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Two Dallas Midtown stakeholders step up to help build centerpiece of $20B project
Candace Carlisle
September 23, 2016

Two Dallas Midtown stakeholders have stepped up in a big way to help build the proposed centerpiece of the evolution of Dallas Midtown, which is expected — if all plans come to fruition — to be the $20 billion answer to Frisco's $5 billion mile (which actually now totals $6.4 billion).

Dallas-based Beck Ventures has pledged $1 million towards the $15 million privately-raised match proposed by the Dallas Midtown Park Foundation. The foundation has asked the city of Dallas to earmark $15 million of the upcoming 2017 bond referendum, which is capped at $800 million.

Another stakeholder in Dallas Midtown — EF Properties — has also agreed to sell a 5-acre parcel of land on the east side of Montfort Road in the Dallas Midtown vision to the city at a $1.9 million discount to market value.

EF Properties would be one of five property owners that would need to sell acreage to the city of Dallas to create the 20-acre park. In all, it will take $30 million to acquire the land to build the proposed park.

"The park is an integral part of the Dallas Midtown project," Beck, who also sits on the Dallas Midtown parks board, told the Dallas Business Journal."It's on the city's vision plan and office tenants, retailers and restaurants want to know the park is happening. It's important to stakeholders that the city will make good on a commitment that happened two years ago."

Land for the Dallas Midtown park would need to be acquired sooner rather than later since market values on the land is likely to rise as Beck Ventures begins the initial $400 million phase of its portion of the mixed-use development, he said.

"Now is the time to acquire the land for a park before you have escalating prices due to inner city development," he said.

"Dallas needs to step up and allocate $15 million of its bond money to create a centerpiece of this $20 billion development."

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