Two Dallas entrepreneurs have closed on a deal to buy an aging medical office building in the city's Lake Highlands neighborhood, making way for what they're calling a boutique country club catering to families.
Rather than featuring an 18-hole golf course or tennis courts, Nick Clark and Dawson Williams plan to create an oasis close to their homes in East Dallas that offers families a place of respite without the pricey membership dues that typically accompany a traditional country club. Clark, who founded coworking company Common Desk in 2012 and sold the business to WeWork a decade later, is teaming up once again with Williams, who was his Common Desk business partner, on the new venture through their newly formed company Radical Play.
An affiliate of Radical Play purchased the East Dallas site at 10405 E. Northwest Highway for $2 million from Northlake Meridian LLC on Wednesday afternoon, Clark said. They plan to start construction by the end of the year, transforming the 1960s-vintage medical office building on a 3.65-acre tract into a space for families. At Common Desk, Clark sought to help reinvent the workplace with its model of building luxury office space with a living room-type vibe. Now he wants to create that sort of community for families, he said.
"We are now designing space for children rather than a workspace for adults, which is a big change," Clark told CoStar News in an exclusive interview. "This is the hardest thing I've worked on yet. This project's total capitalization is $35 million, and the average Common Desk was $3.5 million to build out."
The yet-to-be-named proposed club in East Dallas is scheduled to open in the first quarter of 2027.
"This is the first time I've bought a property since I got into real estate in 2005," said Clark, who got his start as a commercial real estate broker in Dallas at Holt Lunsford Commercial and Pillar Commercial before launching Common Desk.
Now, Clark and Williams are reimagining the country club by designing spaces geared toward activities for children ages 12 and under, with separate areas for different ages, from a nursery for small infants to a playroom to a 6,000-square-foot, resort-style pool with an oasis-like feel meant to revive parents.
They plan to transform the space into an elevated experience that will feel like "an oasis" in Dallas for young families, said Williams, who will helm the redevelopment and construction efforts. Plans include taking the interiors down to the studs and breaking up the surface-level parking lot and drive surrounding the office.
Both Clark and Williams live in East Dallas and have young children. They saw the need for a more attainable club experience after shopping around for a country club in Dallas to join to find a family-friendly community, but were met with steep initiation fees and monthly charges. Ever since the pandemic, there's been an uptick of demand from potential members, according to a briefing from the Club Management Association of America, with waitlists growing from 25% to 50% — as would-be members see an advantage to going to the club to work rather than the office.
The initiation fees have also grown, with median initiation fees in clubs with golf having increased from about $30,000 at the end of 2019 to about $50,000 by the end of 2023, the industry group said. For clubs without golf or for a social membership, those initiation dues have jumped in the same time frame from about $10,000 to about $15,000. Monthly membership dues have also escalated, with some clubs charging a monthly fee that surpasses $1,000, with those recurring fees creating a barrier to entry for some potential members, according to golf and resort industry experts.
Clark and Williams are seeking to break with tradition by offering a more attainable club. They are planning to ask for an initiation fee at about $9,000 and monthly membership dues expected to hover around $400, they said.
"We think we are offering something that's missing in the market today," Clark said, adding that the East Dallas country club is also expected to be the newest club in the Dallas area in decades. "We believe that clubs are severely lacking indoor play space and modern parents want something different. They want to make sure their kids are well taken care of with classes and options they like. That allows parents to relax because they know their kids are having a good time."
The breakdown
The exterior of the three-story medical office building in Dallas is expected to remain intact, with the expansive terraces on the sides of the building helping with the spa-like design of the club. The interiors will be completely gutted and redeveloped, offering the new ownership group — and its investors — the ability to design and build the club of a young family's dreams, Williams said.
The new club is designed to have 18,000 square feet of dedicated space within the building geared specifically for children, with a nursery and play areas designed for so-called Littles, or children between 18 months and 5 years old, to Bigs, or children between 6 and 12 years of age.
The kid-centric amenities are expected to continue to the exterior of the property — replacing what is an aging surface parking lot with a 6,000-square-foot, resort-style pool and a 6,000-square-foot green area designed for sports, games and inflatables. The property will also include a 4,500-square-foot, custom-built outdoor playground that will be shaded for children, Williams said.
Radical Play has about 35 to 40 investors committed to the club development, with the firm expecting to have 60 founding investors before the club opens. Investors are founding families who brought $25,000 to the table and are considered part owners and helping with the design process.
The company plans to finalize its arrangements with architects and other partners in the near future, Clark said. But, even in pitching the plans, he said he's picking up future members along the way.
"Our banks that are coming along for the ride have employees who are advocating for this," Clark said. The club's location in the Lake Highlands neighborhood makes it more appealing to would-be investors and members, he added.
"It really resonates with families who care about what their kids are doing after school and are looking to make lifestyle choices that are best for their children," Clark said.