When a group of investment partners closed on one of downtown Dallas’ skyscrapers about 18 months ago, they knew the building needed a massive transformation.

The 45-story, 1.1 million-square-foot office tower at 500 S. Akard St. was only 50 percent filled with tenants, and there were some key vacancies, including a 7,000-square-foot retail banking space anchoring the high-rise office tower, that needed to be filled.

That led Bandera Ventures, in a partnership with Vancouver-based real estate firm Second City Real Estate and Austin-based HPI, to spend nearly $20 million upgrading the building’s curbside appeal, modernizing all of the elevators and bringing in two new chillers, said Chuck Anderson, founder of Bandera Ventures.

Click to read more at Dallas Business Journal.