TREC’s first Mill City revitalization project gives Zan Wesley Holmes Outreach Center its own building

In a sense, the Zan Wesley Holmes Jr. Community Outreach Center is returning to its roots.

The nonprofit in South Dallas’ Mill City neighborhood, founded in 2003, is preparing to move into the abandoned building on Wahoo Street that formerly housed St. Luke Community United Methodist Church. This is the church of longtime pastor and now pastor emeritus, the Rev. Zan Wesley Holmes Jr., who is the nonprofit’s namesake.

The Zan Holmes center initially started as an outreach program of the 91-year-old St. Luke’s church, launched and directed by Holmes before it branched out and became its own entity in April 2003. Now, as then, the center offers a variety of services aimed at creating self-sustaining pathways out of poverty for South Dallas youth and families — everything from helping residents through the job application process to providing entrepreneurship tools.

Executive Director Frances Smith-Dean estimates that the center has helped about half of Mill City’s residents. Most neighbors who use their services typically find out about the organization through word of mouth, Smith-Dean says.

The former church building at 4606 Wahoo Street was completed in 1945. After 29 years of worship there, the congregation relocated to its current building at 5710 East R.L. Thornton Freeway in 1974, according to St. Luke historian Pat Mays. Rev. Holmes facilitated the move to give the church a larger space for its growing congregation.

The center currently operates out of Frazier House on the first floor of the former Julia C. Frazier Elementary School on Spring Avenue. Dallas ISD board members voted to close the elementary school in 2012, citing a recommendation by a consulting firm to cut costs. It was one of five South Dallas schools the district closed.

In May 2016, DISD officials and Zan Wesley Holmes signed an agreement to transform the vacant school building into a community resource one-stop shop. Since Frazier House’s 2018 opening, the intent was to be a hub for several nonprofits to provide “educational support, skills training and social services to the community within the District’s boundaries.” Currently, the Zan Wesley Holmes center, the Educational Opportunity Center (EOC) program offered by The University of Texas at Arlington, and DISD family programs are the only ones currently housed inside of the Frazier House. 

The center’s move across the street was prompted by a revitalization effort by TREC Community Investors as its newest catalyst project, which aims to build equitable development and spur neighborhood revitalization for low-income Dallas neighborhoods. The former church building renovation kicks off one of the first projects of TREC’s $1 million, 3-year commitment to fortify Mill City.  

In 2020 the building was donated by the church to the Holmes center, but using it wasn’t an option because of only two full-time staff members, a “shoestring budget” and time constraints, Smith-Dean says. The condition of the building, which has sat vacant for more than three decades, was an additional roadblock, she says, and credits TREC with fast-tracking the renovation.

The new center will cost approximately $450,000 to renovate and will include a workplace for staff, training and meeting rooms, an internet café and a coworking space for people enrolled in the center’s programs. It is expected to open in March 2025.

“To have that building transformed, it’s a huge difference for us as a nonprofit,” Smith-Dean says. “We have heard from our community for years to open on the weekends or have after-hours but we couldn’t because of the lack of resources. Now we’ll have our own building and funds to be able to reach as many people as we can.”

Opening after work hours and on weekends wasn’t an option for the Holmes center at Frazier House because of the agreement the center has with DISD, which would require the center to pay out of pocket for the extra time and strain their budget, Smith-Dean says.

Mill City was selected by TREC in 2023 after a nine-month application process. Titled “Mill City Magic,” the real estate project aims to address outdated infrastructure and lack of community gathering spaces in the neighborhood, in partnership with Builders of Hope, the Mill City Community Association and Urban Specialists.

TREC Community Investors’ first catalyst project, announced in 2018, focused on South Dallas’ Forest District and partnered with Cornerstone Center for Economic Opportunity, St. Philip’s School and Community Center, and Forest Forward. Projects completed include the revitalization of the 60-year-old Royal Oak Apartments and the Southpoint Community Market grocery store. In six years, the investors and their community partners completed 22 projects, says a TREC spokesperson. 

Like the Royal Oak Apartments project, the former St. Luke church renovation is a mainly pro bono effort led by TREC’s Associate Leadership Council, who donated or sourced $280,000 worth of labor and materials. TREC also donated $100,000 — one-tenth of its $1 million Mill City Magic commitment.

Another $27,500 came from Oakwood Bank and American First National Bank’s Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) dollars, which the federal government requires banks to reinvest into low-to- moderate income communities. Then Federal Home Loan Bank chipped in matching CRA funds for a total of $60,000. The Holmes center qualifies for banks’ CRA funds because of the organization’s goal to provide tools for low-income residents to gain financial independence and literacy skills.