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3/13/24

Join the MCBA Dallas City Council Engagement Initiative meeting Wednesdays at 8:00am, contact Andrew for details

Cities Flourish When They Are Pro-Growth and Pro-Opportunity
Our Community's Kids Deserve Better Schools
Building and Zoning Codes Should be Clear and Objective

MCBA's Capital Bond Transparency Recommendations

On Friday, March 8, MCBA President and CEO Louis Darrouzet submitted an official letter containing seven recommendations for transparency and expenditure as a response to the city's proposed $1.25 billion Capital Bond. The city council's proposal should deeply concern the business community and all Dallas taxpayers, as it will place the city in an unsustainable financial position for years to come. Read the MCBA letter here.

Adopt-a-Block

MCBA President Louis Darrouzet was in the Dallas Observer this week to make the case for our new cleanup initiative, Adopt-a-Block. Please take the time to read his article, "Adopt-a-Block Wants to Make Dallas Sparkle"—where he argues that disorder is contagious, and we must work together to reverse it so that Dallas can become the most attractive city in America.

Our Community's Kids Deserve Better Schools

Every other Friday, a hallway at Victor H. Hexter Elementary School in Dallas is transformed as students in the Functional Living Skills class set up a table, stock the shelves, and don their aprons to open the Hexter Market.

"This class is so important because we do have those student with disabilities," Functional Living Skills teacher Heidi Zeko said. "So these children, the meaningful hands-on work that we're doing in a school store setting is so much more powerful than anything we can do in a classroom."

Building and Zoning Codes Should be Clear and Objective

In most major metros, construction of new office buildings has withered as office vacancy rates reach record-high levels and construction loans are scarce.

Dallas appears to be an anomaly: its office construction pipeline is really robust despite red warning lights that are flashing on the metro’s vacancy rate and the overall availability of direct office space.

More than 5.2M SF of office space is under construction in Big D, making Dallas the national leader in building offices. Only four major markets are exceeding more than 4M SF in office construction, with Austin a close second at 5.1M SF, followed by Manhattan (4.9M) and Seattle (4M SF), according to CBRE.

Meanwhile, nearly 26% of office space in the Dallas-Fort Worth market is vacant, with total availability at close to 30%, topping 71M SF. Most of the availability is direct space, with sublease availability totaling close to 10M SF, according to Avison Young’s Q4 2023 market report.