Without much fanfare, the Dallas City Council last week approved a HUD loan application that would provide up-front financing for Prescott Realty to construct the initial phase of the Lake Highlands Town Center, including the grocery store anchor. Councilman Jerry Allen, who represents our neighborhood, says the application has been sent to HUD, “where it will sit in never-never land for six months and will eventually get approved.” He adds that the city “feels very comfortable that this will happen and we’ll get it, but you’re dealing with the federal government. It just takes forever to get something done.”
Allen guesses that approval may take about six months, but he doesn’t believe it will take that long for Prescott to sign a grocer for the project. “When you’re out negotiating, you’ve got the full strength of the city behind you, and the collateral is there on this loan so the grocery store guys, they will feel good that this is going to happen,” Allen says.
(Speaking of federal government delays, Allen says that converting the Muchert Army reserve center into a Dallas Park and Recreation Department building is a “done deal.” The Army reserve units have moved out; it’s simply a matter of waiting on the Department of Defense to sign off, which Allen expects to happen within four months.)
Allen is feeling more optimistic these days about the Town Center because “while we’re not there by any means, maybe maybe maybe we’re just about to see this economic cycle take back off.” When Prescott launched the project in 2007, it had money for horizontal construction but not vertical, and “then the Great Recession hit,” Allen says. “Then it was a matter of keeping Prescott afloat. If they went bankrupt, it would keep that property tied up for two or three years, and when I say tied up, I mean no one’s mowing.”
If an economic upturn is taking place, however, “from a timing standpoint, it could really turn out to be to everyone’s advantage,” Allen says. “All these [retailers] lying on the sidelines [because of the downturn], they jump right back out and it becomes almost a competition to get back in the Center,” Allen says. He believes Lake Highlands needs to be positioned “with its hands out grabbing every nickel on the front end because that’s when this new construction will start,” he says. “When these cycles are going and money is flowing, you’d better get your hands on it because if you get it on the tail end of the cycle, the money’s gone.”
His strong feelings about getting in while the gettin’s good may be partly why Allen isn’t as concerned with the questions about Town Center job creation tied to the HUD loan application. “My deal is, let’s get this thing done,” Allen says. “It will create jobs. Is it going to truly create jobs or just pull jobs away from someone else? That’s probably hard to answer one way or the other.”
“Is the Town Center going to pull business from other areas? The answer is yes. Does that mean then that those other areas might die and go away? Obviously, that’s not the intention. Hopefully, these areas, too, can continue to reinvent themselves.”
Allen again cited the commercial-to-residential White Rock Place Addition project at Walnut Hill and Audelia as an example of how a “tired old shopping center” can be reinvented. “Nothing stays the same, everything changes, and if that happens elsewhere, that’s a good thing.”
“Trust me, we always do whatever we can at the city level to make sure everything is vibrant and successful.”
