Main Street Park

Dallas Morning News
October 28, 2009

Another piece of jigsaw in downtown Dallas' redevelopment puzzle is about to be put into place: Main Street Garden.

This 1.7-acre respite is tiny compared to the Arts District and much more modest given that its key elements are a lawn, a kiddie park, an urban dog run, a fountain, a concert stage, unusual people shelters, trees and a cafe.

But to business leaders Mark Noble and Kent Eastman, it's a critical component to New Dallas.

"We've been sneaking up with redevelopment on the core of downtown," says Noble, managing partner of Colliers International's Dallas office. "The Arts District, Victory, Woodall Rodgers Park, West End, the new Convention Center hotel are all on the periphery. With Main Street Garden, we've got the opportunity to add a piece of progress in the heart of the city."

The $17.4 million park, primarily funded through city bond programs, is smack in the middle of Main, Harwood, Commerce and St. Paul streets. It is surrounded by Mercantile Place, a high-end apartment tower; the historic Titche-Goettinger Building, which houses the Universities Center at Dallas, and the old Dallas Municipal Building, where the University of North Texas will build its law school.

Noble and Eastman, state president of Capital One Bank Texas, have formed a loose business organization, which, for now, is being called Friends of Main Street Garden. It'll act as a protective group similar to the Friends of the Katy Trail and Lee Park Conservancy to ensure this block of downtown doesn't succumb to safety and upkeep issues that have plagued other public spaces.

The first goal is to raise $75,000 for a ribbon-cutting on Nov. 13, and a weekend of concerts and festivities beginning Nov. 20.

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