Mill City, a long-neglected Dallas neighborhood just southeast of Fair Park, will soon see $1 million over three years to help renovate up to 18 vacant lots, upgrade outdated infrastructure, create a boxing gym and an urban farm as community spaces and build up to eight affordable single-family homes.
The money from the Real Estate Council’s philanthropic arm, TREC Community Investors, targets Mill City as part of the council’s second Dallas Catalyst Project. The project’s collaborators include Mill City Community Association, Builders of Hope Community Development Corporation and Urban Specialists.
“It’s all so we can feel good about the neighborhood again,” said Mill City native Alendra Lyons, the community association president and a fierce advocate for reviving her corner of southern Dallas.
TREC, a trade group of members from different real-estate-related fields, invests both money and what they call “human capital” to provide pro bono knowledge. Members who are architects, engineers, developers and others volunteer their time and expertise as consultants to the catalyst projects.
“Together with our community partners, we have realized the neighborhood’s vision to bring critical resources and equitable development to one of Dallas’ most historically underserved neighborhoods,” said Linda McMahon, president and CEO of TREC.
With about 47% of lots vacant, Mill City is home to trash troubles, loitering and crime, a stark difference from when Lyons walked the neighborhood as a child.
Mill City started in 1903 after entrepreneurs opened a cotton mill factory to train people of color. The neighborhood was once full of life, Lyons said, a thriving and safe place to live and work.
“When I was growing up, we had businesses here,” Lyons said. “Dry cleaners, a theater, drug stores. In the late ‘80s, everything started changing and people started dispersing out to other areas where they thought it was better.”
In a vacant lot on the corner of Lyons’ street, people once gathered and played loud music, leaving behind trash in the neighborhood.
“It was like a nightclub when it wasn’t fenced in,” Lyons said. “They would have 200 or 300 people down there. And the weirdest part is, you could call the police and they might show up, they might not.”
Lyons, who currently teaches gardening to kids in a lot next to her home, plans to transform that fenced-in vacant lot into an urban garden teaching farm, with fruit trees, various crops, chickens and eggs, composting and a community center.
Much of southern Dallas is considered a food desert, which leaves residents unable to regularly access healthy, affordable meals.
Community groups began vying for a piece of the cash in April when TREC announced it would fund real-estate projects focused on solving a problem at a specific geographic site.
Two other community groups – in South Oak Cliff and Tenth Street Historic District – were finalists for the second catalyst project.
The first Dallas Catalyst Project launched in 2018 and funded 22 projects in South Dallas’ Forest District, including Southpoint Community Market, which provides residents with first-time access to fresh foods, a commercial kitchen and a laundromat.
TREC and its community partners in the Forest District – St. Philip’s School and Community Center, Cornerstone Baptist Church and Forest Forward – also renovated many multifamily buildings and commercial spaces.
“With TREC’s help, we look to build on the progress we’ve made over the last few years and finally restore Mill City to what it used to be – a place full of community pride, where residents feel safe, and families and businesses can once again flourish,” Lyons said.
