It was way back in December 2011, in the wake of a seemingly endless series of public hearings and community meetings, that the Dallas City Council gave its blessing to the Sylvan Thirty development in West Dallas and Mayor Mike Rawlings gave the command: "Let's let the dirt fly."
Finally, 15 months later, it has. On Wednesday, developer Brent Jackson was joined by Rawlings and 100 or so others to celebrate the project's long-delayed groundbreaking groundbreaking.
"This is a day to celebrate because it's the start of something fabulous in southern Dallas," Rawlings told the crowd, according to the Morning News, using "southern" as a substitute for "long-neglected."
No one seemed to dwell much on the years of zoning fights and construction delays that have postponed the project. was a forward-looking zoning fights and construction delays, which we covered extensively. "It's time to look to the future," Jackson told the Morning News.
What the future holds is a multimillion dollar investment in West Dallas that will bring apartments, retail space, an organic grocery, culinary incubator baker, butcher's shop, and restaurants to a currently desolate corner of Sylvan and I-30. The first tenant to open will be Cox Farms Market, which is slated to move in by the end of the year.
