The debate over whether to fix or flee Dallas City Hall is breaking down along familiar and unhelpful lines.
The paradigms are haves vs. have-nots or preservationists vs. developers or outsiders vs. true Dallasites.
These binaries don’t reflect the actual debate we need to have about the future of this city. But the way city management and the council approached the question of what to do about I.M Pei’s brutalist City Hall made this breakdown all but inevitable.
For starters, the estimated cost to repair and restore City Hall has grown in ways bound to generate skepticism. In October, when our newsroom colleagues began reporting on rumblings that city officials were looking into major repairs to the 1978-building, an estimate “that could top $100 million” was thrown out there.
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Just two months earlier, in August, city officials had suggested a modest annual increase of $2 million, to a total of $36 million, for the maintenance of all city buildings. Where was the urgency about City Hall then?
We all know what happened in between. City officials and leaders throughout Dallas started to worry deeply about the likelihood of losing the Dallas Mavericks, not only from downtown but from the city all together. It’s a fear we share.
At some point between August and October, the possibility arose that the Mavericks could be interested in staying, but only with the right plan in the right place.
The right place appears to be the southeast corridor of downtown, where there is a substantial amount of developable land and good freeway access. But standing in the way is City Hall, with its vast and empty plaza.
Figuring out a way to keep the Mavericks, even at the expense of losing City Hall, was and remains an idea very much worth considering. The Mavericks are an anchor of the city’s identity and the sort of economic draw for downtown that city government just isn’t. Whether you love pro sports or not, basketball arenas and baseball stadiums can serve as major catalysts for development that benefits the health and prosperity of downtowns.
Should residents believe this is really about repairing City Hall and not about the future of the Mavs?
For reasons unclear to us, city officials decided to pretend it was essential to convince people that City Hall is too expensive to repair. Thus began the great rush to tally up the cost of not only repairing it but making it into a functional, modern government center.
To our mind, that’s where this conversation got off track.
No one seriously debates City Hall has problems. Whether you love the architecture or hate it, the structure does need substantial repairs and expensive upgrades to ensure it functions.
We can all grant that I.M.Pei was a genius while still concluding that his 1970s vision of how a city government should operate bears little resemblance to how city government in 2026 actually operates. An easy example is the 911/311 call center, where people toil in a dank basement. Or a large Park Department staff that might be better suited at Fair Park.
We also accept as valid the estimated $326 million in immediate repair costs to the building. This work was done by highly reputable firms, and it aligns with a rough estimate city building officials put together last year.
As for the more than $1 billion long-term cost to make the building more suitable for modern government work, there is room for debate.
We also know that if the Mavericks were staying in the American Airlines Center, no one would be talking about spending that kind of money on City Hall.
If we’re honest about what the real debate is, the exact dollar figure loses a lot of relevance.
What we are really talking about is an opportunity cost. And that could be untold billions of dollars in real value to downtown. That’s not to mention the inestimable value of Dallas flipping the script about downtown’s supposed decay.
We urge city officials to do what the rest of us have been doing for months, talking about what is really at stake. This is about whether Dallas residents believe the Mavericks should remain downtown. It’s about whether we can cast a new vision for the southeast side of downtown that creates greater value and beauty than what we have now. It’s about whether we can come together as a city to see downtown differently.
A big problem in shifting this debate is that there are no guarantees that the Mavericks will stay. There are no public plans on the table for what it would look like if they did. A little more sunlight from the team and its ownership would help us all understand what’s in play.
We believe that if most Dallas residents had some insight into what could be versus what is, this debate could get away from the false have/have-nots binary and get into the real matter at hand: the sort of city we want to build.
If there is an investment waiting that could bring not just an arena but housing, businesses and other development to this neglected part of the city, there’s no question that would get huge buy-in from residents.
And if that revival sparked change for all of downtown, it could mark a new beginning for what our city can be.
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