The Dallas Cotton Exchange Building was a 17-story tan brick and concrete building on the corner of North St. Paul and San Jacinto Streets in downtown Dallas, Texas.

It was built in 1926 and was for decades Dallas' second-tallest, as the city was growing into the largest inland cotton market in the U.S. By 1971, though the city had become the financial capital of the cotton industry, the exchange housed more Baptists than brokers because of offices rented to nearby First Baptist Church.

Meanwhile, the original lender on the building, First RepublicBank Corp., had failed in 1988, sending the loan to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

[2] City inspectors determined that the Cotton Exchange's precast concrete panels, attached during a 1960s renovation, had a high asbestos content and should be removed before implosion.

Then-Mayor Steve Bartlett attempted to persuade Mr. Williams to seek a buyer who would convert the offices to apartments, but the Dallas City Council did not pass enhanced tax abatements for inner-city housing renovations until October 1993, too late to stop the process.