{"id":453119,"date":"2026-10-01T11:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T11:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/453119\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T11:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T11:46:11","slug":"downtown-dallas-needs-trees-trails-housing-to-thrive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/453119\/","title":{"rendered":"Downtown Dallas needs trees, trails, housing to thrive"},"content":{"rendered":"

The future of downtown Dallas is dependent on turning vacant parking lots into retail and residential development, improving public transit and planting trees along sidewalks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s center needs to be more fun, officials said at an annual State of Downtown event Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t have the luxury of cursing the darkness or mourning what was,\u201d said Jennifer Scripps, president and CEO of Downtown Dallas Inc., the nonprofit that oversees economic development in the urban core.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Instead, the organization is focusing on attracting new investment and residents. Downtown\u2019s office buildings need to be flipped into apartments. Empty lots should be filled with better landscaping and art to attract new businesses and events. Walking spaces must be linked to surrounding neighborhoods.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The push comes in the wake of corporate departures and loss of grocery stores.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of downtown\u2019s signature historic\u00a0redos, The National<\/a>, went into foreclosure this year after the developer said low occupancy and interest rates were to blame.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But,\u00a0DDI officials say, all is not lost. Dallas College is building a new campus that could spur more housing for its students. Texas Women\u2019s University is establishing a downtown campus that will open next year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Plus, there\u2019s $15 million in bond funds for development on\u00a0Harwood Street and the Loop has advanced the work of creating a 50-mile trail around the city.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The organization partnered with MIG, an urban planning and architecture firm, to look to other cities for inspiration.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Houston has a project called \u201ccool and connected corridors\u201d to plant more trees and alleviate the type of heat Dallas knows all too well. Philadelphia and Chicago are creating districts in the urban core and changing codes and regulations to help that process.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Unlike past events that primarily focused on public safety, this year\u2019s presentation focused on the ingredients the city would have to put together to rescue downtown from stagnating.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The idea is to give downtown a sense of place it currently lacks, said Chris\u00a0Beynon, MIG\u2019s chief development officer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

AT&T\u2019s departure also means the adjoining Discovery District will be without a tenant. Beynon said the city needs to safeguard the area so it doesn\u2019t become a \u201cdonut hole.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The future of downtown Dallas is dependent on turning vacant parking lots into retail and residential development, improving…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":453120,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[98133,160,162,161,87998,92279],"class_list":["post-453119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-plano","tag-business-real-estate","tag-plano","tag-plano-headlines","tag-plano-news","tag-tp-dallas","tag-tp-parks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453119","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=453119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}