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Heard from a friend that Jack's closed, so I did a google search and sure enough the crack staff of reporters at the Daily Campus were all over it. Never was a big Jack's fan while I was at SMU, but I did go there a few times and play volleyball for that Spikes for Tikes fundraisers and always had a blast. Mean old SMU...

http://www.smudailycampus.com/vnews/dis ... dd1ee8100b

SMU shuts down Jack’s Pub


By Mark Norris, News Editor, [email protected]
January 18, 2006

Another campus hangout closed its doors as Jack’s Pub and Volley Ball Club ceased operations at its Yale Boulevard location. The closing came just more than a year after another popular SMU haunt, The Green Elephant, closed its doors. Owner Mark Kelcher says that the club closed due to parking issues.
“We had a lease on the old movie theater parking lot, but we were unable to renew that lease,” Kelcher said.

SMU owns the property and lot surrounding the old United Artists movie theater that was adjacent to the Jack’s property.

Kelcher said that SMU told him in September that it was not going to allow Jack’s to renew the lease on the lots. Without that lease, Jack’s would be unable to stay open due to a low parking to occupancy ratio.

Jack’s closed at the end of December when the lease on the parking lots expired. Kelcher and his brother, who owned the club together, decided to sell the one acre of property Jack’s sits on to SMU. The Dallas County Appraisal District valued the property at $129,540 in 2005.

“We were definitely doing great financially,” Kelcher said. “And it’s absolutely a disadvantage to lose that location.”

Kelcher looked for but could not find any land nearby that would be financially acceptable.

A new Jack’s is tentatively scheduled to open in March in the South Side by Lamar development in downtown Dallas. Kelcher said the new club will have six sand courts and one water volleyball court.

Until then, Kelcher says that pretty much all of the old Jack’s staff is currently working at Kelcher’s Metro Grill. To all of the loyal patrons, he said,“Thanks for a great 11 years at the old location.”

The Daily Campus’ calls to representatives of Peruna Properties and SMU went unanswered.

Saw that. Wonder what's being planned for that space.

SMU also bought the office tower from the Gaedeke Group that sits on the SE corner of Yale and Central Expressway.

The building where the Park Cities People used to be?
Is the school simply going to operate it as a corporate landlord, or are all of the businesses being kicked out?

I have been told that they will be utilizing much of the building for themselves over the next several years. I forget who exactly they are putting over there. I know some tenants will be leaving.

Eddie P wrote:SMU also bought the office tower from the Gaedeke Group that sits on the SE corner of Yale and Central Expressway.

They did? I used to do some legal work for Gaedeke. Wow. That is nice property. Gaedeke tends not to flip properties; they hold them for a while. Must of cost a pretty penny.

Very sharp observation, Dooby. They do not flip properties...they tend to hold long-term and what they buy is often nice product. I can't imagine what SMU offered but it must have been something ridiculous as Sabine has no real need to sell off her properties that I am aware of.

To me, the title should have been "SMU chooses to develop empty parking lot" not "SMU shuts down Jack's Pub". When I saw the real title, I thought, 'how in the heck did they shut down jack's pub', but reading the article told a different story.

I love how they try to make it look like a conspiracy with the "Calls to Peruna Properties went unanswered." Darn those pesky developers, trying to build buildings and expand the school.

I believe a couple of floors in that building are being used by the psych dept for its grad students.

Eddie P wrote:SMU also bought the office tower from the Gaedeke Group that sits on the SE corner of Yale and Central Expressway.

The old Dallas Playboy Club was in that building, as were the old Dallas Cowboys offices. Lot of history in that joint.

Eddie P wrote:Very sharp observation, Dooby. They do not flip properties...they tend to hold long-term and what they buy is often nice product. I can't imagine what SMU offered but it must have been something ridiculous as Sabine has no real need to sell off her properties that I am aware of.

name dropper.

you guys are forgetting that with the prospect of the Bush Library, the school needs more land than is available at the Baird's site. w/ the Theatre, Jacks (allowing access from Yale/SMU blvd) and Gaedeke's old bldg. and University Gardens, there should be enough land to construct the Presidential Library. The property on the East side of Central is key b/c of hight restrictions at Mrs.Bairds and UnivGrdns both in HP.

As far as the tenants in the office tower, you build in a phased development and time it accordingly so that it is the last portion - should anyone still have a lease, it's not that difficult to buy them out. But i would highly doubt that occur since these projects take time to build and i can't think of any tenant in the bldg that would have a lease longer than 7 years from today.

It was not my intention to name drop, but from reading that I could see how it would look that way. Sorry.

You know, I had the same thoughts but all indications are that the building is going nowhere, Bush Library or not. I do believe that is the purpose for the movie theater, Jacks and some other ongoing attempts at purchases on that same corner. I believe an earlier post said something about the psych grads taking some space there? And my information was that there would be a gradual build-up of SMU tenants for the future.

But I thought as you did...let time run off the leases and then knock it down. The last I heard, that was not the plan. But we have a decade or so to watch it develop.

Dating back years and years (like when I was a student), I had heard there was a long term plan to move most administration functions adjacent, but off campus, such as the other side of 75.

Have you guys looked at a map of the surounding areas of SMU lately? SMU has three massive parcels of land it can develop. The Bairds' plant being the smallest of the three.

Also, looking at the map, it isn't hard to see what SMU plans on acquiring at some point.I suspect SMU is planning on buying all the houses on East Potomac.

Got to be a baseball field in there somewhere.