Even with today’s economic challenges, commercial real estate continues to be a driving force in our region’s economic engine—from the closed deals to the realized developments that are shaping our city’s skyline, serving growing industrial needs, and providing multifamily housing. According to estimates from MSCI, in 2022, our region outpaced the nation in transactions with more than $42 billion in total commercial property investment. And, despite a drop in the first half of 2023, Dallas-Fort Worth still ranks second only to Los Angeles in closed deals, with more than $8 billion in recorded investments.
Even in uncertain economic conditions, commercial real estate leaders play an important role in advocating for public policies that support and grow the economy and industry. When CRE leaders advocate, it ensures that we have a seat at the table when it comes to industry regulation and the opportunity to participate in decision-making around the vitality of our region’s future.
Additionally, by actively advocating and working alongside our elected regional and statewide leadership, commercial real estate leaders can amend outdated policies and ensure that our region continues its national dominance as the epicenter for business growth and investment.The North Texas region is growing rapidly, so demand for accessible housing, efficient transportation, and up-to-date infrastructure is increasing. The policies and regulatory environment have to keep pace with that growth. Zoning, permitting, development codes, and other real estate-related policies must be forward-thinking and not reactionary.
At The Real Estate Council, we’ve witnessed firsthand how engaging in local and state-level advocacy both on behalf of and with our industry can impact our region’s economic growth vitality. While we do not engage in representing any one developer or project, we identify inconsistencies in regulations, we advocate for issues that have far-reaching consequences, and we work to resolve these issues for the entire commercial real estate industry.
For example, last year, the Dallas City Council approved the expansion of its Mixed Income Housing Development Bonus program. The program aims to incentivize mixed-income housing development across the city, increasing both market-rate and affordable multifamily housing stock within our city. While the original MIHDB program was successful, strong advocacy by the CRE industry led to many improvements, including stronger guidance around MIHDB fund governance; the introduction of a fee structure that pays into a fund that supports the City’s Comprehensive Housing Policy goals; more valuable bonuses to encourage program participation; and stronger non-discrimination language for housing voucher holders. With the changes, the MIHDB program is now a truly transformative tool available for developers and the City of Dallas to create fair, equitable housing for all city residents. This outcome resulted through years of engagement between TREC members and City staff, relying on experts in the multifamily industry to ensure a stronger policy that works for the City, the industry, and ultimately, the residents of Dallas.
In addition, over the past year, TREC advocacy efforts played a strong role in rewriting the economic development policy for the City of Dallas, strengthening our community’s recruitment and retention potential and prospects for accompanying development. We are also working with the city and community partners through the ForwardDallas program to completely rewrite the City’s comprehensive land use plan with a focus on equity.
At the state level, we monitored and engaged on over 130 bills that could impact the commercial real estate industry during this most recent legislative session. We were in constant communication with our state representatives to ensure that we protect private property rights, act on bills that impact local control, and support and improve legislation that may help improve local processes when our local governments fail to act. Examples of this action include the passage of House Bill 2071, which preserves Public Facility Corporations, an important tool used to incentivize the development of affordable housing, or the failure of House Bill 234, which would have unjustly infringed upon private property rights by instituting mandatory sales price disclosure for commercial and industrial properties and assigning a civil penalty for buyers who violated it.
We all want our region to maintain its momentum as an ideal place to live, work, and do business, and the City of Dallas’s vibrancy is critical to the region’s success. Our city is at a pivotal point in its path to continue this trajectory, and the future of the CRE industry will play a vital role in paving the way. By working together to advocate for public policy issues that impact our industry, we can promote long-term economic success for the City of Dallas and our region.
Linda McMahon is the president and CEO of The Real Estate Council, the largest commercial real estate organization in Texas, representing over 2,000 members and 650-member companies.
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