Jan. 22--NEW YORK--The steel skeleton rising over Columbus Circle almost certainly is destined for landmark status on the Manhattan skyline. 

When it's completed next year, the AOL Time Warner Center will house the headquarters and television studios of a media giant. With a luxury hotel, performance halls, stores and restaurants, the project aims to be an anchor for the city's West Side, attracting crowds of local residents and tourists alike. 

The project is also the signature work of New York developer Palladium Co. 

"It's about excitement, energy and intensity," said Kenneth A. Himmel, president and chief executive of Palladium, showing off sketches of the project in his Midtown office. "There are pieces of every major metropolitan area that ought to have that kind of flavor." 

He thinks Dallas is one of them. And Dallas businessmen Ross Perot Jr. and Tom Hicks think Mr. Himmel has just the right talent to bring some of that Manhattan pep to a swath of largely vacant wasteland along Stemmons Freeway. 

They selected Palladium in November 1999 as the lead developer for Victory, the $600 million redevelopment project near downtown Dallas between the West End and American Airlines Center. The Victory plan aims to create a pedestrian-oriented complex with a critical mass of stores and restaurants, along with a top-of-the-line hotel, office space and apartments. 

"If you look at what he's done, he's the best in the country," Mr. Perot said last week. "He's leading edge, highest quality. So few people have done true mixed-use successfully. He's one of a handful of people to pull it off, the kind of developer we need in Dallas. We need tenants and lot of restaurants. With his reputation and stamina, no one can bring them better than Ken can." 

Originally envisioned in a robust economy, Victory has become controversial in tougher times. 

Palladium has asked for about $45 million in public improvement financing for streets, parking and plazas. Last week, a group representing some of the downtown area's most powerful property owners asked the City Council not to give additional public support for Victory. They said the project would harm existing real estate downtown. 

Palladium responded that the proposal is fair and that it will benefit all of the downtown area. 

"We really believe the Dallas metropolitan area will continue to grow, and that the question is whether downtown gets its fair share," said Kenneth P. Wong, Western region partner for Palladium, who is overseeing the Victory project for the firm. The property owners' letter assumes it's a "zero sum" market, he said. 

In his own letter, Mr. Wong said the Victory proposal is "risk free" to the city and taxpayers because the developer must build the public infrastructure up front, at its cost. "Our proposal is to use a portion of the project's own taxes to reimburse the developer for the cost," he wrote. "Only if we are successful do we get repaid." 

It's a "winning idea," Mr. Wong said. "If someone has an idea better than ours, we're all ears." 

Mr. Himmel, 55, said "the good news about Dallas, at least our read of it, is that we don't see the same roller-coaster economic trends that we do in certain other parts of the country." 

Victory would have a W Hotel, part of a trendy new boutique chain. Retailers would include Anthropologie, FAO Schwarz, Ann Taylor, Abercrombie & Fitch and J. Crew. Among the restaurants would be McCormick & Schmick's, a seafood house. 

The Victory project is designed for two primary demographic groups, Mr. Himmel said, both of which are plentiful in North Texas. 

"One is the maturing customer, independent and wealthy enough that they can make their own choices, empty nesters if you will," Mr. Himmel said. "Then you've got young professionals. Many people relocated to Dallas, left urban experiences that they consider positive, and they've come to a part of the world that doesn't quite deliver that to them." 

Only a relatively small and affluent portion of the region's population is needed to make the project work, Mr. Himmel said. 

Palladium considers itself one of the premier developers for creating what are known as urban destinations -- mixed-use projects that people arrive at without knowing exactly what they want to do. 

"To create a destination, you have to give people multiple choices once they arrive," Mr. Wong said. "If it's completely predictable, it's not as fun. Serendipity is important in a real city." 

Mr. Himmel's success comes in creating destinations that don't feel artificial, said Michael Rubin, president of MRA International Inc., a Philadelphia-based consulting and venture development firm. Mr. Rubin helped select Palladium for Mr. Perot's real estate company, Hillwood Development Corp. 

Even with its 2.8 million square feet of space, Mr. Rubin said, AOL Time Warner Center fits well into a limited space, tucked into the southwest corner of Central Park. 

Twin towers will rise 750 feet, atop an atrium of stone and glass for the stores and restaurants. Spectacular views of the city will be integrated into broadcasts from CNN, a unit of AOL Time Warner Inc., in much the same way that NBC uses Rockefeller Center as a backdrop. The performance halls will feature Jazz at Lincoln Center. 

After Palladium completed a project in West Palm Beach, Fla., there was a general sense in the developer community that "this seems to be it," Mr. Rubin said, that it represented a new model for how an urban destination should fit together. "It feels like a real place. It feels authentic." 

Bill Fountain, executive director of the West Palm Beach Downtown Development Authority, said the Palladium project "really surpassed the vision and dreams we had. We give them A-plus marks. It's a company with great vision that does great quality of work. They do the things they say they're going to do, on time and on budget." 

Mr. Himmel's charter in Dallas will be to create a place that is a focal point for the city in the way that Rockefeller Center is in New York, Mr. Rubin said. "It's a place for people watching," Mr. Rubin said. "Even at the ice skating rink, there are very few skaters." 

Much of the movement called "new urbanism" is based on the more traditional landscapes of cities in Europe, including Paris and London, and a handful in the United States such as Chicago or New York. 

"I think people in Dallas are as interested as New Yorkers in shopping and in restaurants," Mr. Himmel said. "But people have not gone to Dallas for the urban experience. It's a market driven by suburban malls. That's why the opportunity in Dallas is so unique." 

Mr. Himmel came to the real estate industry as a natural progression from his passion for hotels and restaurants. He grew up in Marblehead, Mass., an old seaport town. After attending the College of William & Mary, working part time as a waiter, Mr. Himmel graduated from Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration. 

He took a job with Cabot, Cabot & Forbes, a real estate management firm, which was involved with building a Ritz-Carlton Hotel at a project in Chicago, Water Tower Place. Completed in 1975 and located on the city's prestigious "Magnificent Mile," Water Tower pioneered the concept of combining a hotel, shopping center, restaurants and office space into a vertically oriented complex in a densely populated urban area. 

"That really was the beginning of the career that I have today," Mr. Himmel said. "There was a halo effect of doing something that unusual and special. I learned if you can execute retail in a special way, you can make an address out of the rest of the project that no one else can make." 

He formed Himmel & Co., a Boston-based firm that developed projects in Seattle, Chicago and Reston, Va. Reston Town Center offers all the stores common in a suburban shopping mall, including Banana Republic and Pottery Barn. But because of its orientation along a main street, it calls itself Northern Virginia's downtown. 

In January 1997, he started Palladium with his partner, Stephen M. Ross, chairman and chief executive of Related Cos. In addition to the AOL Time Warner Center project, Palladium is also backing a redevelopment project in San Jose, Calif. Partly because of the faltering economy there, the project has been delayed for an "extension of negotiating rights," Mr. Wong said. 

Mr. Himmel has kept his hand in the restaurant business. He is founder and chief executive of American Food Management, a restaurant holding and management company. Its upscale portfolio includes two Boston-area restaurants, Grill 23 & Bar, a steak and seafood grill, and Harvest, which features contemporary American cuisine. 

Whether it's a restaurant or a real estate project, Mr. Himmel said he believes attention to detail distinguishes the remarkable from the ordinary. 

"You can drive around any U.S. city and look at bad planning, bad taste and bad execution," Mr. Himmel said. "To do projects right takes a lot of time and a lot of effort. Ours is not the quickest path. We don't build a commodity product, which is what so many people in America are looking for. What we do is custom-crafted." 

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