Close Love Field, develop the area and reap twice the revenues in tax
"Our tax expert estimates this would generate approximately $114 million in annual tax revenues versus the $15 million today..." ÂÂ Victor Lissiak
by Bill Leader
An engineer and land developer suggests the City of Dallas shut down Love Field. The city, he points out, would gain considerably more revenues from the development of the 1,208.32-acre airport site with its Bachman Lake frontage and proximity to downtown Dallas.
Victor Lissiak Jr. P.E. founded Viewtech Inc. in 1971. The company, which has ongoing construction projects, Harbor Point, The Stretford at the Cascades, Lansborough Apartments etc., is based in Addison. The company also maintains offices in Jakarta, Indonesia. Viewtech specializes in land surveying, civil site engineer and structural engineering. Conservatively Lissiak estimates that the taxable value of a redeveloped Love Field airport site would be between $3.8 billion and $5.2 billion.
"Our tax expert estimates this would generate approximately $114 million in annual tax revenues versus the $15 million being generated today," Lissiak says.
On a blog site -- Dallasblog.com -- Lissiak writes, "The ongoing discussion regarding whether to keep or jettison the Wright Amendment is, in my opinion, beside the point. The right discussion is the redevelopment of Love Field. This is because Love Field represents a unique opportunity to dramatically rejuvenate the tax base of the City of Dallas, DISD and Dallas County, as well as the city's reputation for bold thinking."
Lissiak grew up close to Love Field and recalls riding his bicycle over the runways to make his way to Bachman Lake. "Some weeks ago I received a call from a prominent developer and client. He asked that our firm create a plan for the redevelopment of Love Field. We were paid by this developer because he is interested in doing the deal and wanted to see if it was as attractive as his gut told him it would be," he writes.
Lissiak is not identifying the client at the client's request. This, he said, in the real estate business is not unusual. Lissiak said that he teamed with Richard Ferrara, a nationally renowned land planner best known for the Telecom Corridor land plan. And Viewtech hired tax and financial analysts to determine the impact on closing down Love Field and redeveloping it.
Here follow some of the report's highlights:
REPORT HIGHLIGHTS
€ Love Field encompasses 1,208.32 acres or more than 52 million-square-feet. Privately owned land in "takeouts" within the airport perimeter would add an additional 113 acres. This means a total of 1,322.4 acres in the middle of the nation's 10th largest city. The Las Colinas Urban center, by contrast, is only 960 acres.
€ The plan calls for 210 acres containing 5,850 units of low, mid and high rise multifamily housing along with 2,025 single family units on 344.6 acres; 755,000-square-feet of mixed retail; 8,170,000-square-feet of office space ranging from garden complexes to high rises; 148.6 acres of bio-tech or light industrial space; hotel/motel and conference center space.
€ The plan envisions a development that extends broad water filled canals from Bachman Lake throughout the development and offers over 300 acres of common areas including the existing Frontiers of Flight Museum on Lemon Avenue.
€ The plan estimates that, when completed, a redeveloped Love Field would generate in excess of 30,000 on site jobs. Today, Love Field, supports about 12,000 jobs.
€ The tract is located 5,000 feet from the intersection of Mockingbird and I-35 and US-183, 2,000 feet from the North Dallas Tollway, less than 1 mile form the University of Texas Southwest Medical Center and four miles from the Victory development in Uptown. A DART station will open at Love Field in four years. The development will also be only eight miles from DFW Airport.
€ The City of Dallas would realize a minimum up front payment for the land on which Love Field now sits of at least $120 million.
The City of Dallas would lose no tax revenues even during the development stages. There are at least 12 developers watching and waiting for a chance to begin, Lissiak says.
"The terms will be the city's to write. That will surely include a check in excess of $122 million that can replace lost revenues," Lissiak believes.
There is some work the City of Dallas will have to undertake.
There will have to be an expansion of Northwest Highway west of Love Field; Denton Drive, and Mockingbird west to Stemmons Freeway among others.
"As a native and resident of Dallas, it pains me that when companies move to North Texas they are bound for Las Colinas, Southlake, Richardson, Plano, Frisco and even McKinney. Worse, every year longtime Dallas companies like Haggar depart for these same locales. A key reason is that the City of Dallas offers no large modern developments like you find in those cities. What Dallas would boast almost overnight is a development that would more than match anything our suburbs could offer but with all the amenities of a real city to boot!" Lissiak writes.
Lissiak suggests skeptics take a look at what has happened when Mueller Airport in Austin and Stapleton Airport in Denver closed down. Both these airports were closed when the newer and more modern Austin International and Denver International opened.
"Both (the former Mueller and Stapleton airports) are well on their way to being big wins all the way around -- for the city's tax base, their economic development efforts and local residents," Lissiak points out.
