Office of Economic Development Honored With IEDC Excellence Awards

On September 19, 2023, the City of Dallas Office of Economic Development (OED) was recognized by the International Economic Development Council (IEDC) for two Excellence Awards of 2023. OED was acknowledged and honored at the IEDC 2023 Annual Conference held in Dallas last week.

Every year, IEDC honors organizations and individuals in 26 award categories for their efforts in making a significant positive impact in urban, suburban, and rural communities. IEDC receives over 500 entries from the United States and around the world. Award submissions are judged by a diverse panel of economic and community developers.

The Office of Economic Development received awards in the following two categories:

The Dallas Development Fund (DDF) supports and expands economic and community development opportunities in Dallas’ low-income communities through the administration of the federal New Markets Tax Credits (NMTC) program. The NMTC program rules require investment in distressed census tracts, which are often both the hardest locations for new development within City and the areas that need it the most. NMTC provides a needed source capital for projects that would not proceed but for the NMTC investment—projects that provide vital accessible jobs or needed services to the community. 

DDF was created by the City of Dallas in 2009. Since then, DDF has been awarded five separate allocations of NMTC from the CDFI Fund that has allowed DDF to continuously operate as it continues to meet the evolving community and economic development needs of the City. From 2009 through 2022, DDF has supported 19 projects and $185M in NMTC allocation throughout the City of Dallas, which generated $49.9M in net subsidy as a direct benefit and leveraged over $280M in total project costs. 1.2M square feet were constructed or rehabilitated with this support, leading to 1,602 jobs created or retained with an average wage of $21.10.

2. In the category of Real Estate Redevelopment & Reuse, the Office of Economic Development received a Bronze Award for its role in helping to facilitate Project Meadow located at an 11-acre site near the American Airlines Center.

Project Meadow anchors the redevelopment of an 11-acre site near the American Airlines Center (AAC). Originally developed in 1997 as a low-density apartment complex, the surrounding area has seen tremendous growth including the Perot Museum, hotels, shops, and high-density apartments in the vicinity. Hunt Realty acquired the property in 2000, and in 2020 revealed plans to demolish the apartment complex and redevelop the property as a 3.7 million-square-foot high-density mixed-use development, with green roofs and terraces, to include 4 buildings and commercial (office, retail, etc.) and residential spaces, in addition to a 1.5-acre park serving as a pedestrian-friendly linkage between the Perot and the AAC. 

Manhattan-based, Fortune 100 company Goldman Sachs will be the first official tenant of the campus and will occupy an 800,000-square-foot office space designed by Henning Larsen, a Danish studio internationally known for architecture, landscape, and urbanism. With this project, Goldman Sachs will double its presence in Dallas to 5,000+ employees, making Dallas the largest U.S. office outside of its headquarters.

With over 4,300 members, IEDC is the largest non-profit professional association for economic developers in the world. The Excellence Awards recognize exemplary economic development in marketing campaigns, projects, and programs.