The lovely Karen Mordecai and I just returned from the Dallas Historical Society‘s Awards for Excellence in Community Service. We were the guests of Allie Beth and Pierce Allman, who received the Jubilee History Maker award for efforts ranging from the glamorous (the renovation of Lee Park’s Arlington Hall, where Tony Romo got married) to the essential (the distribution of 1.5 million pounds of food in three years via the S.M. Wright Foundation).

Allie Beth has served on the TCU Board of Trustees, the Center for Brain Health Advisory Board, and the executive committee of the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center Dallas Council. Pierce, meanwhile, was one of the founders of La Fiesta de Las Seis Banderas and is the narrator for the Sixth Floor Museum.

Pierce spoke for his wife, whom he said is a proud native Texan, a claim he can’t make himself. “I’m from back east. I was born in Little Rock, Arkansas,” he said. “But as soon as the family learned to read, we moved to Texas.”

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I can’t speak to the impact sports has had on the commercial real estate industry, the purview of the Real Estate Council, but I know one way it has affected the residential real estate business: Rangers sluggers Michael Young and Ian Kinsler would not have purchased their University Park homes if their professional baseball careers had not brought them to Arlington.

If you’ve had enough time to shake off your post-World Series funk, perhaps you’d like to attend an event hosted by the Real Estate Council tomorrow morning. Talk show host Norm Hitzges will moderate a discussion about what a big business sports is in this region. Panelists will include Mavericks general manager Donnie Nelson; Joshua Price, an assistant professor of economics at UT-Arlington; and Trey Yelverton, Arlington’s deputy city manager of neighborhood services.

The discussion will take place over breakfast beginning at 7:30 a.m. at the Belo Mansion. The cost for nonmembers is $90. For more information, contact the Real Estate Council at 214-692-3600.

This month, the pages of Park Cities People have been filled with photos of elementary school carnivals and notices of upcoming Dads Club meetings. I’ve never thought of these events as the incubators for big-business deals … until I read the November issue of Texas Monthly. That issue includes a story by Jason Sheeler — called “Give Me Shelter” — that looks at the high-dollar properties in and around the Park Cities through the prism of Allie Beth Allman agent Erin Mathews. According to Sheeler, Mathews was the chair of the Bradfield Elementary School carnival in the early ’90s, at the same time that the school’s Dads Club was led by Robbie Briggs, the president of Briggs Freeman. Within a year, Mathews had left her job at Neiman Marcus to sell real estate.

Spotted on Milton this weekend: a yard sign for Peter Parker Custom Homes. Immediately, my spider-sense started tingling.

You know that shopping center on the southwest corner of Walnut Hill and Central? The one that includes Iron Stone Bank and PPG Paints? I remember struggling to figure out what its name was late last year, when Claire St. Amant was looking into a rash of robberies at the Subway there.

Well, now I know: It’s called Lakeside Village. And I know that because I received a press release yesterday trumpeting the shopping center’s sale to Retail Plazas Inc., a firm led by Highland Park resident Jeffrey Olyan. According to the release from Henry S. Miller Companies, Lakeside Village’s owner since 1999, the center was developed by Property Company of America in 1986.

“Some of the tenants are still the original tenants in the center, like SAS Shoes and Lakeside Cleaners,” said Vaughn Miller, head of the Henry S. Miller retail division, “and that speaks volumes about the strength of the center and the market area.”

Good news for Olyan: Not one crime has been reported at the Lakeside Village Subway this year.

If you have thoughts on how tall rear fences in University Park should be, bring yourself and your thoughts to City Hall tomorrow. The Planning and Zoning Commission will consider a proposed amendment to the ordinance governing those fences’ heights. Curious about what exactly the ordinance says? Here it is.

(a)     Any fence or wall constructed along the rear property line, where such property line adjoins an alley easement, shall not exceed eight feet (8′) in height.

(b)     Any fence or wall constructed along any rear property line, not adjacent to an alley easement, shall not exceed eight feet (8′) in height.

(c)     Every portion of a fence must be located a minimum of two feet (2′) away from the edge of the alley or on the rear property line, whichever is further away from the edge of the alley pavement.

Hong Kong’s Cheng Yu-tung family doesn’t have to worry about where to stay when they visit Dallas. According to FrontBurner, they just completed the purchase of The Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek and the Crescent Court. Other hotels included in the $570 million hotel deal from Maritz, Wolff, and the Rosewood Corp. are the Carlyle, Rosewood Inn, and Rosewood Little Dix Bay.

I could have sworn the Dallas Country Club land and improvements were worth more than $15 million. Evidently not. Silly me, and silly DCAD.

Actor Larry Hagman's back for TNT's Dallas remake.

It’s no secret that apart from certain exterior shots, Dallas was mostly filmed in Hollywood. Well, now that producers plan to remake the classic TV series, which aired from 1978-’91, they’re trolling for set locations in North Texas.

Think the Park Cities have some likely offerings? I do.

Says Dallas Film Commissioner Janis Burklund:

… maybe you’d like to draw tourists to your property, or grow your business. Whatever the reason, this is a great opportunity to be seen by an international audience.

Click here for details about nominating your property. If you’re making a submission by email, be sure to include “Dallas TV Series Locations” in the subject line. And if you’re picked, by all means let us know.