BUSINESS BUZZ

The lowdown on what’s up with neighborhood businesses

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Developers eye Faulkner Tower

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In November Grant Guest of Perry Guest Company met with neighbors about plans to raze the seven-story, circa 1967 Faulkner Tower on Gaston and replace it with a mix of retail spaces and residential units. Perry Guest recently purchased and overhauled Lakewood Manor, next door to Faulkner Tower, and they plan to purchase portions along Paulus behind the tower, including a large and mostly vacant parking lot, and replace it with condos or townhouses. However, Perry Guest backed out because of cell phone towers on the roof of Faulkner Tower that have contracts that extend until 2020, Guest says. “It basically encumbers the property,” Guest says of the cell phone towers. “You can’t get rid of them if they have a lease, hence you can’t tear the building down.” But Guest says they’re “not quite done yet with the building. We’re still working on it.” The tower’s owner Jerry Biesel, a longtime Dallas defense attorney who has officed in the building since 1988, isn’t in any rush to sell. He has received a slew of offers from hopeful developers — “Marilyn Monroe couldn’t get more offers than we’ve had,” Biesel says — but he’s waiting for a number he can’t refuse. In 2014 Biesel wanted $4 million-plus for the property, according to Lakewood Heights neighbor Jeff Sheehan, who says it would take another

$1.5 million to bring the building up to snuff. “We might end up just holding onto it,” Biesel says. “We’re not in any big rush to do anything with it.”

Carry on, Graham Dodds

Chef Graham Dodds, who left Hibiscus on Henderson in October, opened a new restaurant on Lower Greenville in December. The new restaurant, Wayward Sons, took the space that Kirby’s Woodfire Grill vacated in July. The concept expands on Dodds’ passion for high-quality ingredients, especially the local and seasonal. Dodds is partnering with This & That Concepts by Brandon Hays and Phil Schanbaum of High Fives, So & So’s, The Standard Pour and soon-to-open Whippersnapper. Wayward Sons opens for dinner at 5 p.m. and offers complimentary valet parking.

Canadian French fries

Austin-based pub Haymaker, known for its poutine, sandwiches and beer, plans to open a location at 1520 Greenville, between Ross and Bryan, in a former auto mechanic shop. It could open as soon as February.

Local bookseller, foreign titles

Hollywood Heights resident Will Evans, who founded the nonprofit publishing house Deep Vellum Publishing in 2013, opened a brick-and-mortar bookstore in Deep Ellum recently. Deep Vellum focuses on publishing books by foreign authors. And the shop, at 3000 Commerce, will focus on selling books by foreign authors. “I found out there’s all of this great stuff being written in every language of the world award-winning books, bestsellers — and very little of it gets translated and published in English,” Evans says.