Cliff View street elevation
An apartment developer wants the city to increase its tax subsidy to $7.3 million for a project near the Belmont Hotel.
Henry S. Miller’s Cliff View in 2014 received approval for $4.65 million in tax increment financing. But after working out changes to the plans suggested by the city’s Urban Design Peer Review Panel, the project costs increased, and the company is asking the city to make up the difference. The total cost of the project is $58 million.
Without the $7.3 million in future tax reimbursements from the city, the developer says, the project isn’t feasible.
Here are some visual examples of the design changes.
Tree preservation and less building mass at street level.
Buildings stepped back from the streets.
The developer also encountered an “unexpected issue” with an Oncor transformer, which also required design modifications.
About 326 apartments are planned for buildings between two and seven stories on a 4.37-acre tract northwest of the Belmont. Of those, about 65 apartments would be “affordable,” meaning they would be reserved for families earning 80 percent of the median income in Dallas, or about $40,000.
The developer also will reconstruct Seale Street between Sylvan and the project site, including building sidewalks.
Economic Development Committee chairman Rickey Callahan said he didn’t want developers to think of the city as a bank, a sentiment echoed by others on the panel. Councilman Lee Kleinman pointed out the irony that the peer review panel is supposed to ensure that project receiving tax breaks will fit the city’s vision for design, but then their suggested changes in this case could cost taxpayers $2.6 million.
But a majority f the panel voted to move the subsidy request to the full City Council for a vote on April 27.
Only one City Councilmember, Carolyn King Arnold, voted against it.
“It’s ludicrous for us to act as a bank,” for developers, she said. “To come back to the city for more money is an insult to the citizens of the city of Dallas.”
