Downtown Dallas low-income housing plans to open next spring

by Staff of Street Zine

Low income workers, formerly homeless individuals, business occupants and penthouse owners will all be sharing the space Citywalk@Akard located at 511 N. Akard St. in downtown Dallas when it opens next spring.

Central Dallas Ministries and the central Dallas development corporation plan to move their offices to the building and project developers are talking with a restaurant and book store about the ground floor retail space.

Four of five 15th-floor penthouses have already been sold with the remaining 200 units, most of them one-bedroom efficiencies, to be rented to applicants who meet income guidelines -- generally less than about $27,000 a year for one person.

Workers are busy transforming the 15-story office building, vacant since the early 1990s, into offices, retail space and 205 residences, 50 of which will be reserved for the formerly homeless.

"This is about more than housing. This is about people, many of whom are on our streets today," said Larry James, chief executive of Central Dallas Ministries, a project sponsor.

Mayor Tom Leppert praised the partners and supporters for "bringing together a vacant building and need for permanent affordable housing" downtown. "It's amazing what perseverance and commitment can achieve," he said.