City of Dallas suspends all real estate deals after problematic $14M purchase
Dallas gives up on permit office project
The Dallas city manager admitted in a new report that taxpayer dollars were wasted purchasing an office tower riddled with code violations. The building on Stemmons Freeway was supposed to be the new permitting office.
DALLAS - Dallas City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert admitted in a new report that Dallas taxpayer dollars were wasted when the city purchased an office tower riddled with code violations.
Dallas Permit Office Problems
The backstory:
An 11-story office tower located at 7800 N. Stemmons Freeway was made under the city's prior administration in 2022.
The $14 million building was supposed to serve as the city's new building permitting office, but was closed after 39 fire code violations were discovered after employees moved in.
The city invested $7 million more into the building.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Dallas questions purchase of now-vacant $14M building
The Dallas City Council is hiring outside help to figure out what went wrong with the purchase and move-in of the now-vacant building meant to house the city's permit office.
What we know:
In a new report, Tolbert said when the city decided to purchase the building, "staff conducted very limited due diligence" and that the decision was "neither strategic, nor well-considered."
As it stands, the building would require many millions more to get up to code and the city is spending $73,000 each month to maintain and secure the building.
Tolbert said it is time to stop throwing good money after bad and, instead, the building needs to be sold for redevelopment.
She has instructed staff to immediately suspend all real estate purchases.
Instead, the city will work to evaluate and repurpose the city's existing assets.
As for the building permit office, Tolbert says because the city is publicly launching a new online land management system, meaning the permitting center is no longer needed.
Leaders responsible for the purchase of the building are said to no longer be with the City of Dallas.
Dig deeper:
You can read the full report here.
The Source: Information in this article comes from a City of Dallas report released on Friday, April 18 and past FOX 4 reporting.