The Dallas City Council approved a $1.4 million settlement Wednesday meant to end a legal battle that stretched more than a decade over the city luring a Home Depot distribution center from Corsicana.
Corsicana, Navarro County and Navarro College gave Home Depot tax breaks in 2009 to keep the company’s warehouse in Corsicana. But two years later, Dallas approved offering its own package of economic incentives to help bring the distribution center to southern Dallas.
The legal fight began in 2013 when the trio of Navarro County taxing entities sued Dallas, accusing the city of wrongfully recruiting Home Depot and causing the company to breach its local incentive agreements.
The Home Depot distribution center remains in the Red Bird area. The settlement agreement closes a dispute that outlasted the Dallas economic development deal itself.
The Dallas City Council approved the settlement agreement as part of its consent agenda without discussion Wednesday.
Dallas city records show the City Council in October 2011 approved incentives that included a roughly $3.8 million grant, money for nearby road improvements and a 10-year property tax abatement estimated at the time to be worth about $4.2 million in forgone revenue.
The deal was projected to bring up to 250 jobs over five years.
Home Depot announced in November 2011 that it would close its Corsicana warehouse and move operations to North Texas. The Corsicana Daily Sun reported at the time that about 180 jobs would leave Corsicana, though Home Depot said employees would be offered positions in Dallas.
Then-Corsicana Mayor Chuck McClanahan, said in a letter to residents that same month that there were “no additional abatement opportunities that the city of Corsicana can legally extend to the company to try and keep them here in Corsicana,” according to the Corsicana Daily Sun. McClanahan added that his city planned to seek repayment of all incentives previously offered to Home Depot.
Corsicana, Navarro County and Navarro College sued and later settled their claims against Home Depot, court documents show. Their lawsuit against Dallas continued for years. A 2023 Dallas city attorney’s office brief summary of the case said a trial at one point was delayed because of the pandemic.
The latest online court records on the case in Navarro County show a judge in October 2023 ordered both parties to mediate and the case remained on the court’s docket into 2026.