Tyson Bought Loop 9 Land Too

The late Mel Price was not the only county commissioner speculating on land during the last few years. Back in 1973 Commissioner Jim Tyson and seven other Lancaster residents purchased a 266-acre tract a quarter-mile from the suggested route of Loop 9. The land, located near the southern edge of Dallas County, also has a county thoroughfare projected to pass through it, connecting the land with Belt Line Road. At one time the Tyson group stood to make a hand-some profit from the land’s sale, but now a loss appears more likely.

Tyson makes no bones about the deal. “I don’t see anything wrong with a commissioner buying and selling land privately, so long as he doesn’t have some sort of unethical knowledge about where roads are projected,” Tyson said. “We bought the land knowing Loop 9 wouldn’t be constructed for 15 years, if ever.”

The Tyson deal was a traditional sort of land purchase arrangement, unlike the Price situation in which a bank became involved. The Bank of Mesquite sued Price and B. W. Cruce Jr. to collect a $520,000 note which financed the land purchase. The bank didn’t want the land. It wanted cash, so the suit was filed. Price committed suicide two days later, citing the suit as one reason for taking his life.



In September, 1973, Tyson and seven others bought the land, located just south of Wilmer, for $1,200 an acre ($319,200 for 266 acres). In June, 1974, they sold the land for $2,300 an acre ($611,800). But what appears to be a nifty profit will probably turn into at least a temporary loss.

It now appears that persons buying the land from Tyson and his partners may default on payments. If that happens, the land will be returned this summer to Tyson’s group, eliminating any profit they might have made. Tyson’s group must either sell the land or retain it and pay off its own note. (The Tyson purchase contract prevents them from passing the land back to their seller.) Selling the land at a profit in the present economy seems unlikely, so it appears that the Tyson group will have to keep the land and absorb the temporary loss.