DALLAS-One million dollars may not seem like a whole lot in the overall scheme of things. However, when it is directed toward the city of Dallas’ North Oak Cliff’s Davis Garden Tax Increment Financing District for improvements along Davis Street, it represents one of the final infrastructure pieces necessary for the 211-acre, mixed-use Canyon in Oak Cliff. Davis Street is a main thoroughfare on this city’s south side.

The money is coming from Stratford Land, Canyon’s owner and developer. The $1 million will be reimbursed to the developer during the seven-to-10-year build out of the multi-billion dollar project, located at Interstate 30 and Westmoreland Road. When all is said and done, Canyon in Oak Cliff will contain approximately 4,000 to 5,000 units of multi-housing and about 1.2 million square feet of retail, office and medical office space as well as flex space and hotels.

According to Canyon’s project director Alan McDonald, the Davis Street corridor currently links the Bishop Arts District, with all of its dining, retail and entertainment, with the Canyon. McDonald tells Globest.com that the private funding, along with other funds, will provide improvements and streetscapes along Davis Street. The TIF, which met last week, made recommendations to Dallas’ city council on improvements, and the council is still mulling it over.

McDonald notes that the Davis Street improvement is one of the triggers allowing Stratford participation in additional public finance programs. One of those programs is dedicated to a $70 million infrastructure improvement plan involving, among other activities, the building of a three-mile frontage road along Interstate 30 on which dirt could start moving by late spring. If all goes according to plan, that road could be completed by the end of 2012, or the first part of 2013.

Then the development floodgates could spill open. “If, at that time, access to the site becomes available, we’ll be going vertical with the retail,” McDonald remarks. Approximately 500,000 square feet of retail is being planned, consisting of neighborhood community center and power center components.  Also involved is 20 acres for medical purposes. “Everything else is integrated with all of that,” McDonald says. “Entertainment, restaurants, everything. We’re looking at a small city.”

Even as Stratford Land was working through frontage road approval, the developer went north on its first development, Taylor Farms, a 160-unit, $23 million multifamily apartment complex that was just completed. Meanwhile, ground will break this month on the $20 million, 130-unit, age-restricted Hillside West. 

Canyon in Oak Cliff has been in the works for a little more than five years (land assembly by an entity named INCAP operated even beforehand), with much of that time spent clearing aged apartments off the land and obtaining approval and permitting. But McDonald says the time invested in this project is well worth it – there is a great deal of investment potential in Dallas’ south side, along with an underserved population.

“The Canyon could be considered a ‘catalyst’ project,” he explains. “Once it starts to take hold, there will be additional opportunities for investment and development. This is a huge area with tremendous opportunities for retail and housing, and the city is pushing it as aggressively as it can.”