West Dallas 400-foot tower: How it started and how it’s going
Editor’s note: This timeline originally published on Dec. 7. On Dec. 8, City Council voted to send this zoning proposal back to the City Plan Commission. We’ll be updating the timeline as the case progresses and sharing updates via social media (@dallasfreepress), email and texts, in both English and Spanish.
The developer of Trinity Groves, West Dallas Investments, has been buying parcels in the West Dallas neighborhood for more than a decade with 127 properties now in its portfolio, according to a Dallas Free Press analysis of Dallas Central Appraisal District records. Most of their holdings are south of Singleton Avenue, where they have few zoning restrictions, height or otherwise, on what they can build.
There is one lot, however, just north of Singleton where West Dallas Investments doesn’t have carte blanche — a vacant 3.76-acre lot at the base of the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge that currently acts as a parking lot for Trinity Groves restaurants. The developers want to build a 400-foot office tower that they believe will entice the likes of a Fortune 500 company such as Amazon, AT&T, Google and Toyota. The current zoning only allows a height of up to 200 feet, but the homes across the street in the historic La Bajada neighborhood limit the height even more.
For more than two years, West Dallas Investments has been trying to win favor from La Bajada neighbors, its board, the West Dallas community, and the City Plan Commission. They’ve run into opposition from almost every direction, but despite this, the developers have appealed their case to City Council, where it is on the agenda this Wednesday, Dec. 8.
District 6 Councilman Omar Narvaez, who represents West Dallas, told Dallas Free Press he won’t publicly comment on the case until it is heard by council. We reached out to the newly elected La Bajada board for their thoughts but haven’t yet received a response.
Nearly a year ago, we wrote a story about whether the fate of West Dallas rests on a 400-foot tower. A year later, that fate is still uncertain. We’ve pulled together a timeline of how it started and how’s it’s going.
Jan. 9, 2007: West Dallas Investments purchases its first of nine parcels that will ultimately form the triangular-shaped lot north of Singleton and east of Gulden, with the Trinity River levee forming its hypotenuse.
March 2, 2012: The Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge opens, connecting Downtown to West Dallas.
May 23, 2012: The City of Dallas expands the Sports Arena Tax Increment Financing (TIF) District, adding an 89.2-acre subdistrict in West Dallas and roughly $226 million to the pool of tax dollars developers can recoup when investing in property and increasing its taxable value.
Nov. 20, 2015: West Dallas Investments purchases the last of nine parcels at Gulden and Singleton, completing its amassing of 163,966 square feet to create a 3.76-acre lot. The parcels’ total taxable value, according to Dallas Central Appraisal District (DCAD), was $572,610 at the time of each purchase. West Dallas Investments bulldozed any remaining residential homes and commercial structures, and DCAD says the vacant land is now worth $2,668,226.
Nov. 19, 2019: West Dallas Investments hosts a Thanksgiving dinner for residents of La Bajada, the historic neighborhood adjacent to the lot at Singleton and Gulden, and pitches the idea of a 400-foot office tower flanked by a community tribute plaza dedicated to West Dallas veterans. The neighbors at the dinner vote to support the project.
Dec. 6, 2019: West Dallas Investments files its zoning change application, requesting a public development district (PD) to allow a “special office project and community memorial plaza.” The parcels’ current zoning designation is “industrial research district,” which allows for a height of 200 feet but also submits to a residential “proximity slope” to protect single family homes from having to be right next to tall buildings. Because of single-family homes across the street from the lot along Gulden, the height limitation is closer to 115 feet.
ENZ190-158_sent_12-23-19 (1) by Dallas Free Press on Scribd
January 15, 2020: The City of Dallas mails public notices to 60 property owners within 500 feet of the Singleton-Gulden lot, which is required by law when property owners request a zoning change. One owner responded in favor; 59 owners don’t respond at all.