Without TIF Subsidy, It's Prognosis Negative for Dallas Medical District's Butler Manor

Speaking of economic development and TIF districts ...

This morning, the council's committee will also discuss the Butler project first mentioned here, oh, 'bout a year ago: "460 luxury apartment homes, retail space and a five-story structured parking garage for residents and retail customers" that are planned for the Dallas Medical District. Everything you need to learn about the development -- which is scheduled for planting at the northeast corner of Butler and Redfield Streets, currently nothing more than busted-up curbs and cracked sidewalks and empty warehouses -- you'll find in this 29-page presentation from Mockingbird Properties, which is seeking tax increment financing from the city's Southwestern Medical TIF District.

And how much does Mockingbird Properties need for the project, guesstimated to offer 390,000 square feet in rental residential and 5,020 square feet of retail? Says today's briefing, president Mitchell Wexler's asking for $7,650,000, assuming he starts construction by October 30 of this year and wraps it up by December 31, 2011 -- though the TIF money would drop a few hundred thou for the parking garage should the price tag come in at less than $61 million. And the Butler's peoples have also submitted a grant to the North Central Texas Council of Governments for $1,980,000, through its Sustainable Development Grant Program, in the hopes of making "proposed improvements ... along both sides of Tex Oak Avenue from Butler Street to the DART Light Rail Station."

It goes before council tomorrow -- that was quick -- with the warning that "the project is not financially viable without the TIF subsidy."