Council members will be asked in August to consider selling the former Family Gateway building on South St. Paul Street in Downtown Dallas.
“… I want to emphasize our commitment to actively engage in the effective management, disposition, development, and/or redevelopment of property in the City’s portfolio,” interim City Manager Kimberly Tolbert wrote in a June 28 memo. “Proactive efforts are essential in ensuring City properties are not only well maintained but also optimized to their fullest potential and maximizing their return on investment to the City.”
The memo is Tolbert’s response to feedback from council members on the Government Performance & Financial Management Committee (GPFM) following its June 24 meeting.
“An outline of our plan of action regarding 711 South St. Paul Street will include presenting an item on the August 14, 2024, City Council Agenda meeting, for consideration, as required by Dallas City Code to declare the property as surplus property, and authorize its advertisement for sale, with a minimum reserve amount, by public auction,” Tolbert wrote in the memo.
The building at 711 South St. Paul St. is among 10 properties City staff are considering recommending for sale or redevelopment, The Dallas Express has reported.
“I know at previous committee meetings, there was an open discussion about properties that were going to be divested of,” interim Assistant City Manager Donzell Gipson told GPFM at the recent meeting. “… There were some issues that we had at 711 South St. Paul. We believe that the daily inspections that [security] is doing is addressing that. There had been one issue where police and several other departments made entry of the building and found some people there inside, where they were asked to leave, and then we had to reboard the building up.”
The Dallas Express reported last month that the nonprofit Family Gateway, the previous occupant of the building, had spoken out to publicly distance itself from any responsibility for the deteriorating condition of the building.
“Family Gateway did, in fact, fully vacate the property in late summer 2023,” the organization’s website stated. “Family Gateway participated in walk-throughs with the City of Dallas to ensure the building was completely clean prior to turning in the keys. Family Gateway has no responsibility for the activity that transpired after vacating the property or the current state of 711 S. St. Paul.”
Since the property was vacated in October, the facility has reportedly been vandalized numerous times. The Dallas Express was the first to report the extent to which the building has deteriorated and become a magnet for people experiencing homelessness after Dallas City Council Member Jesse Moreno (District 2) wrote a May 30 memo about the issue. He explained to City staff that he was “gravely concerned” about the site’s condition and was looking for answers as to how it had fallen into disrepair.
“But it’s under supervision now,” Gipson told the committee on June 24. “There’s a security camera that’s actually there, focused and being monitored at the location as we speak. So, we feel like the building is in a fairly secure state at the moment.”
Council Member Chad West (District 1), the committee’s chair, said he did not want to “go into the litany of who’s at fault here.”
“I don’t think it’s helpful. It sounds like you have a plan in place to secure it in the future. But how do we, as a council, leave here with a level of comfort that this is not happening at other City facilities?” West asked.
Gipson called the question “a tough one.”
“We just have to be transparent and honest,” he said. “In the past, I think there’s been a challenge relative to this area, and I think 711 South St. Paul kind of became a kind of red flag for staff to double back and take a look at our internal procedures relative to dealing with buildings, such as ownership making sure that there’s daily care and property management. I think those are gaps that we actually need to close.”
Moreno sits on GPFM. He said the property cost taxpayers “every single day” to keep secure.
“And, so, just reiterating that this is a top priority, I think, of mine and the majority of this council to get this offloaded as quickly as possible,” he said.
Gipson agreed.
“We, for sure, want to move away from what I could call the old pattern of how we did business with these properties. … I think we’re hearing it from council, and obviously we’re hearing it from our city manager, to do the same.”
Another committee member, Council Member Cara Mendelsohn (District 12), offered her view.
“This has actually been said a number of times about how a lot of departments have been holding real estate, and now they’re supposed to go back and really think through what … they need and what they [don’t] need,” she said. “I’m just going to tell you, I would love to … say, ‘You will get rid of every single property unless you can defend why you keep it.’ But the assumption needs to be we have no business holding all of this land.”
Mendelsohn said the City of Dallas is “wholly incapable” of developing properties.
“Well, I guess these are all related to homelessness over years that have been sitting vacant as we sit here and gnash our teeth about how many homeless we have. And, so, I don’t think we should be doing this. We need to turn it over to the private sector, which has done a beautiful job in developing lots of things here in Dallas,” she said.
Polling conducted by The Dallas Express indicates that around three-fourths of Dallas residents think homelessness, vagrancy, and aggressive panhandling are “major” problems in the city. Respondents also appeared to support the “one-stop-shop” homeless services model deployed by Haven for Hope in San Antonio. The model has been credited with a 77% reduction in unsheltered homelessness in the city’s downtown neighborhood.
Some local stakeholders want to try the model out in Dallas. However, it is unclear whether City officials will support such an initiative.
Downtown Dallas especially has suffered from pervasive homelessness and rampant criminal activity, with the neighborhood regularly outpacing Fort Worth’s city center in assaults, drug crimes, and reports of vandalism, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
The Dallas Police Department has been short-staffed for years now. Although a prior City analysis recommended roughly 4,000 officers to reduce police response times and properly ensure public safety, only around 3,000 officers are currently on the street.
Additionally, City officials have allocated DPD much less taxpayer money than police departments in other high-crime cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City. The Dallas City Council approved DPD a budget of just $654 million this fiscal year.
Meanwhile, Tolbert is moving the Real Estate Division from the Department of Public Works to the new Department of Facilities & Real Estate Management (FRM), which was formerly known as the Building Services Department, according to a June 28 memo.
“Real Estate and all associated functions and operations, positions, and funding will be transferred to FRM. This realignment aims to streamline operations, improve accountability, and leverage existing resources and expertise within the organization to enhance the overall management of our real estate assets. This realignment is budget-neutral and does not create additional expenses but will be positioned to enhance revenue by monetizing unneeded and underutilized assets and growing the tax base,” the memo reads.
FRM oversees abandonment and licensing, acquisitions and relocations, leases and tax, foreclosure and surplus properties, and business operations.