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An exterior view of Dallas Market Hall\u2019s Main and Freeway entrance on North Stemmons Freeway in Dallas, July 29, 2026.<\/p>\n
Tom Fox\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
Developer Crow Holdings<\/a> could likely proceed with a planned 40-acre data center campus that includes the Market Hall event venue property without rezoning approval or a special use permit, unless city officials determine otherwise.<\/p>\n The handful of Crow-owned parcels along North\u00a0Stemmons Freeway and Market Center Boulevard likely allow for a data center development by right, city spokesperson Robyn Gerard said.<\/p>\n Gerard said the classification of each data center project in Dallas is considered on a case-by-case basis. However, data centers are “generally” classified as communications exchange facilities under Dallas’ development code<\/a> \u2014\u00a0 sites for the “centralized placement of communications equipment used to store, house and route voice and data transmissions among communications companies,” city code reads.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Communications exchange facilities are allowed in most business, industrial and mixed-use areas without rezoning hearings. Crow’s 40-acre property is zoned MU-3, with a small portion in Planned Development District 882. The primary use of MU-3 mixed-use zoning is high-density retail, office and\/or apartments.<\/p>\n If city officials\u00a0determine the Crow project is a communications exchange facility, the development would be allowed by right. City officials could not state how a data center might fail to meet that criteria.<\/p>\n The Dallas Morning News reported last week that the data center campus may spell the end of the Market Hall building. No closing date was publicly announced, but the last scheduled event took place the weekend of\u00a0Aug. 1.\u00a0<\/p>\n It’s unclear what Crow Holdings plans to do with the Market Hall building. No demolition permits have been filed. Crow Holdings held a predevelopment meeting with city officials regarding a “communications exchange facility” in October 2024. The listed address matches Market Hall.<\/p>\n Crow Holdings previously said the nearby Renaissance Dallas Hotel is not included in the current redevelopment plans. The Dallas-based development firm declined to provide additional details about the project.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The site is within Dallas’ Council District 2, which is represented by City Council member Jesse Moreno. Moreno and City Plan and Zoning Commissioner\u00a0Joanna Hampton did not return multiple calls and text messages about the project.<\/p>\n Former official challenges classification<\/p>\n Not all agree that data center development should be allowed by right at the Stemmons Corridor site. Among them is attorney and former Dallas City\u00a0Council member Philip Kingston. Kingston, who consults developers and secures entitlements for planned projects, said the Crow development should be required to obtain a special use permit.<\/p>\n An exterior view of a Dallas Market\u00a0Hall entryway on North Stemmons Freeway in Dallas, July 29, 2026.<\/p>\n Tom Fox\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n Kingston said data centers shouldn’t be treated as communications exchange facilities. He says they should instead fall under a catchall category called \u201cutility other than listed,” which covers “a public or private facility certificated, franchised, licensed, or operated by the city as a utility,” and that is not specifically covered by other use regulations, according to city documents.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n New uses must be matched to the closest existing use, he said. The communications exchange facility zoning designation\u00a0may work for data centers run by telecommunications giant AT&T, but Kingston said\u00a0companies like OpenAI and others shouldn’t be treated as communications companies.<\/p>\n “A data center is honestly more of a computing center. It’s not a communications exchange facility,” Kingston said.\u00a0 “Once you pass a zoning code, you have to account for new uses that come along.”<\/p>\n Gerard said the “utility other than listed” category would not apply to data centers but instead government-owned or leased buildings such as City Hall or a courthouse. The communications exchange facility use is specific to data centers, she said.<\/p>\n Dallas is in the midst of a zoning reform project, and data center regulations could be part of the changes. Gov. Greg Abbott\u00a0directed the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) earlier this week to audit all data center projects seeking to connect to the state’s power grid. The move seemingly stops new data center projects from moving forward.<\/p>\n Several Texas municipalities are considering moratoriums on data center developments, including a handful in Dallas-Fort Worth. Denton is the latest to join. Council members directed city staff Tuesday to craft possible code changes<\/a>, and the moratorium could be voted on during its Dec. 2 council meeting, the Denton Chronicle Record reports.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Data center plans<\/p>\n Crow Holdings first announced the project in January but did not provide an exact location for the development. Crow Holdings previously said the 40-acre site was \u201can urban\u00a0infill site\u201d that the Crow family had owned for decades along the\u00a0Stemmons Corridor.\u00a0<\/p>\n Crow Holdings representatives requested zoning verification and determination letters for multiple parcels of land, including the Market Hall site, last month. The firm also requested an address change<\/a> for the first phase of its data center campus last week. Crow Holdings\u2019 initial building will be five stories, city documents show.\u00a0<\/p>\n The first building, a 70-megawatt facility, will be on a vacant lot. Initial site work on an empty Crow-owned parcel near 2300 N. Stemmons between the Renaissance hotel and the Children\u2019s Medical Center began in recent weeks.\u00a0Plans submitted for the address refer to the project at Crow\u00a0Market Hall \u2014 DC Phase I, city officials said.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Crow Holdings will develop the data center alongside\u00a0CleanArc Data Centers<\/a>, which will handle leasing the property. At full build out, the property will feature multiple buildings and have a capacity of 245 megawatts.<\/p>\n Crow Holdings touted the site for its proximity to two major network interconnection hubs: the Infomart building at 1950 N. Stemmons Freeway and 2323 Bryan St. The campus is designed to support multiple uses.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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