DALLAS, TX - As one affordable housing project takes shape downtown, its developers are targeting two other buildings near the city's core to increase rental options for those with limited means. Construction of 206 residences will soon bring life to a vacant office tower at 511 N. Akard St. City Walk at Akard's opening is planned for July.
The nonprofit Central Dallas Community Development Corp. also wants to convert the Dallas Plaza Hotel just south of downtown into a 316-unit complex. And corporation officials have been talking with Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price about acquiring the now-vacant Bill Decker jail on Stemmons Freeway to create more than 200 apartments. "We're committed to providing high-quality housing to some of the poorest people in Dallas," said Larry James, chairman of the development corporation board. "It's affordable housing, workforce housing, permanent supportive housing for the formerly homeless."
County officials emptied the Decker jail in late December and say they intend to sell the building. They and the corporation board are seeking separate appraisals of the property, a former luxury hotel west of downtown, but have had only "conceptual" discussions about its future, James said. "The only thing we can do is get it appraised and put it out to bid," Price said. "A number of people are talking to us" about the property.
The development corporation, which directs the affordable housing program for Central Dallas Ministries, has more concrete goals for the Plaza Hotel. It has an option to buy the property at 1011 S. Akard St. for $6.6 million and wants to renovate, expand and rent the 38-year-old building.
Hamilton Properties Corp., owner of three downtown apartment buildings, had hoped to redo the Plaza as a boutique hotel. But the company couldn't secure financing and approached Central Dallas Ministries about a sale, said Larry Hamilton, the company's founder and chief executive. "We can turn it into an absolute jewel," James said of the 12-story, 235-room hotel that rises above Interstate 30.
Most tenants would have to meet varying income guidelines, with some units limited to individuals earning no more than 30 percent of the metropolitan area's median income (about $13,950 annually). About 50 units would be set aside for the formerly homeless, as has been done with the City Walk project, said John Greenan, the corporation's executive director.
The corporation, which owns three East Dallas apartment complexes, has applied to the state for housing tax credits. They would be sold to investors to raise about half the money for an estimated $22 million to $24 million project, Greenan said.
The balance would come from donations, loans and perhaps up to $2 million from the city, he said. But without the tax credits, to be allocated in July, the project will be difficult to finance, he and James said. And the economic squeeze adds to the funding challenge. "This is far from a done deal," said James, chief executive of Central Dallas Ministries.
The proposal for the Plaza has drawn questions from residents and property owners in the nearby Cedars neighborhood. "My concern is that all the homework hadn't been done and it was being pushed through very fast," said Laura Dixon, who said she wonders about the project's costs and whether the southern sector needs more affordable housing.
Doug Caudill, who owns property in the Cedars, said he was concerned that the project seemed to be "flying under the radar screen" and that the developers had agreed to pay too much, with taxpayers' money, for a property valued on the tax rolls at $1.9 million. The developers and city officials presented the project to residents at a recent meeting. Another gathering is planned for Thursday. "We're not going to hide anything from them," James said. "If the neighborhood persists in opposing the project, we won't do it."
Discussions with city housing officials have included setting aside some Plaza units for the formerly homeless, said Jerry Killingsworth, city housing director. The city has a 10-year plan to provide 1,000 transitional housing units for the chronically homeless. So far, 300 such residences have been established or identified, Killingsworth said.
The city is providing $2.25 million for the $35 million City Walk project, using money from federal community development block grants and from the bonds that built the Bridge homeless shelter. City participation in the Plaza Hotel venture has not been determined.
The City Walk project is drawing on about $15 million in housing and historic-property tax credits and more than $6 million in private donations plus loans to turn a 15-story building into residences, retail spaces and offices.
Public response to that development has been positive but remains uncertain. While four of the six top-floor penthouses have been sold, leasing of the remaining units will begin April 1. As with the Plaza Hotel proposal, renters would have to meet income guidelines.
DowntownDallas, a business advocacy group, has not taken a position on the proposal. But John Crawford, the group's president and chief executive, said the downtown area needs affordable housing for people earning relatively low wages at hotels, restaurants and other businesses.
The central business district, inside the ring of freeways, has 4,362 housing units, according to DowntownDallas. Include the Uptown and Cedars areas, and the number increases to more than 20,000. "As we continue to grow and expand downtown, there's going to continue to be a need for affordable housing for people who are making $20,000 to $35,000 a year," Crawford said. "We're trying to figure out how to meet that need."
Source: DallasNews.com