By Bill Zeeble, KERA News
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-895873.mp3
Dallas, TX – The struggling economy has cast its shadow over Trinity River projects we reported on several months ago. For the next three days KERA is reporting on the effects in a series, "Banking on the River - an Update." Today Bill Zeeble takes us back to Las Colinas.
Since we last talked about Irving's Las Colinas Urban Center along the Trinity, DART announced a huge deficit, and some private projects have gone belly up or just stopped. Some Irving officials worry parts of that water front plan, based on the original 1960s vision of developer Ben Carpenter, may now be in jeopardy.
Dirt is flying in the Las Colinas Urban Center at Lake Carolyn. Two of three Dallas Area Rapid Transit rail stops are under construction, thanks to the City of Irving's heavy investment to lure them. It's the coveted 3rd stop, linking Irving to DFW Airport, that worries Irving City Council member Rick Stopfer. He says there was an implied promise the airport stop would be finished with funding already in hand. Now, he says, finishing that last stop number 3 may take more of Irving's own money, because cash-strapped DART may redirect its dwindling cash elsewhere.
Irving City Council Member Rick Stopfer: Not building "3" and starting the downtown line to the convention center or starting the Cotton Belt and saying you've got to find your own money because we don't have any, now all of sudden it's turned into "Time out! Whoever can go get money can have their project."
Stopfer worries that could lead to city-wide talks of reducing the penny tax Irving residents pay DART. That sales tax equals $40,000,000 to more than $50,000,000 a year. He doesn't see Irving pulling out of DART. After all, Irving gets DART bus service, the Trinity Railway Express, and transit for the disabled. But there might be a serious re-evaluation. DART Spokesperson Morgan Lyons doesn't expect it.
Morgan Lyons, DART representative: The first opportunity a city would have to have a withdraw election would be 2014. And hopefully we wouldn't get to that point with any of our cities.
Lyons says with its deficit, DART can only commit to projects under contract. Those include the Orange Line stops at Lake Carolyn and the Convention Center. Not the airport's stop number 3. But Irving wants NO DART slowdown. Irving's Mayor, Herbert Gears, says it was DART, and city money, that helped reinvigorate the once sluggish Urban Center development. Gears says after a slow decade, the Orange line was the catalyst for waterfront projects, including new apartments and Irving's Convention Center, still under construction.
Irving Mayor Herbert Gears: We created a tax increment financing zone, and provided about $180,000,000 worth of infrastructure. So, the city has formed partnerships with the development community to have a win-win.
One of those win-wins - the so-called Las Colinas Station - went under because of the recession. Located near DART's stop Number One in Las Colinas, developer Paris Rutherford says the 25-acre project would've been a high-rise office with retail, residential, and a hotel.
Paris Rutherford: The project was slowed by the economy. So when there isn't financing in place, obviously the projects don't move forward. When there isn't financing its difficult to get any kind of tenant interest.
Rutherford, once involved in the project, has since moved on. But he's bullish about that and other Las Colinas developments.
Rutherford: The value in real estate is based on location and quality of infrastructure and the community it's in. All those are very strong for land in the Urban Center. It's a matter of time when it develops not whether it will.
Rutherford says all the amenities and appeal of the Urban Center remain, including the water assets of Ben Carpenter's original vision. But with so many parts - from retail to residential, and the public and private transportation that moves people in and out - he says development is always long-term. 10 years from now, he imagines all plans for the urban center will be complete, including the three DART stations. Council man Rick Stopfer is not so sure.