AIDS Arms Inc. moved recently to Jefferson Tower and now has its professional staff on four floors of that historic building. This is Jefferson Tower’s first multi-floor tenant in many years. More than 75 staff members now call Jefferson Tower home-away-from-home. The nonprofit also is renovating a building on Sunset to become a medical clinic that will employ more than 25 healthcare workers.
When neighbor Zac Lytle moved back to Oak Cliff from North Carolina last year, he brought his work with him. Lytle helped start up a branch of the nonprofit EcoLogical Community Builders here. The agency reuses old school portable buildings, among other structures, to create homes for low-income families. To donate a structure or funding to the cause, contact him at zac@ecologicalcommunitybuilders.org.
Aviation Cinemas, the management company that runs the Texas Theatre, recently announced they are launching “crowd funded” independent films, which they will produce directly from the Texas Theatre. The partners — Barak Epstein, Adam Donaghey, Jason Reimer and Eric Steele — will seek projects and use fundraising website kickstarter.com to back them.
Metro Paws Animal Hospital purchased a Fort Worth Avenue property for a new clinic. The property, at 1007 Folsom, is adjacent to the Belmont Hotel. It’s the front half of a 21,000-square-foot lot with the old stone house on it. The back portion with the house was not included in the Metro Paws sale, according to Options Real Estate. This is an expansion for Metro Paws, with its original location in Lakewood. dallasmetropaws.com.
The new DART police headquarters opened in March in the historic Monroe Shops building, near the Corinth Street Station. Monroe Shops was a train maintenance facility for the Texas Interurban Railway, starting in 1914. The Interurban stopped running in 1948. The city bought the abandoned building in 1991 as part of a land acquisition for the Blue Line. The 69,000-square-foot building took two years and $20 million to renovate. It is on the National Register of Historic Places, and DART is applying for LEED certification.
