Video: $20M mixed-income housing project planned for South Dallas
A new $20 million mixed-income housing development is planned in South Dallas.
Dallas Free Press sat down with Scottie Smith II, CEO of Shekinah Legacy Holdings, to learn more about the Thirty21 project.
The five-story apartment complex will be located at the former Save-A-Lot grocery store site at 3021 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Half of the 86 units will be priced at market rate, and the other half will be offered at an “affordable” rate. Apartments will start at $1,400 a month.
Through a partnership with the Dallas Public Facility Corporation, 9 of those affordable units will be set aside for families at or below 60% of the area median income (AMI), and 34 of the units will be set aside for families at or below 80% AMI.
Smith also serves as chair of the South Dallas Fair Park Area Plan task force, a plan to change zoning laws based on community input to promote economic development and preserve the neighborhood’s historic housing character while minimizing displacement. He said the development is aligned with the area plan’s goals because it reflects community input calling for higher-density development along the MLK corridor while keeping the neighborhood in mind.
The project is expected to break ground in the third or fourth quarter of 2026.
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Prior to joining the Dallas Free Press as a visual journalist, Camilo Diaz Jr. was a video intern at KERA, the NPR and PBS member station for North Texas, where he developed a deep appreciation for video production, making his inner child smile by working at a station he watched growing up. He also worked as a multimedia fellow at the Fort Worth Report, covering local news in his hometown. As a teenager, he began documenting his community and identity through photography, leading him to the world of photojournalism. He went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in journalism with a concentration in photojournalism from the University of North Texas.
Beat: Visual and multimedia approach to capturing community and civic life
The images of our communities that appear in local news media are mostly of crime and blight, which doesn’t at all reflect their beauty and assets. This visual journalist sees neighbors and captures community and civic life in all of its facets. The journalist is a multimedia reporter with a photographic eye, who has the skills to meld images, video and audio for storytelling, and the desire to reach under-covered audiences.
