$4 Million Tax Break for Uptown Dallas Grocery Store Questioned – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth
The question of whether Kroger should get nearly $ 4 million in tax breaks on a new grocery and apartment project in Uptown was postponed Wednesday at Dallas City Hall as the plan resisted.
Other grocers have opened downtown locations in recent years with no tax subsidies, while companies are turning down urban bar offers to open in unserved parts of the city known as “food deserts.”
The planned location on Hall Street east of the Central Expressway is a former public housing building. There are act restrictions that require at least some affordable housing on the site forever.
Critics therefore argue that it shouldn’t be necessary to set incentives to integrate affordable housing into the booming district.
Kroger and its development partners have requested a $ 3.892 million tax break that the city has given up over 10 years.
In exchange for the incentive, Kroger is offering a $ 108 million project that includes an 80,000 square foot store and 375 apartments, with 20% of the units reserved for renters earning less than 60% of the median income.
Speaking to Dallas City Council on Wednesday, Anthony Page of the Uptown Neighborhood Association said that affordable housing incentives should not be required on deed-restricted land.
“We believe subsidizing a supermarket for this neighborhood is a waste of taxpayers’ money and can actually reduce the number of affordable units that would otherwise be built on the site,” he said.
In the Uptown area, two Tom Thumb stores and a Whole Foods store have opened in other mixed-use developments that have not received city subsidies in recent years.
HEB has announced plans for a nearby business with no tax incentives.
Kroger already has another store nearby on Capital a Haskell. Page said the proposed city deal for the new location does not require the existing store to be kept open.
In other words, there is a real risk that the $ 4 million incentive would really result in a closure of our existing Kroger neighborhood, which would simply pull down the street, resulting in no additional grocery stores and no economic benefit for the city said Page.
The Kroger motion claims the new location is in a U.S. Department of Agriculture food wasteland that requires low-income residents without a car to travel more than half a mile for groceries.
Page said the claim was based on an outdated USDA report.
In what is truly a food wasteland in south Dallas around Simpson Stuart and Bonnie View Roads, the city has invested millions to open a small, full-service grocery store that recently closed but may be reopening soon.
Without this store, fresh groceries are miles away for surrounding apartments, single family homes, and Paul Quinn College.
All of the major grocery chains, including Kroger, turned down a $ 3 million offer from the city a few years ago to open a store in the food deserts of south Dallas.
Alderman Paul Ridley, who represents the Uptown location, asked for the Kroger vote to be postponed on Wednesday.
“I would like to put this matter on hold to allow additional community input on the benefits of this project,” said Ridley.
Ridley did not comment on the matter at the meeting and did not respond to a request for additional comments thereafter.
Councilor Carolyn Arnold was the only vote against the delay.
“We shouldn’t delay it. We should go ahead and vote on it. And my position is that delaying only gives us an opportunity to indulge in unnecessary conversation because this group has not done justice in the southern sector, ”said Arnold.
Kroger spokeswoman April Martin responded to a request for comment on these issues with an email statement.
“We currently have no comment to share,” it said in its statement.
The Kroger application will be returned to the city council on October 27th.
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