Dallas creates first TIF for multi-station TODs

[aggie75206]

Not sure if this news was already posted elsewhere in this mega forum. I don't post on this forum much but do read it from time to time. A quick search didn't reveal this news so if it's been posted elsewhere, my apologies for duplication!

But this is quite a good news for Dallas and Dallas area...if such development can make Dallas more navigable and "wieldy" for foot traffic or transit, the better for its future...

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/dallas-creates-first-tax-increment,661950.shtml

Dallas Creates First Tax Increment Financing District Dedicated to Multi-Station Transit Oriented Development

Posted : Fri, 19 Dec 2008 14:31:21 GMT
Author : TX-PRESCOTT-REALTY-GROUP
Category : Press Release

DALLAS - (Business Wire) The Dallas City Council approved its first TIF District focused on multi-station transit-oriented development (TOD) on December 10, 2008. Creation of the District is a culmination of a four-year collaboration between the City of Dallas staff and City Council, Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART), Southern Methodist University, Prescott Realty Group and various Lancaster Corridor stakeholders, including Veterans Hospital, The Urban League and Icon Partners.

The new TIF includes 559 acres in addition to public rights-of-way and stretches from the Lovers Lane/Mockingbird area along the DART rail line to the Lancaster/VA Medical Center region. The District will have a 30-year life, during which real property values are forecasted to grow from $320 million in 2008 to $3.52 billion by 2038. The incremental tax revenue expected to accrue to the District is projected to be approximately $328 million during the life of the TIF.

“The primary focus of this effort is to encourage high-density, mixed-use, pedestrian-friendly developments around existing DART Rail stations,” said Dallas City Manager, Mary Suhm. “The TIF provides an effective development tool to encourage the redevelopment of important, centralized areas of the city, as well as new development.”

Jud Pankey chief executive officer of Prescott Realty Group remarked, “A major goal of the TIF District is improving access and connections between DART Rail station areas and strategic Dallas amenities such as the campus and future research facilities of Southern Methodist University, the George W. Bush Presidential Library, the Trinity River, Southside on Lamar, and the heart of Cedars to the Convention Center area, Dallas Zoo, Cedar Crest Golf Course and Veterans Memorial Hospital.”

The three Sub-Districts designated by the TIF include eight DART Rail stations – The first Sub-District includes areas around Lovers Lane and Mockingbird Stations; the second includes the Cedars DART station and 8th and Corinth station that are tied to the Trinity River Corridor project, and the third is the “Lancaster Corridor” which includes Illinois Station, Crest Shopping Center, Kiest Station and VA Medical Center Station.

While current needs vary between the Sub-Districts, transit is the common focal point to help drive public improvements that are necessary to enhance living, working, shopping and recreational opportunities throughout the District.

TIF revenue allocated for public infrastructure uses will not only serve development projects within the District, but will also provide connectivity and support for neighboring projects. Some of the planned improvements will include streets, sidewalks, lighting and landscaping - each of which encourages pedestrian usage, promotes open space activities and creates destinations that are all supported by DART Rail station access.

“This is an important step,” SMU President R. Gerald Turner said about the creation of the TIF District. “As SMU’s presence east of Central Expressway grows, we look forward to contributing to the vitality of the area and welcoming new audiences to our educational and cultural activities. The planned redevelopment of the University Crossing area presents all of us with wonderful opportunities at a vital crossroads of Dallas education, business and culture.”

Prescott Realty Group is planning two development projects in the University Crossing area that have a combined, projected taxable value of close to $100 million and will begin contributing incremental taxes as early as 2009. These projects include The Shelby, which is planned to include 55 residential lofts and 3,500 square feet of retail and The Shamburger Lofts, with more than 400 planned residential units and 8,000 square feet of retail space.

In the vicinity, Southern Methodist University has development plans including the George W. Bush Presidential Library and several campus facilities that will rely on these public improvements for connectivity to area transit as well as residential, commercial and recreational uses. SMU’s planned developments will also enhance the overall appeal and property values in the area.

All parties working toward Dallas’ TOD TIF embraced the principles for successful urban development which include “place-making” (creating visually recognizable places that attract visitors as well as serve local communities), a correct mix of land uses that generate high numbers of multi-purpose pedestrian trips and promotes great transit use, high density that generates the greatest pedestrian and transit activity and good urban design.

About Prescott Realty Group

Employing twenty years of real estate expertise, Dallas-based Prescott Realty Group specializes in the development of mixed-use, urban infill projects and infrastructure rich settings. Since the company started in 1996, Prescott has been a prime contributor and quiet leader in transit, mixed-use developments and residential projects providing people with live, work, and play environments. Prescott has recently finished the newly renovated historic and award-winning Stoneleigh Hotel & Spa, while continuing to execute on University Crossing and its development of Lake Highlands Town Center, Dallas’ largest transit-oriented development. Through Prescott’s signature strategy, personnel, execution, and community impact, they have reason to celebrate their influential experience and notable tradition.

About SMU

A private university located in the heart of Dallas, SMU is building on the vision of its founders, who imagined a distinguished center for learning emerging from the spirit of the city. Today, nearly 11,000 students benefit from the national opportunities and international reach afforded by the quality of SMU's seven degree-granting schools.

About Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART)

Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) is the transit authority 13 North Texas cities including Dallas providing light rail, bus, paratransit, HOV lanes and rideshare services. DART serves DFW International Airport and Fort Worth via the Trinity Railway Express (TRE). Approximately 400,000 passenger trips are made each weekday on DART’s multimodal transit network.



C. Pharr & Company
For Prescott Realty Group
Cynthia Pharr Lee, 972-931-7576, ext. 24
Cynthia@pharrpr.com

[TheMapman]

Dallas Approves TOD Financing:
http://dallas.bizjournals.com/dallas/stories/2008/12/22/story12.html?b=1229922000^1750547


The Dallas City Council has approved a financing structure aimed at sparking millions of square feet of development worth more than $1 billion along the city’s light rail stations from Lovers Lane to the Veterans Administration Medical Center in southern Dallas.

The plan creates the city’s first tax increment financing district that links the neighborhoods around seven Dallas Area Rapid Transit stations. The goal is to stimulate nodes of transit-oriented development through the heart of the city while jump- starting construction south of the Trinity River.

The concept, approved earlier this month by the City Council, is designed to redirect tax dollars to encourage developers to create clusters of apartments, stores and offices around DART stations.

(continued)

[dfwcre8tive]

Dallas City Council approves plan to send tax revenue from new development to Lancaster Road area
07:15 PM CST on Saturday, December 27, 2008
By RUDOLPH BUSH / The Dallas Morning News
rbush@dallasnews.com
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/122808dnmetnewtif.2fc9f91.html

The area around Lancaster Road and Kiest Boulevard has long been known for its rundown shopping centers, a Wendy's restaurant with no chairs to sit on and a couple of drug-infested motels.

So far, efforts to revive the critical southern-sector neighborhood have proved all but futile.

But in its last meeting of the year, the Dallas City Council approved a plan that stands to be the biggest boost the area has seen in ages, a new tax-increment finance district that could funnel tens of millions of dollars from development north of downtown straight down the DART line to Lancaster-Kiest.

The TOD-TIF, or transit-oriented development/tax-increment finance district, is the first of its kind in Dallas. And at City Hall it's seen as the biggest lever yet to revitalize a backsliding neighborhood.

"It's a big deal. We've been working on this a long time. It's going to have a giant impact on the future, and it significantly increases our chances of success," Mayor Tom Leppert said.

TIF districts are an instrument the city uses to send tax revenue from new development to a redeveloping area rather than adding it to the general fund. The tax money can then be used to shore up infrastructure within the TIF district or even to subsidize future development.

The problem with creating TIF districts in poorer areas like Lancaster-Kiest is that there isn't likely to be any new development to prime the pump – to get the tax dollars flowing back into the district.

But by using the new TOD-TIF, the city hopes it has solved that problem.

Under state law, Dallas can now link distant neighborhoods into a single TIF, so long as they are connected along a transit line.

In this case, the city created a TIF with three subdistricts. The first subdistrict is around Lancaster-Kiest, the second is around the Cedars West neighborhood just south of downtown, and the third is an area largely bounded by Mockingbird and Lovers lanes, Greenville Avenue and North Central Expressway.

The critical connection is the Lancaster-Kiest corridor with neighborhoods around the Mockingbird and Lovers lanes DART stations.

"For a TIF to become successful, it needs some sort of a catalyst or early tax increment generation," said Karl Zavitkovsky, director of Dallas' Economic Development Department.

"With the development going on now with the Bush library and the property Prescott Realty owns in the Mockingbird-Lovers area, we feel there is good opportunity there," he said.

The way the TIF is structured, tax money will flow south to Lancaster-Kiest from new development planned by Prescott in the Mockingbird Station area, and from ancillary development around the library.

...

[BIMS 01]

sounds a lot like the Robinhood school district funding.

[RobertB]

Except that in this case, the rich are issuing press releases about their benevolence toward the poor. This is huge, and I'm virtually certain there's more to the story than meets the eye. I can only hope that the behind-the-scenes players are, for once, working in the best interests of both ends of the TIF, and not just playing the usual South Side influence-peddling politics.

[Spjz]

Except that in this case, the rich are issuing press releases about their benevolence toward the poor. This is huge, and I'm virtually certain there's more to the story than meets the eye. I can only hope that the behind-the-scenes players are, for once, working in the best interests of both ends of the TIF, and not just playing the usual South Side influence-peddling politics.I'd say there are two driving factors behind this TIF. One, there is genuine interest in building projects south of downtown. Two, Caraway has been going to bat for the Mayor and the conventional downtown interests (CC Hotel, TRP), now it is his turn to receive. Either way, it's a good development.

[Hannibal Lecter]

As far as I can tell, this all boils down to absolutely nothing. There won't be one additional cent of tax revenue raised. All it does it dedicate a specific portion of tax revenues to a specific are of town (which is both contrary to the concept of TIFs and bad fiscal policy, but that's another story). When it comes budget time the city will spend the same amount on that area, it will just show as coming from a special account instead of the general fund.

About the only thing really interesting in the article is the City and Belo admitting that they let DART screw up the traffic flow in that area, thus damaging the retail environment. All you folks rooting for streetcars running down the streets outside the CBD should remember this.

[cowboyeagle05]

About the only thing really interesting in the article is the City and Belo admitting that they let DART screw up the traffic flow in that area, thus damaging the retail environment. All you folks rooting for streetcars running down the streets outside the CBD should remember this.

Those of us calling for streetcars outside of the CBD support proper studies that determine how best to integrate new forms of transportation without killing other transportation systems effectiveness. You seem to be suggesting we all blindly want streetcars on every street blocking all car traffic. That would be a terrible extreme assumption of mass transit supporters and is not true at all. It is possible to integrate new alternatives without causing the troubles discussed in the article above so thanks for the reminder that not everything is always rosy, we are aware.

Plus the story is referencing a problem caused by a certain implementation of a certain kind of mass transit technology, streetcars will not cause the same exact problems and/or solutions that light rail, heavy rail, or DART buses do when those systems are integrated in to the dominant cars & streets system of transportation. So streetcars should not be singled out as such a bad thing just because another kind of mass transit didn't provide the best results. I mean Garland had a big DART Bus station on Northwest Highway for a time and when it was no longer needed it closed they didn't kill the whole DART bus system cause they closed one under used DART station they adapted and changed their overall transportation plan.

[Spjz]

As far as I can tell, this all boils down to absolutely nothing. There won't be one additional cent of tax revenue raised. All it does it dedicate a specific portion of tax revenues to a specific are of town (which is both contrary to the concept of TIFs and bad fiscal policy, but that's another story). When it comes budget time the city will spend the same amount on that area, it will just show as coming from a special account instead of the general fund.You could be right.


About the only thing really interesting in the article is the City and Belo admitting that they let DART screw up the traffic flow in that area, thus damaging the retail environment. All you folks rooting for streetcars running down the streets outside the CBD should remember this.I disagree with Lecter and Caraway. There is now problem with traffic flow on Lancaster. I've spent many days and nights working in that area. There's no traffic problem. It's much easier to get to and from businesses along Lancaster than it is Preston Road or Northwest Highway.

[Cliff Dweller]

There won't be one additional cent of tax revenue raised. All it does it dedicate a specific portion of tax revenues to a specific are of town

That's what TIFs do - they never add revenue to the city's general fund, in fact they remove it by dedicating tax income from an area into a special fund.

Supposedly, the existence of this fund creates an incentive for developers to build in that area. The question is, would the developments get built anyway without the taxpayers taking a hit? Maybe; maybe not. We'll never know, since the mayor and council seem determined to throw our money at developers at every opportunity.

[Random Traffic Guy]

I disagree with Lecter and Caraway. There is now problem with traffic flow on Lancaster. I've spent many days and nights working in that area. There's no traffic problem. It's much easier to get to and from businesses along Lancaster than it is Preston Road or Northwest Highway.

That's probably because it handles much less traffic overall than either of your Preston or NW highway examples. Get it from the present 19,000 daily vehicles up to 40-58k that are showing elsewhere, and the trains will have a huge impact. Business would be great though!

[trolleygirl]

No mention of the fair Park area . I wonder why? Do they think that business is booming along the FP corridor? If so, that would be great news, but I don't think so. I am concerned however about taking tax revenues from new businesses along the FP corridor (already in the last year, there is at least two new businesses- a Jack-In-The-Box and an Auto Zone), from the area and putting it elsewhere, when FP really does need a boost too. Probably more so than the Cedars since it seems like development is going on over there, and there is already a PID in the Cedars now anyway. Property values in the Cedars are going up while property values in FP are flat.

[Cliff Dweller]

One reason that springs to mind is that the person who represents the Fair Park area does not have the power and influence that the person who represents Lancaster-Kiest does. I'm pretty sure this is much more about Lancaster-Kiest than Cedars.

[RobertB]

One reason that springs to mind is that the person who represents the Fair Park area does not have the power and influence that the person who represents Lancaster-Kiest does. I'm pretty sure this is much more about Lancaster-Kiest than Cedars.
... and it sounds like the same southern-sector influence politics that has prevented development for decades. Business as usual, then. :mad:

[trolleygirl]

One reason that springs to mind is that the person who represents the Fair Park area does not have the power and influence that the person who represents Lancaster-Kiest does. I'm pretty sure this is much more about Lancaster-Kiest than Cedars.

Are you talking about City Council? I'm not sure who the council person is over at the Lanscaster/Kiest area (Caraway, maybe?), but I will give you that on Carolyn Davis not having the cunning to facilitate a deal like this. I think she might be in over her head, council-wise. I'm not are that she even understands how what a TIF is or how it works. Hell, she didn't even know what TRCP stood for (Trinity River Corridor Project) or who was on the committee (she is). It's a basic lack of general understanding of very simple things that go on at city hall like this that has always scared me about her. She always got a deer-in-the-headlights look and she is very naive when it comes to politics. She got elected because she was folksy and down-to-earth and walked door-to-door, but also because she has lived in the district all her life and knows a bunch of people. That doesn't always translate to a good council person.

[Cliff Dweller]

... and it sounds like the same southern-sector influence politics that has prevented development for decades. Business as usual, then.
Well I'm pretty sure the goal - or one of the goals - is to spur development in the Lancaster-Kiest corridor, so I don't see it the way you do.

Tgirl, yes it's Caraway, he's been pushing that area for redevelopment at least since his campaign. I give him credit; he's carrying through on the priorities he set, whether you agree with him or not.

I don't know much about Ms Davis, but my impression was that at least she's sincere and maybe educable - but no, she could not have put together a deal like this. I'm afraid after the next election I'm going to have a similar councilperson, so I'm trying to look on the bright side, I guess - lol

[TheMapman]

One of the two FP stations is already in a TIF district.

[Spjz]

One of the two FP stations is already in a TIF district.But the Fair Park (or whatever its official name is) TIF district has to rely solely on South Dallas development to increase property values. This TIF can bring money to East Oak Cliff without East Oak Cliff creating additional property tax revenue. Different animal.

[TheMapman]

But the Fair Park (or whatever its official name is) TIF district has to rely solely on South Dallas development to increase property values. This TIF can bring money to East Oak Cliff without East Oak Cliff creating additional property tax revenue. Different animal.
Very true.

[UrbanHope]

I disagree with Lecter and Caraway. There is now problem with traffic flow on Lancaster. I've spent many days and nights working in that area. There's no traffic problem. It's much easier to get to and from businesses along Lancaster than it is Preston Road or Northwest Highway.

There is a traffic problem on Lancaster. Almost all of it can be attributed to the DART line. It causes extremely long waits because you can only turn on Lancaster to the side streets at certain points, and then you get blocked by the DART trains. You can grow a beard as you wait to turn into the VA or cross Lancaster from a side street. Many businesses closed and the few that could afford to relocate did so at other places along Lancaster.

The Fair Park TIF is called the Grand Park South TIF. And you're right, nothing has occurred there since inception.


... and it sounds like the same southern-sector influence politics that has prevented development for decades. Business as usual, then. :mad:

I'm sorry you feel that way.

Dwaine and I have been talking about something we called the Corinth/Lancaster Road Initiative before he was on the Council. It's finally come to fruition. This new TIF is linked to other areas, because the Grand Park South TIF hasn't had any development (as mentioned by others on this post) because its solely dependent on that area. I think also a state bill was passed that allowed this to happen (I can't remember).

There are several projects occurring without TIF money right now so at some point we will contribute on the Lancaster side as well. Some are mentioned here (http://dallasprogress.blogspot.com/2008/12/rebuilding-district-four-block-at-time.html).

[Spjz]

There is a traffic problem on Lancaster. Almost all of it can be attributed to the DART line. It causes extremely long waits because you can only turn on Lancaster to the side streets at certain points, and then you get blocked by the DART trains. You can grow a beard as you wait to turn into the VA or cross Lancaster from a side street. Many businesses closed and the few that could afford to relocate did so at other places along Lancaster.I just can't agree with that analysis. I've spent way too much time driving (and walking) in the 216 and 203 zip codes. I think Caraway's vision for the Blue Line and the Lancaster/Corinth Corridor is a great place to focus city resources, but to lay blame at DART's feet isn't going to accomplish anything. If Dart had raised the tracks above the street, would people complain that the platforms aren't accessed easily enough, or that it casts dark shadows on the sidewalks below making them less safe to walk down?

If anything, integrating light rail traffic and vehicle traffic in such a close fashion will discourage car use and promote transit. Isn't that what Dallas is trying to accomplish?

I will admit that there are a few stretches where a pedestrian has some difficulty crossing the tracks to access a business on the other side of Lancaster. For instance the stretches between Elmore and Saner or Overton and Fordham (near the VA). Perhaps the city could direct some of the TIF money towards a pedestrian overpass so that pedestrians don't have to walk an extra half a mile or so to cross the tracks.

Growing a beard though, gimme a break!

[UrbanHope]

I just can't agree with that analysis. I've spent way too much time driving (and walking) in the 216 and 203 zip codes. I think Caraway's vision for the Blue Line and the Lancaster/Corinth Corridor is a great place to focus city resources, but to lay blame at DART's feet isn't going to accomplish anything. If Dart had raised the tracks above the street, would people complain that the platforms aren't accessed easily enough, or that it casts dark shadows on the sidewalks below making them less safe to walk down?

If anything, integrating light rail traffic and vehicle traffic in such a close fashion will discourage car use and promote transit. Isn't that what Dallas is trying to accomplish?

I will admit that there are a few stretches where a pedestrian has some difficulty crossing the tracks to access a business on the other side of Lancaster. For instance the stretches between Elmore and Saner or Overton and Fordham (near the VA). Perhaps the city could direct some of the TIF money towards a pedestrian overpass so that pedestrians don't have to walk an extra half a mile or so to cross the tracks.

Growing a beard though, gimme a break!

I'm not going to get into a 'who's there more' contest but I'm there every day and have been for the last 3-4 years. I serve Council District Four on a daily basis. I work with the business owners and residents. But I guess we'll agree to disagree my friend. It's not about blaming anyone, but it's a fact that people relo'd and closed when the line was built.

We'll have some different things happen along Lancaster and maybe a ped overpass could fit at some point.

[Spjz]

I'm not going to get into a 'who's there more' contest but I'm there every day and have been for the last 3-4 years. I serve Council District Four on a daily basis. I work with the business owners and residents. But I guess we'll agree to disagree my friend.You win. I'm in school in San Antonio now. When I worked for Dallas County, I lived in Dr. Garcia's district.

You and Councilman Caraway have a district with a lot of potential. At the end of the day I'm rooting for you guys to succeed, my disagreements concerning men's clothing, cigars, and hotels notwithstanding.


It's not about blaming anyone, but it's a fact that people relo'd and closed when the line was built.Unfortunately it is. I wouldn't use the word "blame," but it seems that if the city is going to spend money on the area, it needs to establish some type of causation. To say that the Blue line caused businesses to fail along Lancaster is a troublesome thesis. Businesses have failed that are located on other streets in Oak Cliff. Is Lancaster experiencing more failings? If so, what is the proof?

[dfwcre8tive]

Eddie Bernice Johnson announces transit-oriented housing grant for Dallas
10:01 AM Wed, Oct 20, 2010
Steve Thompson/Reporter
http://cityhallblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2010/10/eddie-bernice-johnson-announce.html

As the City Council meeting got started this morning, Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson announced a $2.2 million federal housing grant she helped steer to Dallas.

...


HUD's release:

FORT WORTH - In an unprecedented collaboration between two federal agencies, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) today jointly awarded $68 million in planning grants to cities across the country to help stimulate a new generation of sustainable and livable communities that connect housing, employment and economic development with transportation and other infrastructure improvements. As part of this program, the City of Dallas received a HUD grant of $2,225,000, which was announced at an event at City Hall attended by Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson, Mayor Tom Leppert, and HUD Regional Administrator C. Donald Babers.

...

The City of Dallas will use its HUD grant to fund land acquisition and planning for four sites that will be part of Dallas' Transit-Oriented Development Workforce Housing Project for 193 workforce housing units near public transit. The grant will allow Dallas to acquire the land at all four sites and produce the designs, site plans, construction development plans and environmental assessments required for development to proceed.

Core project partners, who will provide $1,000,000 in leveraging funds, include the Real Estate Council; Dallas Area Rapid Transit; Dallas Police Department and the Urban League.

Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson said, "I am excited to see the City of Dallas receive this Sustainable Community Grant. As our area continues to grow, we must plan better economic development, public transportation and preserve our quality of life. This grant will allow us to achieve long-range planning and cooperation."

In Texas, the North Central Texas Council of Governments also received a Sustainable Community Challenge grant of $640,000 for its Planning for Livable Military Communities project, bringing the State's grant total to $2,865,000.

...

[msutton]

Great news. Kind of surprising that DART is willing to part with any $$ for this, though...

[dfwcre8tive]

More info about the station locations here:

http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2010/10/city_expects_2_mil_in_federal.php

...

Since Karl Zavitkovsky, head of the city's Office of Economic Development and the city's point person on the project, isn't available, City Hall spokesman Frank Librio offered some more details.

According to info he was kind enough to forward along, the land acquisition will take place in three different tax increment financing districts: the TOD TIF (which includes the Lovers Lane-Mockingbird station area, the Lancaster Corridor, Cedars West and Cedar Crest), the Vickery Meadow TIF and the Grand Park South TIF. The grant will be concentrated at four light-rail stations: the VA Medical Center Station, the MLK Jr. Station, the soon-to-open Hatcher Station and the Park Lane Station.

Says the doc from Librio, which also follows: "More than 1,000 mixed-income housing units and complementary retail and commercial sites could be developed as a result of this grant." Which'll make Linda Koop happy -- as you may recall, no so long ago the council member was complaining about the lack of development around light-rail stations.

...

[hamiltonpl]

How is $2.8 million enough for 1,000 housing units?

[dfwcre8tive]

How is $2.8 million enough for 1,000 housing units?

It sounds like it's just for land acquisition and development of a land-use plan for the area. Or is there more to this?

[ancientshoes]

2.8 million? What is 2.8 million? it wipes it ass with that on a daily basis. this is supposed to be just a symbolic gesture or victory, I guess.

[dfwcre8tive]

As It Develops More Property On East Side of N. Central, SMU Wants to Be "Dallas's University"
By Robert Wilonsky, Wed., Mar. 23 2011 @ 2:14PM
Categories: City Hall, Development, Edumication News, Real Estate
http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2011/03/as_it_develops_more_property_on_east_side_of_n_cen tral_smu_wants_to_be_dallass_university.php

​Over the last five, six years, Southern Methodist University has slowly, surely expanded its presence along N. Central Expressway -- beginning with the purchase of Expressway Tower, once the home of the Dallas Cowboys corporate offices; 6200 N. Central Expressway, which now houses Development and External Affairs' administrative offices; and the old Mrs. Baird's bakery on Mockingbird and Central, which will become an athletics complex and data center.

Tomorrow, at the City Plan Commission meeting, SMU will introduce yet another project in Dallas -- this one, a graduate-program mixed-use development on the southeast corner of Central and SMU Boulevard, behind Expressway Tower, that will consist of "office, student and faculty lodging and other related facilities." CIty staff's all for it, in large part because "the request site is within an area that is proposed for mixed use developments because of it proximately to the DART light rail station and access to a major thoroughfare (North Central Expressway)."

Brad Cheves, the Hilltop's vice president for development and external affairs, tells Unfair Park it's a perfect spot for development -- smack in between SMU and the Shelby (and the Barley House), not to mention right walking distance from Mockingbird Station. It's part of what he calls "a deliberate and strategic decision to move east into Dallas," which university president R. Gerald Turner has wanted to do ever since assuming the position in 1995.

"Our ambitions, of course, are to increase some of our administrative functions and some of the graduate programming and research activity" on the east side of Central, Cheves says, "which frees up some of the interior campus on the west side for more of the residential students and academic functions. It's a very clear decision: We needed to e in Dallas. We are very much a part of Dallas. ... We very much want to be Dallas's university, and this is a clear flag in the ground if you look at the top of Expressway Tower."

For now, says Cheves, this new Planned Development District will be limited to grad-school offices and research facilities. Housing, for students and visiting profs, is in the long-term plans -- maybe five, six years out.

"But we want permission to do that," he says. "We have grown our graduate programming over the years across our disciplines, and it would be our hope, because of DART and its accessibility, that visiting professors would find it attractive to have affordable housing nearby. And our view is, we've been a positive force in that part of Dallas, adding value to what was a warehouse district.

...

[tamtagon]

http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2011/03/as_it_develops_more_property_on_east_side_of_n_cen tral_smu_wants_to_be_dallass_university.php

...Brad Cheves calls [it] "a deliberate and strategic decision to move east into Dallas," which university president R. Gerald Turner has wanted to do ever since assuming the position in 1995.

..."We have grown our graduate programming over the years across our disciplines, and it would be our hope, because of DART and its accessibility, that visiting professors would find it attractive to have affordable housing nearby.

This is even more encouraging that the Presidential Library! It totally makes sense, too. I'm looking forward to bigger and better SMU graduate programs. I want SMU to get as good a reputation as Rice.

[CTroyMathis]

Noticed this Lancaster Corridor concept earlier, mentioned yet?:
http://veteransplacedallas.com/

http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/5199/veteransplacedallas.jpg