Is the trinity river project going to happen? They’ve been talking about it for over 40 years but it really seems like it might happen very soon. That’s what a lot of developers are banking on. There’s still a lot of unknowns such as how big the park will be and if and where the tollway will go but that hasn’t stopped them from buying up land.
A lot of developers are holding off on starting anything until the Nov 6th vote about the tollway happens. Many large developers have been buying up the land around the trinity river including the City of Dallas. Over the past decade and especially more recently the city has been buying land through condemnation or eminent domain. This basically means that the government has the right to take over property at fair market value for public use. This gives you some clue of what’s about to happen. The Dallas housing authority and the city of Dallas are the largest land owners of the trinity river at a combined estimated value of $103 Million.
Here’s a list of the top 10 land owners of trinity river property: Source Dallas Morning News
1. Dallas Housing Authority $56,200,000
2. City of Dallas $47,351,560
3. Kessler Park Ltd Ps $32,617,000
4. Asian Lavalencia Ltd $28,625,000
5. Dallas Twin Towers LLC $28,214,120
6. Cowperwood Dallas LLP $24,239,810
7. Elman Stemmons Assoc LP 416,188,230
8. H2O Warehouse Lp $16,188,230
9. Mobil Oil Corp $15,419,290
10. Westvan Properties Ltd $14,866,180
Right now one of the biggest obstacles until anything gets started, is the parcel of land that happens to be the electrical transmission right away owned by Oncor. These transmission lines send power to the city. It also happens to be right where the $69 Million Santiago Calatrava Designed bridge is supposed to go.
Oncor and the city have been going back and forth on negotiations because the city wants the transmission lines to be moved under ground and Oncor doesn’t want to pay for it because it’s going to cost a lot of money. Neither side really wants to pay for it. Although this has been going on for years they don’t expect any delays and an agreement should be reached soon.
We’ll see if anything happens anytime soon but if it does it will change the face of Downtown and Oakcliff real estate forever.