Ray Washburne

Emails Surface Showing Select Council Members Were Offered Tours of Potential City Hall Sites

By Charles Grand / March 10, 2026 /

The fallout from last week’s special-called City Council meeting on the fate of Dallas City Hall appears poised to intensify as questions about transparency continue following recent media reports on city communications related to potential relocation sites. As previously reported by CandysDirt.com, the often-tense marathon meeting resulted in a resolution directing City Manager Kimberly Tolbert…

Is Saving Dallas City Hall at Odds With Saving Downtown?

By Charles Grand / January 26, 2026 /

A battle for the hearts, minds, and identity of Dallas is underway as officials prepare to make one of the most consequential decisions of their careers: keep the seat of municipal government at 1500 Marilla St. or relocate City Hall operations somewhere else downtown. Over the last few months, the debate over the fate of…

City Hall Roundup: Alley Trash Plan Fight, Eminent Domain, Fair Park Spat

By Charles Grand / September 15, 2025 /

The end of budget season is just around the corner at Dallas City Hall, with officials scheduled to adopt a spending package and property tax rate for FY 2025-2026 on Wednesday. We’ll get into what’s ultimately decided in our next roundup, and we’ll see if Mayor Eric Johnson’s budget challenge to council members gets taken…

City of Dallas Buys Part of Old DMN HQ, Will Auction Lemon on Stemmons

By Charles Grand / April 24, 2025 /

Despite a city-imposed suspension of new real estate transactions, the Dallas City Council made two big deals on Wednesday — voting to sell a troubled office building on Stemmons Freeway and buy part of the old Dallas Morning News downtown campus for its convention center expansion. Council members voted 13-2 to authorize spending $51 million…

Convention Center Plans Could Hinge on Ray Washburne

By Charles Grand / April 7, 2025 /

It looks like city staff and downtown stakeholders are landing on a particular layout for the redevelopment of the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center that does indeed require the cooperation of developer Ray Washburne. The Black Academy of Arts and Letters hosted a community briefing on the latest details of the convention center master plan…