A plan to bring a $250 million, 25-story mixed-use building to South Dallas hit a wall Thursday after the city’s planning commission voted to deny a zoning request needed for the project.
The proposal for Winners Tower — a high-rise with condos, a hotel, retail and parking — came from Raphael Adebayo, pastor of Winners Assembly Christian Church, which owns the property at 1709 Martin Luther King Boulevard.
Adebayo envisioned the project as a landmark for the long-disinvested area, but the commission wasn’t sold on the scale or the intent behind it, the Dallas Morning News reported.
The motion to deny the rezoning “with prejudice,” meaning the applicant cannot refile the same plans for at least two years, followed a lengthy hearing that included testimony from community advocates and church affiliates.
Supporters, including Christopher Walker of Abounding Prosperity, a nonprofit tenant on the site, framed the project as a chance to inject jobs, investment and pride into the neighborhood.
“When we talk about the revitalization of the South Dallas community, we want to do things from the ground up,” Walker said.
But several commissioners countered that the development appeared out of step with South Dallas’ fabric.
Board member Tabitha Wheeler-Reagan, who introduced the motion to reject, said the project does not serve the South Dallas community, but rather other communities, without providing specifics. Commissioner Darrell Herbert called the tower “out of scale and out of step” with the area’s historic character.
City staff had recommended approving a scaled-back rezoning allowing up to five stories, far less than the requested 25.
Adebayo’s team said they were willing to lower the height to 15 stories and pointed to a nearby 13-story apartment building as precedent. Even so, opponents argued that Winners Tower — at its size and price point — risked symbolizing gentrification more than growth.
The project’s estimated cost, about $250 million, was expected to be funded in part from EB-5 visa investors affiliated with the Okpa Company, a Dallas real estate and consulting firm led by commercial appraiser and prior Dallas mayoral candidate Edward Okpa.
Adebayo has assembled land for the effort since 2007 and said several tenants and retailers had expressed interest.
While Thursday’s denial marked a serious setback, the developer can still appeal to the City Council, but overturning the commission’s vote would require a three-fourths supermajority.
— Eric Weilbacher
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