Thursday, January 13, 2005

Funds OK'd to Land Downtown Businesses

Dave Levinthall / The Dallas Morning News

Main Street Dallas, still pockmarked with vacant storefronts, should find itself lined with new retail operations within months, city officials say.

Such optimism is borne on a divided City Council vote Wednesday to release $2.25 million targeting prospective downtown businesses with rent and reconstruction subsidies. Private business associations will join with Dallas in enticing businesses with the new money.

"We can move very rapidly now on attracting two or three retailers," Assistant City Manager Ryan Evans said. "We'd like more money to do this, but it's important to show the council and community the impact of the current resources."

Swirll, a high-end wine store, and Crimson on Main, a women's clothing boutique, are negotiating retail recruitment funding packages with the city, Ms. Hormann and Dallas officials say.

Last year, the city approved $400,000 in rent and building improvement subsidies for the Davis Building Master Tenant LLP to lure furniture seller Kül Design Studios downtown. Originally scheduled to open last month, the business is now slated to open by spring.

Mayor Laura Miller, who said she wanted the council to have more oversight of retail recruitment money, and council member Mitchell Rasansky voted against the initiative.

One of the city's leading private downtown redevelopment advocates says Wednesday's vote indicates City Hall is serious about joining with business interests to foster business growth.

"Without this in place, we've lost retailers midway through the process," said Nancy Hormann, executive director of the Central Dallas Association and the Dallas Downtown Partnership. "We have a better chance now of getting them and keeping them."

The council also approved $4.1 million in tax increment finance funds Wednesday to help renovate Oak Cliff's long-vacant Lake Cliff Tower building and its surroundings.

The structure, built in 1928 and located at East Colorado Boulevard and North Zang Boulevard, is slated to become 60 luxury condominiums with prices starting at $160,000.

With the tax incentives in place, groundbreaking should begin May 1, with the building ready for occupancy by late 2006, said Stephen G. Everbach, managing partner of the tower's developer, Evergreen Reality.

"There were many doubts and hesitations as recently as June," Mr. Everbach said. "This vote – this was the big one. We've had a number of lenders watching this."

Original article appears in the Dallas Morning News.