DALLAS –Arlington-based SkyWalker Property Partners has sold the 111-year-old Hughes Brothers Candy Factory to Flint Hills Development Group in an unsolicited off-market transaction.

The location, 1401 S. Ervay St., is in the Cedars neighborhood on the south side of downtown Dallas with access to Interstate 30.  SkyWalker was in the middle of a plan to convert the five-story building, bought just one year ago, to residential units when Flint Hills made an offer to buy the site.

"The location and robust redevelopment activity in the Cedars neighborhood clearly worked to our investors' advantage," says Clint Holland, acquisitions director for the investment group. "The offer was such that it made sense to sell."

The Cedars is one of the city's oldest neighborhoods, with the shuttered factory sitting close to several entertainment destinations and a handful of properties recently purchased by local and out-of-state developers.

The candy factory opened in 1903 and closed during the Great Depression, later becoming a production site for ice cream cones. The brick structure closed in 2000.

The property's potential for residential use became evident with the South Side's gentrification into a bustling mixed-use corridor. Because it is a historic property, there is additional opportunity to tap into tax credits, including the recently enacted Texas Historic Preservation Tax Credit Program and a sales tax exemption on labor that's available for work on any building listed on the

"Flint Hills Development Group has experience redeveloping projects with national and state historic tax credits and wanted to take on this project," Holland says. "We are pleased the buyer appreciates and understands preservation."

Christopher Gibbons of Venture Commercial represented the buyer.

Reps for Skywalker were unable to offer more details by press time.