A neighborhood nonprofit in South Dallas reopened its headquarters after a major facelift with funds provided by The Real Estate Council, the first step in a three-year, $1 million initiative aimed at reviving Mill City east of Fair Park.
The Innercity Community Development Corporation renovated its 15,000-square-foot headquarters at 4907 Spring Avenue with paint, lighting, landscaping, signage, striping and glass replacements across the building’s exterior, the Dallas Morning News reported.
The Real Estate Council, a professional commercial real estate trade group led by Chair Rick Perdue.
The council’s Young Guns development group for young commercial real estate professionals spearheaded the effort. It’s part of its Dallas Catalyst Project: Mill City, which launched in December 2023 to tackle long-standing disinvestment and displacement in the historically Black neighborhood.
“This is not just for show,” said Theresa Jackson, president of the Innercity board and a Mill City resident. “We’re giving a vision to people, showing this is a place that people care for.”
The Young Guns group plans to help renovate at least 18 vacant lots, improve infrastructure and develop community amenities including a boxing gym and urban farm. Up to eight affordable single-family homes are planned as part of the initiative, although nothing has been constructed yet.
The community development corporation built 250 homes in the Mill City and Fair Park area since 1995, according to its website.
Other tenants of the nonprofit’s headquarters include a Dallas College training center and Prism Health North Texas’ health center and pharmacy. Grocery Connect, an e-commerce platform, uses the space to assist local residents in placing digital orders.
“Before this infrastructure was here, there were dilapidated buildings that had long since been abandoned,” said Billy Lane, the community development corporation’s executive director. The organization is seeking more tenants to enhance the quality of life in the area.
The Real Estate Council’s next project in Mill City will be a $100,000 STEM lab renovation at Paul L. Dunbar Learning Center, serving over 600 Dallas ISD students. That work is slated to begin in August and is expected to wrap up early next year.
— Judah Duke
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