciation rate of 160% since 1990.

Today's estate is done in an English Country style and is over 15,000 square feet. There are three levels, plus a lower level which are accessible through
seven staircases and an elevator. The first level includes a two-story entrance, living room, dining room, library, family room, office, sunroon and a large kitchen that includes a Viking stove top and a hammered copper vent hood.

The second level is home to the master bedroom with his and hers baths, dressing rooms and a sunroom. There are also three additional en suite bedrooms on this level as well as a playroom, a five-desk computer/office area and a full-service laundry with a drip-dry area. The third level is a furnished space that also has a kitchenette and a full bath. The bottom level has a den or game room; a stone floored corking room; a pine-paneled smoking room; a media room; a sunlit workout/fitness center and a fifth bedroom with full bath. The property also includes a three-car garage, an outdoor area with a fireplace and grilling space and a swimming pool with a dramatic slate-backed water wall. This new home has been expertly staged (read an article about the stager here). It is listed at $8.6 million.

Dallas billionaire and sports team owner, Tom Hicks is able to do something a lot of other billionaire sports owners are not, he gets double duty from his new Boeing 757. Not only is his hockey team, the Dallas Stars using the plane but his baseball team, the Texas Rangers, will use the same plane once their season comes around. The plane probably won't be too much help for his other sports ownerships, Mesquite Championship Rodeo and 50 percent of the English football (soccer) team Liverpool FC.

Dallas is full of condo-hotel projects and they just keep getting more intriguing. As the the Dallas Morning News reports, the Hotel Palomar is trying to be the hipster hotel in Dallas. Now next to the Trader Vic's restaurant, you can find Brüt, a champagne store and lounge that is small but manages to stock 160 champagnes and sparkling wines on its shelves. The store generally pours three kinds of champagne each day.

You can also extend your stay at the Hotel Palomar permanently. The Residences at Palomar include condos, lofts and courtyard homes. The development includes the Exhale spa, a fitness center and several restaurants. The nine-story tower is home to 55 units ranging in price from ranging from $350,000 to $2.5 million for a penthouse.

Previous Dallas projects we've covered:
Mandarin Oriental
Cresta Bella
The House by Starck and Yoo
W Hotel and Residences
Lakeside Resorts and Residences

This home in Dallas, Texas has a quiet charm. The white manor style home has three levels of living space and there is also a two-story guest house/cabana, an outdoor cooking, dining and living space and a lagoon pool and spa that are all connected to the house. The home is full of luxury appointments but the scale of the home is very intimate with smaller rooms rather than large echoing spaces. The round dining room has an oversized wood-burning fireplace with marble surround and a domed ceiling with coved lighting. The living room has very attractive bookcases and cabinets and there is also a mahogany-paneled library with French doors leading to a covered terrace. The sunroom has a bead-board ceiling, stained concrete floors, flat-screen television and French doors opening onto covered terraces. The kitchen includes a vegetable sink with disposal, built-in cutting board, icemaker, Miele dishwasher, two refrigerator drawers and a breakfast bar. A butler's pantry has a Viking warming drawer, wine refrigerator, trough sink and a china and silver closet. A bar area is equipped with a copper sink, refrigerator and icemaker. The master suite has a cast-stone fireplace with flat-screen television above, a private covered terrace, and a marble bathroom with an infinity-edge spa tub and a dual head shower plus rain head, The suite also has a coffee bar with sink and refrigerator. The lower level has a media room with adjacent kitchen area, exercise room, wine cellar with capacity for approximately 2,500 bottles, a very nice guest room, and full bath. The outdoor living room has a stacked stone fireplace and a 48" Wolf grill with two side burners, refrigerator and icemaker. The guest house/cabana has a living room, kitchen and a full bath on the first floor and a guest room and full bath on the second. The pool area seems a bit crowded but otherwise this is a very gracious home. Other details include a slate roof with copper gutters, an Elan central audio/video computerized system with touch panels and speakers in most rooms and an emergency power generator running on a natural gas line. It is listed at $5.295 million. After the jump, dining in the round.

We are back in the Dallas area for another condo-hotel. This one, the Lakeside Resort & Residences, is the first luxury high rise for the charmingly named town of Flower Mound, The Lakeside will be an 18-story tower located on Lake Grapevine. The building will be home to a 289-room four-star hotel with a luxury day spa, two restaurants and event space. All that will be topped by 64 units of one, two and three-bedroom luxury condominiums. Construction is set to be done in fall of 2008 and pre-construction pricing for the condos is set from under $400,000 to around $1 million excluding the ten penthouse units will have up to 3,500 square feet of space.

[via Inside Collin Country Business]

Other Dallas area developments we have covered include:

Bearfire Resort
Mandarin Oriental
Kessler Woods
Cresta Bella
House by Starck and Yoo
W Dallas Victory