Dallas City Hall in September 2025.
Smiley N. Pool/Dallas Morning News
Dallas’ top financial official is urging the city to leave City Hall, marking the first formal staff recommendation to abandon its aging downtown building instead of repairing it.
Chief Financial Officer Jack Ireland endorsed that move in a presentation readied for Wednesday’s City Council meeting. Council members are scheduled to consider plans to relocate City Hall and redevelop the 12-acre downtown property.
Ireland’s presentation says a decade-long effort to repair and modernize the nearly 50-year-old I.M. Pei-designed building would come at a steep cost.
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Financing the work with debt would crowd out future spending on streets, parks, housing and economic development, while paying cash would likely require property tax increases, deep service cuts or both, the presentation said.
The recommendation comes as that meeting itself could be in jeopardy.
Three City Council members are seeking a court order to block it, saying the public didn’t receive adequate notice and the city hasn’t followed its financial policies ahead of one of the biggest decisions Dallas has faced in decades.
A city spokesman declined to comment. A judge could decide as early as Tuesday whether the meeting proceeds as scheduled.
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Repair costs
Consultants estimated it would cost between $532 million and $611 million to fully repair and modernize City Hall over the next decade.
According to the presentation released Tuesday, doing so would require about $770 million in additional general obligation debt.
City staff also modeled a pay-as-you-go approach. In one scenario, Dallas would need to raise or save about $152.4 million in fiscal year 2029, the peak year of the proposed repair schedule.
That could mean increasing the property tax rate by about 6.9 cents per $100 assessed valuation, which would require voter approval, or making significant spending cuts.
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Examples presented by staff include reducing park spending by about $101 million, cutting library funding by roughly $37 million, reducing arts funding by about $14 million or eliminating more than 2,200 full-time positions.
The case for moving
City staff concluded relocation would be less costly overall.
“Relocation of City Hall to an alternate site will result in material savings based on current market exploration,” the presentation said.
The presentation said relocation would modernize government operations, improve public access and free one of downtown’s most valuable properties for redevelopment.
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It also said the weak downtown office market creates an opportunity to buy or lease space at discounted prices.
After evaluating purchase, lease and lease-to-own options, staff concluded relocation would lower long-term costs while unlocking the redevelopment value of the current site.
The presentation also asks council members whether staff should continue developing a proposed November bond election that could seek voter approval for about $941 million, including $500 million in pension obligation bonds and $441 million for priority public safety facilities.
Those projects include a new law enforcement training center, a public safety training complex, a new 911 and emergency operations center, a police property and evidence facility and a replacement fire station.
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If the council agrees, staff would return Aug. 12 with a more detailed proposal.