Developers want to put an 80,000-square-foot Kroger grocery store and 376 apartments just northeast of downtown on North Hall Street. Kroger has owned the land here since 2015. There are other grocery stores nearby: a Whole Foods in Uptown on the other side of Central, a Target and a Walmart a little farther north off the highway, a new Tom Thumb a mile southeast, another Kroger a mile north at CityPlace. More groceries and housing, sure.
Developers intend for 20 percent of those apartment units to be leased to residents making at most 60 percent of Dallas’ area median income, which would be about $36,000 for a single person and nearly $52,000 for a family of four. That was part of the deal when the land was purchased six years ago. Sounds good: We need more affordable housing in this city, however we can get it.
Southeastern Development and Kroger, who have joined hands for this planned $100 million One City View development, also want the city to sweeten the pot: 10 years of property tax abatements that would amount to just shy of $3.9 million.
That’s the part doesn’t sound so good to neighbors opposed to the project.
Why not? The developers, if they build, are already obligated to build the affordable housing as part of the original land deal. This fast-growing part of town already has several grocery stores, while large swathes of southern Dallas remain food deserts that draw little interest from major grocery chains, with or without city incentives. All the other supermarkets in this area near downtown were built solely with private financing. And come on, there’s already a Kroger right up the street.
In other words, Kroger and the developers aren’t doing the city any real favors here. What is Dallas really going to get by giving up $4 million in property taxes? City staff recommend approval, having worked “with the Developer to review the incentive application and negotiate a City subsidy” for the past year.
The City Council will have some time to think it over. Members agreed to defer a vote on those tax incentives today, punting it to a later meeting.
