Image courtesy of Good Fulton & Farrell

Image courtesy of Good Fulton & Farrell

The Dallas City Council’s economic development committee approved the proposal to grant a developer $11.25 million in reimbursements for a Bishop Arts District project that includes multistory apartments, shops and a streetcar stop.

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The committees voted in favor of sending the proposal, from developer Alamo Manhattan, to the full City Council on Feb. 24.

Alamo Manhattan’s project, at Zang and Davis, would include 200 apartments with underground parking garages plus ground-floor retail space on the sites where Sonic Drive-In, Zoli’s NY Pizza and a collision repair place are now.

Construction could start this coming August, and if so, it could be completed by April 2018.

As part of the tax-increment financing, the developer is required to make 20 percent, or about 40, of the apartments to be “affordable.” By the city’s definition, that means they’re reserved for people making 80 percent or less of the median income, or about $45,000 for a family of four. The project also includes underground parking for all of the apartments, at a cost of about $30,000 per space. And the developer will create a plaza for the streetcar stop on Zang at Eighth.

The economic development committee voted 5-1 to send the proposal to City Council. Rickey Callahan, Lee Kleinman, Carolyn King Arnold, Adam Medrano and Adam McGough voted yes, and Casey Thomas voted no.

City Councilman Lee Kleinman, who represents far north Dallas, questioned why a developer in Oak Cliff, one of the city’s fastest-growing real estate markets, should receive TIF funding.

“When is Oak Cliff going to stand on its own?” he asked, during the joint meeting of the Council’s economic development and housing committees.

Oak Cliff City Councilman Scott Griggs was quick to answer: “Oak Cliff does stand on its own, and so does Southern Dallas.”

Griggs pointed out that Kleinman, as an investor in Sylvan Thirty, personally profited from TIF funding in our neighborhood.