DALLAS For the second day, Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings has unveiled two major projects in West Dallas. It's all part of the cities Grow South Initiative.
Wednesday, the city backed private developer's efforts to put in 1,000 apartment units near the Trinity Grove development. Thursday, a grocery store opened, marking the first stage of major development at the intersection of West Dallas and North Oak Cliff.
It's move that longtime West Dallas residents say has been needed for decades.
'Fort Worth Avenue had clubs, auto car sales, junk yards, trailer homes and no groceries,' said Yolanda Jimenez, at the opening of the Cox Farms Market.
Parts of West Dallas fall into what the USDA categorizes as food deserts, meaning locations where low-income residents have little access to healthy, affordable food. It's something developers are confident changed Thursday.
The grocery store anchors a $50 million mixed-used development called the Sylvan Thirty. Brent Jackson, of Oaxaca Interests LLC, is the lead developer on the project.
'There is no reason whatsoever this area should not have something of this caliber,' he said. 'The economics are here, the demand is here, and more importantly for me as an owner, the community is here.'
Of that money, $3.2 million will come from the City of Dallas in the form of TIF dollars.
'It is amazing that the market place is so big and we don't have retailers capitalizing on it, so folks like Cox have stepped up and they are going to be the big winners because of that,' explained Rawlings.
