{"id":299336,"date":"2026-05-19T06:21:30","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T06:21:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/299336\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T06:21:30","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T06:21:30","slug":"dallas-business-civic-leader-city-hall-redevelopment-series-salim-asrawi-texas-de-brazil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/299336\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas Business & Civic Leader City Hall Redevelopment Series \u2013 Salim Asrawi, Texas de Brazil"},"content":{"rendered":"

The very first thing Texas de Brazil<\/a> President and co-founder Salim Asrawi wants readers to know is that he is not a developer and does not have a development stake in the ongoing debate about moving City Hall and redeveloping downtown into an entertainment district.<\/p>\n

The interview is part of The Dallas Express\u2019 Business and Civic Leader City Hall Redevelopment Series, which will ask local business owners, executives, developers, and civic leaders how they view the future of downtown Dallas, City Hall, public safety, sports, and redevelopment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a restaurant guy and a proud Dallas resident,\u201d Asrawi told DX. \u201cIt just makes sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asrawi co-founded Texas de Brazil, a family-owned churrascaria brand that blends Southern Brazilian-style cooking with Texas hospitality. Born in Lebanon, Asrawi immigrated to the United States at age 14 after fleeing war in his home country. He later earned a master\u2019s degree in restaurant and hotel management, worked his way up in the hotel industry, and co-founded Texas de Brazil<\/a> with his family.<\/p>\n

The company lists Texas restaurants in Addison, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, McAllen, San Antonio, and Tyler, with Allen and El Paso listed as 2026 locations<\/a>. Asrawi also appeared on the cover<\/a> of President George W. Bush\u2019s book Out of Many, One: Portraits of America\u2019s Immigrants.<\/p>\n

Lamenting Dallas\u2019 lost opportunity to attract the Cowboys back to town during former Mayor Laura Miller\u2019s tenure, Asrawi said, \u201cIf the Mavs and Stars are not downtown, there goes downtown.\u201d Asrawi said bringing the Cowboys back to Fair Park when Dallas had an opportunity \u201cwould have fundamentally changed Fair Park and South Dallas,\u201d and he does not want to see Dallas lose more sports teams to the suburbs.<\/p>\n

\u201cArenas have always been part of downtowns,\u201d Asrawi said, citing examples from Chicago and New York City, where walking around and visiting different bars, restaurants, hotels, and stores is part of the experience and vibrancy.<\/p>\n

He encouraged opponents of downtown redevelopment to be \u201copen-minded and think about the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do you want Dallas to look like in 20 years, and what will it look like if we don\u2019t?\u201d Asrawi asked.<\/p>\n

When asked whether Dallas\u2019 I.M. Pei-designed City Hall should be sacrificed to keep the Mavericks<\/a> or Stars in the urban core, Asrawi answered bluntly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t [know] what\u2019s historic about it,\u201d Asrawi said. \u201cIt\u2019s not Notre Dame or the Louvre.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued, \u201cI think it\u2019s a great thing for the city to rent a place for City Hall. It\u2019s all about business and we as a city have to do everything we can to keep them. We have the Mavericks and Stars. The hardest thing as a restaurant owner is getting them in the door and we have them already. How do we let them go?\u201d<\/p>\n

Asrawi acknowledged that it may be a tough sell to convince many residents that the city should use taxpayer dollars to support stadium-related redevelopment involving wealthy team owners.<\/p>\n

He said the city and business community need to communicate clearly to residents \u201cwhat\u2019s in it for them\u201d and how they would benefit from a revitalized downtown, including more jobs and less crime.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody will start building around it, and everyone wins. Business brings business,\u201d Asrawi said. \u201cLook at the growth in Uptown. It\u2019s happening there,\u201d he said, pointing to the new Goldman Sachs tower under construction near the American Airlines Center and the bar, restaurant, and retail development in Victory Park.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you develop things you have to create jobs. Jobs create opportunities. When people are working, they\u2019re committing less crime.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asrawi said he is speaking up in support of the City Hall move and larger revitalization plan \u201cout of love for my city.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has nothing to do with politics,\u201d Asrawi said. \u201cIt\u2019s not about being a Republican or Democrat. It\u2019s about wanting our city to be better.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Dallas Express is also asking readers to weigh in through a related poll on the future of downtown Dallas and City Hall. Readers can take the poll here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The very first thing Texas de Brazil President and co-founder Salim Asrawi wants readers to know is that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299337,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[3084,102,3745,104,103,109,4281,108851,1884,108850],"class_list":["post-299336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-city-hall","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-express","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-downtown-dallas","tag-mavericks","tag-salim-asrawi","tag-south-dallas","tag-texas-de-brazil"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299336\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}