Dallas Leaders Challenge Economic Development Department to ‘Hustle’ in Recruiting New Business
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The Dallas Economic Development Policy identifies ambitious goals toward streamlined incentives and more diverse housing options — and one year after the policy was implemented, city leaders say they’re ready to see some big results.
Economic Development Director Robin Bentley and Assistant Director Heather Lepeska shared an update on the 10-year policy at a council committee meeting earlier this month.
The city’s updated Economic Development Policy, developed with consultants from HR&A Advisors, was approved in January 2023.
“The EDP proactively addresses economic inequalities and outcomes in historically underserved areas,” Lepeska said during a Jan. 9 Economic Development Committee briefing. “Goals include inclusive prosperity, equitable access to employment, economic opportunity, and housing.”
Economic Development Committee Chairman Tennell Atkins said Dallas must have strategies for recruiting new business as it positions itself as a global player in corporate America.
Dallas is behind the curve when it comes to economic development because where other cities allocate 1 cent of sales tax to an Economic Development Corporation, Dallas uses that fund for Dallas Area Rapid Transit.
The Economic Development Department is responsible for working with other city divisions and numerous policies, Atkins added.
“We can build a good enough incentive [plan] to build our neighborhoods,” Atkins said. “That’s why the Economic Development Policy is great to [support] the housing policy and the infrastructure policy. We lack infrastructure. People are not going to go where you have bad infrastructure.”
Economic Development Policy Initiatives
The EDP has 86 action items. Six percent are adopted, almost 70 percent are in progress, and 22 percent are ongoing efforts, Lepeska said.
The Economic Development Policy outlines the following initiatives:
- Overhaul economic incentive programs
- Develop, approve, and enforce a future land use map
- Audit and update the Comprehensive Housing Policy
- Empower the Economic Development Corporation to buy and sell land and foster public-private partnerships
- Overhaul the City’s historic preservation mission and function
- Create programs and dedicate resources to Minority or Women-owned Business Enterprise
- Dedicate funding and programming to address environmental justice issues
- Create measures and track outcomes, ensuring transparency during the implementation of the Economic Development Policy
On the topic of housing, Lepeska noted that late last year, the Dallas City Council initiated a process to identify Equity Strategy Target Areas to prioritize naturally occurring affordable housing and aging Low-Income Tax Credit Housing developments. The target areas were announced last week, and as CandysDirt.com reported, they’re all in southern Dallas.
Economic Development Corporation Chief Executive Officer Search
The newly formed Economic Development Corporation hired Korn Ferry in September to conduct a search for the panel’s first chief executive officer. The first round of interviews is complete, and a new CEO will be named soon.
No finalists have been named yet, Bentley said. The 15-member EDC board of directors is conducting another round of interviews this week and will make the final selection.
“They are anticipating having someone on board, hired, and ready to roll within this quarter,” she said. “They’re almost at the end point of that decision.”
Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Carolyn King Arnold said she would continue to push for a more aggressive approach from the Economic Development Department.
“We’ve got to come up with a strategy where we have enough staff to do what I call the hustle,” she said. “It’s easy for those who have money to come to us and look for incentives. We need to be able to find out who else we can help that may not know that they can come to us and that we’re willing to talk to them [even though] they’re not the biggest peach in the basket.”
District 4 has had difficulty recruiting a grocery store, she added.
“Our people want fresh food and they want fresh selections,” she said. “I just keep pushing for an aggressive hustle, a No. 1 championship team in addition to what we have, to go out and find what we need. We need housing, we need healthcare … and we need to feed our people so they’ll have quality of life.”
