Trademark Property Company and Morgan broke ground November 4, 2026 on a 362-unit Class A community at 3900 Lemmon Avenue in Dallas' Oak Lawn neighborhood, the owners announced November 5. The 3.02-acre full block, designed by GFF, targets first units in fall 2028 and full delivery in Q2 2029. Morgan is developer, general contractor, and property manager. Connect CRE put the cost near $100 million.
This is infill, not a fringe garden pad. The site sits next to Turtle Creek on a city block that Trademark spent years rezoning with the Oak Lawn Committee. National developer sentiment is poor: NAHB's Q3 MPI is 41. Dallas absorption is not: CBRE ranked the metro second in the country for Q3 take-up.
What Is Being Built at 3900 Lemmon Avenue?
The community occupies the block bounded by Lemmon Avenue, Throckmorton Street, Reagan Street, and Bowser Avenue. GFF designed a podium with three-, five-, and seven-story pieces, a mid-rise answer to the Turtle Creek towers next door rather than a copy of them.
| Field | Owner announcement, Nov. 5, 2026 |
|---|---|
| Address | 3900 Lemmon Avenue, Oak Lawn, Dallas |
| Units | 362 |
| Site | 3.02 acres, full city block |
| Building type | Podium; 3 / 5 / 7 stories |
| Groundbreaking | November 4, 2026 |
| First units | Fall 2028 |
| Full delivery | Q2 2029 |
| Architect | GFF |
| GC / PM | Morgan |
| Cost (trade estimate) | ~$100 million |
Residences run studio through three-bedroom, with quartz counters, herringbone backsplashes, in-unit laundry, and walk-in closets. Select plans get dens, balconies, or patios; some ground-floor homes get stoops and private yards. Amenities include a rooftop pool and outdoor spa, a fitness center with sauna and cold plunge, a pocket park with preserved trees, two extra courtyards, coworking, a golf simulator, a dog park, EV charging, grocery cold storage, and bike storage.
Connect CRE reported the land was previously owned by H-E-B. WFAA, covering the earlier acquisition, said Lemmon Avenue carries about 28,000 vehicles a day and that McGregor Converse of Venture Commercial represented Trademark on the buy.
Who Is Building It, and Why Did Entitlements Take Years?
Trademark, a Fort Worth-based firm with more than 30 years of development, ran the rezoning. Dallas City Council unanimously approved the plan in 2024 after work with the Oak Lawn Committee and neighborhood stakeholders. Morgan, a third-generation multifamily company with 65 years in the sector, is co-general partner plus GC and manager. SJL Design Group handles interiors; LandDesign designed the courtyards, pocket park, and other outdoor spaces.
Chad A. Colley, Trademark's multifamily and mixed-use partner, framed the groundbreaking as the end of the political work:
"Getting this development to this point took many years of hard work, collaboration and persistence, and we are thrilled to reach this milestone. The project is better because of the time and thoughtful input we received from the Oak Lawn Committee, community stakeholders, the City Plan Commission, and the Dallas City Council."
- Chad A. Colley, Multifamily and Mixed-Use Partner, Trademark Property Company
Stephen Frazee, Morgan's DFW city development partner, made the scarcity case that urban land files actually close on:
"The opportunity to develop a full city block in Oak Lawn, adjacent to Turtle Creek, is rare, and Trademark put in the time and care to build a plan this neighborhood could support. We are pairing that foundation with the multifamily design, construction, and management experience Morgan has built over three generations to deliver a community that meets the standard this location deserves."
- Stephen Frazee, DFW City Development Partner, Morgan
Vertical integration is the risk control. Morgan is not handing a 362-unit podium to a third-party GC in a market where NAHB members say utility connections and approvals stretch schedules. The same shop that builds it will lease it in 2028-2029.
How Does Dallas Absorption Look Against This Start?
There is no prior CBRE Dallas-absorption article on this site, so the live comparison is CBRE's own Q3 2026 U.S. Multifamily Figures plus the RealPage October national tape.
CBRE recorded 4,300 Dallas units absorbed in Q3, second nationally behind Charlotte's 4,400 and just ahead of Austin's 4,000. Over the trailing four quarters Dallas absorbed 18,000 units against 17,500 completions, a 2.7% absorption rate versus 2.6% of inventory completed. Q3 itself was even cleaner locally: 4,300 absorbed versus 2,700 completed.
The pipeline is still large. CBRE counted 31,000 Dallas units under construction, second only to New York's 55,700, with Houston third at 24,000. National vacancy ticked up to 4.7% as completions (89,540) outran absorption (63,893) for the first time since Q4 2025. Dallas rents were still down 0.9% year over year in CBRE's South Central table. Demand is taking units. Pricing has not fully recovered.
RealPage's national view matches the "absorption is doing the work" read: 304,800 conventional units absorbed versus about 318,000 completed in the year through Q3, the tightest gap since late 2015, even as October same-store effective rents fell 0.7%. A 362-unit Oak Lawn start is a submarket bet on Turtle Creek / Uptown / Medical District adjacency, not a bet that Dallas list rents have already turned.
Why Start a $100 Million Tower When MPI Is 41?
NAHB's production index at 41 says more developers call start conditions poor than good. Mid/high-rise MPI is 33. Kip Lewis cited rates, cost-to-rent, and approvals. This deal already cleared the approval that kills other mid-rises: a 2024 unanimous council vote after neighborhood work.
The $100 million figure needs a caveat. Connect CRE used it. Texas Construction Hub said a 2024 state filing estimated $100 million for an earlier unit count, and the November announcement did not refresh construction value or name a lender. Treat ~$100 million as the last public estimate, not a signed GMP.
Location is the offset. Residents sit near the Katy Trail, Turtle Creek Park, Uptown, Highland Park, the Southwestern Medical District, and Dallas Love Field. Bisnow put the groundbreaking on its November 9 DFW deal sheet. That is core urban product competing with existing Turtle Creek high-rises on block control and mid-rise scale, not on being first to a suburb.
Delivery in Q2 2029 also means this asset misses the current under-construction bulge. If CBRE is right that elevated rates and costs moderate starts through 2027, a 2028-2029 lease-up can meet thinner new competition than a 2026 delivery would have.
The Numbers Worth Writing Down
- Units: 362
- Site: 3.02 acres at 3900 Lemmon Avenue
- Groundbreaking: November 4, 2026
- First occupancy / full delivery: Fall 2028 / Q2 2029
- Cost estimate: ~$100 million
- Dallas Q3 absorption (CBRE): 4,300 units (2nd U.S.)
- Dallas trailing-four-quarter absorption / completions: 18,000 / 17,500
- Dallas under construction: 31,000 units
Infill With a GC Already in the Stack
Oak Lawn is not where you go to win a cost-per-door contest. It is where you go when the block is assembled, the neighborhood already fought the zoning, and the GC will still own lease-up. Trademark and Morgan are starting 362 units into a metro that absorbed 4,300 last quarter and still has 31,000 in the pipeline.
That is a location-and-timing underwrite, not a national MPI underwrite. If Dallas list rents stay negative into 2028, Class A Turtle Creek-adjacent stock still has a tenant pool the fringe gardens do not. The receipt to watch is not the groundbreaking photo. It is whether the fall 2028 first units lease without the concessions the last Dallas wave needed.
Sources
- Trademark Property Company and Morgan Break Ground on 362-Unit Apartment Community in Dallas' Oak Lawn Neighborhood, Trademark Property Company, November 5, 2026
- Trademark, Morgan Advancing 362-Unit Oak Lawn Rental Community, Connect CRE
- Trademark and Morgan Break Ground on 362 Oak Lawn Apartments, Texas Construction Hub, November 6, 2026
- Trademark And Morgan To Build Luxury Apartments In Oak Lawn: The DFW Deal Sheet, Bisnow, November 9, 2026
- 362-unit luxury apartment development planned for Dallas' Oak Lawn neighborhood, WFAA, October 27, 2026
- Q3 2026 U.S. Multifamily Figures, CBRE Research