DART Securing American Recovery & Reinvestment Act Funds

Global Real Estate Monitor

May/June 2009

On Track for Growth: Transit projects offer investment opportunities

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) has given local and state governments across the country millions of dollars for infrastructure projects of all kinds. These projects will create investment opportunities for the commercial real estate industry, particularly developers and investors interested in transit-oriented development (TOD). ....

Denver is certainly not the only city to benefit from ARRA funds. In the Lone Star State, for example, Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) is on track to receive more than $61 million to design and construct the first two sections of its 14-mile Orange Line light rail system to Irving, a Dallas suburb, and to the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.

DART is working closely with the City of Irving, the Greater Irving-Las Colinas Chamber of Commerce and private developers to increase density along the Orange Line. Today, there are 24 projects along the Orange Line that have been recently completed or are under construction/in planning.

Those projects account for $3.8 billion in construction activity and total 4.6 million square feet of commercial and residential space, according to Chris Wallace, president of the Greater Irving-Las Colinas Chamber of Commerce.

Wallace says the City of Irving is pursuing the development of transit-oriented communities as

one of its top priorities, so it can offer “live, work, play” options and reduce the number of employees who need to commute to their jobs. “TODs are vital to Irving’s future, and we’re doing everything we can to encourage density around these transit nodes,” he notes.

Over the past several years, the City of Irving has aggressively courted developers and offered a variety of financial incentives for TODs, according to Rick Stopfer, an Irving City Councilman and Irving Mayor Pro Tem. Along with tax increment financing, the city has the ability to offer job credits and tax abatements.

The city of Irving’s efforts have been successful, Stopfer says, pointing to Las Colinas Station, a five-block TOD project that will be located along the DART Rail Orange Line in Las Colinas Urban Center, a 12,000-acre master-planned community in the heart of the city.

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