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DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – A groundbreaking was held today for the new $250 million Hall Arts Hotel and Residences project. It’s a part of a revitalization plan that the City of Dallas hopes will not only give a new look to the Arts District, but bring more people and money to the area.

What is now dirt will soon be transformed into a residential high-rise and hotel that developer’s hope will become a jewel in downtown Dallas.

With a ceremonial groundbreaking and performance by the vertical dance company Bandaloop, the first development of its kind in downtown Dallas in more than a decade got underway.

The hotel and residences are the second phase of the Hall arts development. When the project is complete there will be a 25-story residential high-rise, housing more than 40 condominiums, on Flora Street and a 183-room luxury hotel in the corner of Ross venue and Leonard Street, just across from the Winspear Opera House. The hotel will be operated by Crescent Hotels & Resorts.

Developer Craig Hall says the development will compliment the Arts District and hopefully turn the area into both a neighborhood and a destination.

“Three years from now I hope we will see a much more vibrant community here, with a lot of people on the street. We’ll see a very safe, great neighborhood,” he said. “Right now, three million people come to the Arts District — but they come and go, they don’t come and stay. I want them to come and stay and walk around. I want the Dallas Arts District to be a place that’s talked about worldwide.”

Phase I of the project, the 18-story KPMG Plaza office tower, was completed in 2015. Phase II is expected to be complete in the fall of 2019.