The location for this year’s Kips Bay Dallas Decorator Show House is 9250 Meadowbrook Road in the honey pot of Preston Hollow, only a short woodsy walk from last year’s stunner on Deloache Drive.
Well, that’s where we think it’s going to be.
The inaugural Kips Bay Presidents’ Dinner was also planned to be held at that location. The seated dinner, like the show house, will raise funds for Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club, which provides educational and developmental programs for New York City children. On a local level, beneficiaries include The Crystal Charity Ball, which supports Dallas children’s charities, and Dwell with Dignity, dedicated to creating homes for families struggling with homelessness and poverty.
Since its founding in 1973, Kips Bay Show Houses have raised $29 million. But last week, a red, hand-written stop work order sign appeared outside of 9250 Meadowbrook, instructing contractors to halt construction. The sign came down Monday, according to dinner co-chair Claire Emanuelson. And after a check Tuesday morning, it has.
But all that means is that the builder, Elliot Perry of Hudson Construction Group, one of many contractors working on the home, has cleared the necessary building permits on the property to continue the construction and renovation for the homeowners: the Stephen and Joy Marie Family Trust. Neighbors are complaining to the city about the prospect of yet another show home in their neighborhood. Their complaints are being heard by the City and the City’s attorney… which could force Kips Bay to stop selling tickets to the show home.
When we reached out to Perry regarding the permit situation, he said that his firm does not have comment on the issue at this time.
Who are the owners?
Steve and Joy Hall, who bought the property on Nov. 16, own the home that is to be the 2022 Kips Bay Decorator Show House.
The two-acre estate is in the throes of a stud-to-painted brick renovation by Hudson Construction Group. CandysDirt.com first wrote about the house in 2014, when Joan Eleazer with Briggs Freeman Sotheby’s International Realty listed it.
Ebby Halliday Realtors’ Martha Morguloff sold it in 2016 to Barry and Antoinette Davis. When the Stephen and Joy Marie Family Trust purchased the home last year, it was an off-market deal. With the deeply extensive renovation, only a block from Northwest Highway, 9250 Meadowbrook looks like the perfect place for a show house.
Mixed Signals
“The permit situation is entirely different from the show home,” said Leland Burk, president of the Inwood Northwest Homeowners Association. Burk, who lives up the street, is a former candidate for Dallas City Council in District 13, where the home is located. Residents in the neighborhood want the home to complete the renovation with the proper permitting, he says.
“The city attorney is not approving use of the home for a 31-day commercial fund-raising venue,” Burk said. “The neighborhood is residential and such use is not a single-family use.”
Burk says the city attorney has sent a certified letter to the Halls as well as Kips Bay, ordering them to stop ticket sales.
Which begs the question: How did Kips Bay manage to hold a show home last year just a few blocks away?
31 Days of Headaches
There were massive complaints over last year’s showhome, says Burk. But the city cannot react until neighbors alert them. Neighbors say in one case, an ambulance could not get through the parked cars to a resident’s home. Homes on either side of last year’s show home also reported property damage.
“Our councilperson is very concerned about this event taking place,” said Burk. “There is no confidence the neighborhood can handle the traffic.”
The Kips Bay Decorator Show House is an annual event that celebrates interior design by turning a luxury home into an open-to-the-public exhibition of design, furnishings, art, architecture, and technology. 9250 Meadowbrook, the third Kips Bay show house in Dallas, is slated to open on Sept. 22.
“There’s no question the Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club has a long track record of serving young people in New York,” Burk said in a statement.
“The Kips Bay Decorator Show House has attracted some of Dallas’s finest families as supporters and attendees of its Dallas show since it started two years ago,” the statement reads. “Unfortunately, this year the Kips Bay Decorator Show House organizers and the beneficiary homeowner didn’t reach out to their neighbors to partner, or the city of Dallas to get proper permitting and check on proper land use ordinances. The Dallas City Attorney’s Office has determined the site that Kips Bay Decorator Show House organizers selected is an improper land use that is not equipped to handle the traffic and crowds that are expected for over a month’s time. Neighbors living near last year’s Decorator Show House report unmanaged trash, traffic, and parking congestion that also caused delays for emergency vehicles. With thousands of visitors expected in the neighborhood at the Kips Bay show house daily for more than four weeks, strong partnership and alignment with both the neighborhood and the City would have been critical.”
As for the inaugural dinner on Sept. 20, organizers are frantically seeking another venue to accommodate more people, Emanuelson said. The dinner was to be held in a tent on the Meadowbrook property the day before the show home opened. The pricey sponsorships were snapped up quickly, and the event is sold out: Nancy Rogers is holding one of the $50,000 president’s tables, the highest sponsorship available. Others range from $25,000 to $2,000 for a single ticket.
“A one-night event is one thing,” said Burk. “Thirty-one days of commercial use is another.”
Assistant Editor April Towery contributed to this report.
