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BANKING & COMMUNITY

Perspectives

FEDERAL
RESERVE BANK
OF DALLAS

FOURTH QUARTER 2000

Building Personal Wealth
A Conversation with Bob McTeer
President, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas

Perspectives asked Bob McTeer
to talk about building personal
wealth and expand on a speech
he recently gave on the importance
of saving and taking advantage
of compound interest.

INSIDE
Personal Wealth Primers

•
•
Oak Cliff Gateway TIF District
Lyons Village

Why should a person learn about
building personal wealth?

The most common reasons people
aren’t able to buy a house or start a
business are a lack of personal financial
wealth and poor credit. Even people of
modest means can build wealth by setting goals, budgeting, saving and investing, and controlling debt. But if they
don’t know these basic steps—or their
importance—they won’t be able to take
full advantage of our growing economy
and the opportunities it offers.
What should a person know about
building personal wealth?

If I were talking to someone interested

in financial security, I would emphasize
that the most important thing is to get
used to living below your means. Open
a savings account, and start saving as
early in life as possible. As your income
rises, keep increasing the percentage
you save. Never spend all you earn.
Maintain discipline by having savings
automatically deducted from your paycheck or checking account. Purchasing
savings bonds through payroll deductions is one good way to start socking
away money. If you are eligible for an
individual retirement account, take full
advantage of its favorable tax features.
Similarly, if your employer has a 401(k)
plan, take advantage of all the matching
features as well as its tax advantages.
Also, never withdraw interest. Leave
it invested to compound. Compound
interest, over time, is like magic. And it
is more magical the earlier a person
begins to save and take advantage of it.
People who don’t understand the magic
of compound interest until later in life
never stop regretting their missed
opportunities.
Do people know enough about creating
personal wealth?

For some of us, saving and managing
our personal finances are a lot like exercising and dieting to lose weight. We
have a pretty good idea what we should
be doing; execution is the problem.
Lack of knowledge may be a problem,
but lack of discipline is the real enemy.
Saving doesn’t seem to be a high
priority with most Americans. Our personal saving rate remains very low
Continued on page 2

despite the economic growth of recent
years. One study by the Consumer Federation of America and Primerica found
that one-half of American households
have accumulated less than $1,000 in
net financial assets.
The same study also found that many
people could be more knowledgeable.
A substantial percentage of those surveyed think their best shot at accumulating $500,000 or more over a lifetime
is buying a lottery ticket—not saving.
Pretty scary, isn’t it? This implies that
many Americans grossly underestimate
the impact of compound interest on
accumulating wealth.
How would you explain compound
interest to someone who hasn’t saved?

When I speak to groups unfamiliar
with its magic, I use this example:
If you invest $100 at 10 percent interest,
you will earn $10 interest in a year and
have $110 at year-end. If you take the
$10 in interest out of the account and
leave the $100 invested, you will earn
another $10 the next year. If you take
that interest, you’ll earn another $10 in
the third year, for a total of $30 over
the three years.
On the other hand, if you keep the
interest invested, you will earn $10 the
first year on $100, $11 the second year
on the $110 and $12.10 the third year
on the $121. The extra dollars come
from earning interest on your interest as
well as on your original investment.
Compounding annually at 10 percent
adds an extra $3.10 in three years—not
a huge deal. But in just over seven
years, your $100 investment would
double, to $200. In another seven years,
the $200 would double again to $400—
a pretty big deal.
Also, it’s important to let people
know they don’t need to be rich to
have compound interest work for them.
The chart to the right shows how saving
just $500 a year and earning 5 percent
interest on it can produce almost $3,000
in five years, more than $17,000 in 20

years and almost $35,000 in 30 years.
And just think what would happen if
the amount saved were doubled to
$1,000 a year—in 30 years it would
grow to a nest egg of almost $70,000.
In addition to beginning to save today,
what other wealth-building steps can
people take?

People need to know how important
it is to use debt wisely. A few years
back, I read about a long-term experiment involving Twinkies. A group of
4-year-olds was assembled in a room,
and each was given a Twinkie. The
youngsters were told they could eat the
snack whenever they wanted, but if
they didn’t eat it right away, they’d get
another one when the researcher
returned. Those who held out—those
who deferred their gratification—were
more successful later in life than those
who couldn’t resist downing their
Twinkie right away. The same goes for
adults. Deferring the instant gratification
of using credit cards to buy something
that isn’t budgeted pays long-term benefits of lower debt, higher savings and
ultimately, more wealth.
The power of compound interest
works both ways. If you are a saver and
investor, it works for you. It multiplies
your money. If you are a debtor, it

What can community leaders do to
increase the understanding of building
personal wealth?

The Compound Interest Advantage
Value of savings
$70,000
$1,000
60,000
50,000
40,000
$500
30,000
20,000
10,000
0
1

5

10

15

20

25

Number of years
NOTE: Examples assume 5 percent annual interest
on yearly savings of $500 and $1,000.

2 FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF DALLAS • PERSPECTIVES • FOURTH QUARTER 2000

works against you. If you owe a large
credit card debt and don’t pay it all off,
you pay interest on interest rather than
earn interest on interest. You have to
run hard just to stand still, sort of like
running up a down escalator. Earning
with compound interest is like climbing
an up escalator.
I also tell people it’s important to
have a financial plan. As with anything,
when you have a plan, you are more
likely to accomplish your goals. A financial plan should include a budget, a
monthly saving or investing strategy,
and ways to take advantage of taxdeferred savings. Plus, you have to stick
with the plan. As I mentioned earlier,
the best way to stay disciplined is to
have money directly deposited into a
savings or investment account. It’s easier
to stick to a long-term plan if the money
you earmarked for saving never passes
through your hands. Get on automatic
pilot and stay there.
And finally, finding good information
is important. This issue of Perspectives
includes a list of resources for learning
more about financial planning, budgeting,
saving, investing, borrowing and controlling debt. Being financially literate and
building wealth takes lifelong learning,
as well as lifelong saving and investing.
It means learning about the best financial
products and using them effectively.

30

Community leaders can share information with their constituencies and
customers about the magic of compound
interest and the steps people can take
to build personal wealth. If these leaders
emphasize the importance of knowing
more about personal finance, maybe
more people will be encouraged to save
and invest and use credit wisely. There’s
a lot of information available that can
be used as teaching tools, in discussion
groups or just to pass along to someone
who needs it. ◗

Personal Wealth
Primers
Building Wealth: A Beginner’s Guide
to Securing Your Financial Future, a new
publication from the Dallas Fed, is designed to help boost financial literacy.
This easy-to-read workbook will help individuals better understand the basic steps
for building personal wealth. It explains
how to budget to save, save to invest and
control debt in order to reach short- and
long-term wealth creation goals.
To order your copy, go to
www.dallasfed.org under Publications
or call (800) 333-4460, ext. 5254, or
(214) 922-5254.
Here are some other resources that
organizations and individuals can use to
expand financial literacy:
Choose to Save® Education
Program — www.choosetosave.org.
The program offers online financial calculators to help people determine how
much they need to save to have enough
money for retirement.
Jump$tart — www.jumpstartcoalition.org. The Jump$tart Coalition for
Personal Financial Literacy encourages
curriculum enrichment in grades K–12 to
ensure basic personal financial management skills are taught.
National Endowment for Financial
Education (NEFE) — www.nefe.org. The
NEFE offers free materials to schools and
nonprofit organizations. Through games,
simulations, case studies and interactive
exercises, students test and apply financial principles and concepts.
National Community Reinvestment
Coalition (NCRC) Financial Literacy
Campaign — www.ncrc.org. The NCRC
offers train-the-trainer courses, teaching
guides and workbooks to help community-based organizations use the curriculum. For additional information, call
(713) 224-7772.
National Partners for Financial
Empowerment (NPFE) — www.npfe.org.
NPFE is a coalition of government
agencies, private organizations and
nonprofit groups working to increase
public awareness of the importance of
financial education and bring greater
visibility to financial literacy projects. ◗

Lyons Village

A residential/commercial redevelopment project in the Fifth Ward is helping reverse
decline in Houston’s poorest neighborhood.

Mixed Use Revitalizes
Historic Houston Neighborhood
During the 1920s, Lyons Avenue in
inner-city Houston bustled with blackowned businesses, including dental
practices, barbershops, theaters, restaurants and pharmacies. Through the
years, Duke Ellington, B. B. King and
Ella Fitzgerald enthralled crowds at the
Fifth Ward neighborhood’s famous
Club Matinee.
In the 1960s, antidiscrimination laws
and school desegregation began giving
black Americans more choices about
where they worked and lived. Fifth
Ward began a precipitous decline as
many residents took their disposable
incomes to new suburban homes and
shopping centers. Today, the Lyons
Avenue neighborhood is Houston’s
poorest. The average income is $8,900,
and 62 percent of its residents live
below the poverty line.
Working to change that are those
who formed Fifth Ward Community
Redevelopment Corp. (CRC) in 1989
to build affordable single- and multifamily housing and commercial space

in the area. In June 1995, the group
launched its most ambitious project
by developing a plan to revitalize the
Lyons Avenue corridor. The CRC picked
a symbolic tract of land for the project
—the very spot where Club Matinee
once stood.
Today, Lyons Village is a unique
blend of residential and commercial
space located between Highway 59 and
Gregg Street on Lyons Avenue, Fifth
Ward’s main thoroughfare. More than
33,000 square feet of flats and townhouses mix with 10,500 square feet of
commercial space that houses social
service agencies as well as businesses.
“We’re trying to make capitalism work
in the lowest income neighborhood in
the South’s largest city,” says Stephan
Fairfield, Fifth Ward CRC’s president.
“To make capitalism work, communities
must have access to capital, which we
have done by having long-term, mutually
beneficial relationships with banks. We
help achieve their business objectives,
Continued on page 4

FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF DALLAS • PERSPECTIVES • FOURTH QUARTER 2000 3

Lyons Village
Continued from page 3

and they help us achieve our social
objectives.”
Such residential/commercial ventures
are a “more urban way of doing things,
bringing more life to the neighborhood,”
says Jeff Baloutine, senior vice president
of community reinvestment at Bank
United, a major player in Lyons Village.
“This kind of project is one that should
be considered as a real model and one
that can work in all communities, not
just in low- and moderate-income areas.”
Mixed-Use Development
The development mix is the result of
feasibility studies, town meetings and
discussions with city planners. Although
some Fifth Ward residents and civic
groups wanted commercial development
and others favored only residential,
leaders surveyed the area’s business and
housing needs and in September 1995
determined the two could coexist.
The financial package included predevelopment, equity, construction and
permanent funds. Local Initiatives
Support Corp. (LISC), which helps
community development corporations
with loans and technical assistance,
provided nearly $160,000 to conduct a
market and feasibility study, acquire
some of the land and complete environmental studies.
Equity financing for multifamily housing
came from the 1996 sale of $1.4 million
in low-income housing tax credits to
the National Equity Fund (NEF). A LISC
affiliate, NEF is the limited partner and
Fifth Ward the general partner in Lyons
Village. NEF will receive tax credits over
the next 10 years. After the 15-year
affordability period, Fifth Ward will purchase the property from the partnership
for a price already negotiated with NEF.
In addition, a $240,000 grant from
the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas,
awarded in October 1997 through Bank
United, helps lower residents’ rents.

IDAs a Good Idea
Covenant Community Capital
Corp., located in a commercial
space in Lyons Village, encourages residents to enroll in its individual development account (IDA)
program. Covenant is a socialservice provider and community
development financial institution
serving low-income residents in the
Houston area.
IDAs are savings accounts
designed to encourage low-income
families to save regularly and build
assets. Reagan Swank, Covenant
program manager, says that for
every dollar saved, $2 to $4 is
added to participants’ accounts.
The additional money is provided
through the McAuley Institute,
Department of Housing and Urban
Development, Office of Community
Services of the Department of
Health and Human Services, and
United Way of the Texas Gulf Coast.
Compass Bank holds the IDA
accounts for the savers.
Swank says residents may
apply their IDA funds toward buying a home, starting a small business or paying for postsecondary
education.
For more information on Covenant Community Capital Corp.’s IDA
program, call (713) 223-1864.

Many Partners
Lyons Village represents another step
in the Fifth Ward CRC and Bank United
relationship, which goes back more
than 10 years to a $1 million loan for
housing construction in the area. In fact,
according to Fairfield, Baloutine has
been involved in the conceptual stages
of all the CRC’s projects.
Fairfield says CDCs must have strong,
long-term relationships with banks and
other financial institutions. “We have
never approached a bank about making
a CRA loan,” he says. “We tell them we
have a business opportunity in our

4 FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF DALLAS • PERSPECTIVES • FOURTH QUARTER 2000

community. If we attract financial institutions on the basis of the CRA, then
their interest will only be sustained as
long as the CRA exists. The barometer
is not if you do one deal—it’s if you
do your second, third and fourth deals
with the same lender.”
Bank United provided $1.6 million in
interim construction financing for Lyons
Village. Southwest Bank of Texas furnished $340,000 in a bridge second lien,
and Wells Fargo provided $130,000 for
tenant finish-out. Other funding sources
are a $275,000 grant from the Office of
Community Services of the Department
of Health and Human Services and a
$497,566 loan from Christus Health, a
large charitable-hospital organization.
There also is a deferred developer fee
of $262,500. Fifth Ward is currently
structuring the permanent financing.
Navigating a Rough Road
The road to building Lyons Village
was anything but smooth. During 1997
and part of 1998, Houston’s building
boom made it impossible for Fifth Ward
Community Builders—the general contractor and an arm of Fifth Ward CRC—
to hire subcontractors it could afford.
When construction did begin in May
1998, it ran afoul of the weather. First
a drought meant foundations had to be
watered daily to keep them from cracking. Then excessive rain caused flooding and halted all work. Because the
tax credits required that residential
construction be completed by the end
of 1998, work on the units forged on
through weekends and year-end holidays.
Fairfield remembers being on site
Christmas Day.
Finally, on December 31, 1998, the
residential units were completed and
people began moving in. Today, all
24 units are leased, and there’s a waiting
list of 300. In spring 1999, commercial
construction wrapped up.
Located above the commercial space
are residential units of eight flats, each
with four bedrooms and two baths.

Behind the buildings are 16 townhouses,
each with four bedrooms and 2½ baths,
ceiling fans, high-efficiency air conditioners, brick exteriors and masonrytype siding. Eight units are accessible
to handicapped and elderly people.
Because it receives low-income housing tax credits, 20 percent of the Lyons
Village units must be set aside for families making less than 50 percent of the
median area income. Fifth Ward CRC
decided to go further to address housing
needs and set aside 33 percent of the
units for families making less than 30 percent of the median income, with the
balance of the units for families under
50 percent of the median.

Fast Facts
Lyons Village, Houston
Developers and their partners have leveraged grants and other financing sources to create
Lyons Village, a mixed-use development that helps meet both housing and social service needs
for an inner-city community. Through innovative structuring, Fifth Ward Community Redevelopment Corp. has created a model for other developers.
Predevelopment Financing
Local Initiatives Support Corp. loan, at 6 percent

$ 157,500

LISC grant

$

2,500

Equity
Low-income housing tax credits sold to National Equity Fund

$1,428,140

Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas grant

$ 240,000

Interim Construction Financing
Meeting Service Needs
Lyons Village gives area residents
easy access to a host of social services
in the commercial space, including the
Fifth Ward Enrichment Teen Enterprise
Center, Young Fathers in Families, Career
and Recovery Resources, Community
Partners, McAuley Institute, Covenant
Community Capital and National Community Reinvestment Coalition. Services
are more available to the community
than in the past because of the storefront locations and providers willing to
set hours convenient for their clientele.
In addition to Lyons Village and
other ongoing projects, Fifth Ward CRC
plans to restore the historic Deluxe
Theatre, create a Fifth Ward arts district,
introduce an acquisition rehab program,
develop 20,000 square feet of additional
commercial space and start a child
development center. ◗

Bank United, first lien, at prime plus 1 percent

$1,626,752

Southwest Bank of Texas, bridge second lien, at prime plus 1 percent

$ 340,000

Wells Fargo, tenant finish-out

$ 130,000

Fifth Ward CRC third-lien loan
(using Office of Community Services grant), at 5.98 percent

$ 275,000

Fifth Ward CRC loan
(using Christus Health loan), at 4.98 percent

$ 497,566

Deferred developer fee

$ 262,500

Permanent Financing
Fifth Ward CRC is structuring the permanent financing.
For more information:
Stephan Fairfield
Fifth Ward Community Redevelopment Corp.
(713) 674-0175

FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF DALLAS • PERSPECTIVES • FOURTH QUARTER 2000 5

Oak Cliff Gateway TIF District
Unique financing encourages revitalization in southern Dallas

As part of a long-range community
development plan for Dallas, city leaders
created the 360-acre Oak Cliff Gateway
Tax Increment Finance (TIF) district in
1992 to encourage investment and development in the city’s southern sector.
City officials envision the TIF district as
a place where people work, live, shop
and enjoy parks, dining, entertainment
and the district’s historical flavor.
City officials want to use the TIF district to build on successful developments
in neighboring downtown, create jobs,
find productive uses for vacant land and
provide an attractive location on the
banks of the Trinity River for new residential and commercial development.
Local governments create TIF districts to help promote development in
blighted areas or to stimulate additional
development in areas where it otherwise wouldn’t happen.
In the Oak Cliff Gateway TIF district,
city leaders hope private developers will
build:
• 500 market-rate apartments;
• 150 housing units for the elderly,
including assisted-living facilities;
• 100 single-family homes;
• 90,000 square feet of additional
industrial space;
• 140,000 square feet of additional
retail space; and
• 40,000 square feet of office development.
When the TIF district was established
in 1992, the city council set its base tax
value. At that time, a designated fund
was created to hold the additional tax
revenues derived from the increased
property values as development occurs.
Revenue from the fund will finance public
improvements in the TIF district. City
officials estimate the cost at $5.2 million.
The TIF district expires in 2012.
To date, $1.5 million has been used
for streetscape, pedestrian walkways,

educational and training facilities, street
reconstruction, curbs and gutters, intersection improvements, utility burial or
relocation, and other public-use improvements. To spur further development,
city officials designated $500,000 of a
1995 bond program as seed money to
finance additional public improvements
in the TIF district.
Planned improvements will focus on
three major corridors—Zang Boulevard,
Colorado Boulevard and Beckley Avenue.
Unique Financing
Under the TIF district’s pay-as-you-go
financing, private developers desiring
city participation in cost sharing can get
either 30 percent or all infrastructure
costs plus city fees reimbursed out of
the TIF fund.
If developers choose to pay for infrastructure, the city will reimburse 30 percent of the costs, including city fees,
without interest. Developers will get full
reimbursement, plus interest, if they
advance money to the city for public
infrastructure improvements and allow
the city to bid the contracts (see
table).
Developers who have tight construction schedules would likely
opt for the 30 percent reimbursement method rather than the 100
percent method because of
the city’s approval
process.
Improvements
Taking Shape
Since 1992, public
improvements and private
development have ranged
from new and expanded businesses to private housing.
Walgreens took advantage of the
city’s cost-sharing program to develop
a pharmacy in the TIF district at the

6 FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF DALLAS • PERSPECTIVES • FOURTH QUARTER 2000

major intersection of Colorado and
Beckley. Because of a tight time frame
on construction, Walgreens financed its
own infrastructure improvements. From
the TIF fund, the city reimbursed Walgreens 30 percent—$38,000—of the fees
and infrastructure costs. The pharmacy
opened in June 1999, representing a
$3.2 million investment in the TIF district.
City officials hope private lenders
will finance projects to the extent the
lenders are confident that future cash
flows to the TIF fund will bring a return
on their investments. Washington Mutual,
based in Irvine, Calif., has already
shown that confidence.
Washington Mutual loaned $1.5 million
to the TIF district in 2000 for infrastructure improvement for a private development. JPI Properties Inc., a major apartment developer in Las Colinas near
Dallas, expressed an interest in develop-

Oak Cliff Gateway TIF District Boundaries

What’s a TIF?
ing a 644-unit multifamily complex on
27 acres of the TIF property—a $44.7
million investment—but first wanted
public improvements completed. Washington Mutual agreed to finance the
public improvements, with JPI guaranteeing the loan to the district. The loan
will provide lights, street improvements
and water lines for a portion of the TIF
development and adjacent areas.
JPI began constructing the apartment
complex in late 2000 and is scheduled
to complete the project in August 2004.
Washington Mutual loan officers had
prior experience in financing projects in
TIF districts and were familiar with the
intricate details of finalizing the agreement. Unlike traditional commercial
loans, this loan’s repayment comes from
future tax revenue from the TIF district.
“We like finding innovative deals and
being on the cutting edge where we can
help redevelop communities we serve,”
says Art Porter, first vice president of
community lending and investments in

Local governments create tax
increment finance districts, or TIFs,
as an economic development tool
to stimulate the redevelopment of
blighted areas or to entice investment
that would not occur without the TIF.
Tax increment finance is considered
a viable option for revitalization because the increase in private investment pays for the operation of the
TIF district.
TIF districts are created at the
direction of a local government, usually
a municipality. This approach is often
used for downtown districts perceived
to be stagnant or areas with declining
property values. In an effort to revitalize the area, city officials propose a
redevelopment plan to other local taxing entities, usually the county and
school districts, for their approval and
participation. If all entities agree, a
boundary is drawn around the area to
be revitalized and the taxing entities
are limited to revenues from the existing tax base for the life of the TIF.
The TIF authority — often the munici-

pality or a newly created entity — uses
tax increment revenues or sells bonds
to finance public improvements inside
the district. Improvements are generally to infrastructure associated with
development like streets, lighting,
water lines and sidewalks. The TIF is
then attractive to private investment
because costs associated with development are reduced. Taxes on the
base property values continue to go
to local entities. Taxes on increased
property values resulting from improvements, or the tax increment, go
to the TIF authority to retire the bonds.
TIFs are generally regarded as
beneficial to local governments because they spur development at no
cost to the taxpayers. Developers benefit because they receive a subsidy in
the form of infrastructure for a project.
However, it is important to note that
the realized increment is not necessarily as large as projected and that
local governments are obligated to
make bond payments even if the district does not perform as expected.

Continued on page 8

Financing Public Improvements in a TIF District
Traditional method

Cost-sharing program
30 percent reimbursement

Cost-sharing program
100 percent reimbursement

City creates TIF.

City creates TIF.

City creates TIF.

City issues bonds.

Developer finances and makes public
improvements.

Developer/bank makes an advance to the
city for public improvements. City places
proceeds in a designated fund for
development of the project.
Public works and transportation department
puts the public improvement projects out for
public bid and constructs improvements.

Developer builds project, which creates
increases in tax revenues.

Developer builds project, which creates
increases in tax revenues.

Developer builds project, which creates
increases in tax revenues.

Tax revenue increase goes to TIF fund.

Tax revenue increase goes to TIF fund.

Tax revenue increase goes to TIF fund.

Increased revenues pay off the bonds.

City pays back developer 30 percent of the cost
of public improvements and city fees from TIF
fund, without interest. Developer will receive
the entire 30 percent reimbursement if funds
are available in the TIF fund. Otherwise, the
developer must wait until funds accrue.

City pays back the advance for the cost of
public improvements and city fees, including
principal and interest. Advance will be paid
back as funds are available in the TIF fund.
Otherwise, the developer must wait until
funds accrue.

FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF DALLAS • PERSPECTIVES • FOURTH QUARTER 2000 7

A WHOLE

FEDERAL
RESERVE BANK
OF DALLAS

NEW
PERSPECTIVE
Big changes for Perspectives in 2001—
all meant to serve you better!
WEBZINE
A new “webzine,” e-Perspectives, coming
to the web at www.e-perspectives.org.
Timely articles, six times a year, on community development along with timesaving links.

Perspectives
Fourth Quarter 2000
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas
Community Affairs Office
P.O. Box 655906, Dallas, TX 75265-5906
(214) 922-5377

Gloria Vasquez Brown
Vice President
gloria.v.brown@dal.frb.org

Nancy C. Vickrey

NEWSLETTER

Assistant Vice President and
Community Affairs Officer
nancy.vickrey@dal.frb.org

Ariel D. Cisneros

Banking and Community Perspectives,
published twice a year and focusing on
a particular community development
theme or issue.
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Senior Community Affairs Advisor
ariel.cisneros@dal.frb.org

Shelia M. Watson
Senior Community Affairs Advisor
shelia.watson@dal.frb.org

Toby Cook
Community Affairs Specialist
toby.cook@dal.frb.org

Jackie Hoyer
Houston Branch
Community Affairs Advisor
jackie.hoyer@dal.frb.org
Publications Director: Kay Champagne
Writer: Steve Smith
Editors: Jennifer Afflerbach, Monica Reeves
Design: Gene Autry, Laura J. Bell
The views expressed are those of the authors and
should not be attributed to the Federal Reserve Bank
of Dallas or the Federal Reserve System. Articles may
be reprinted on the condition that the source is credited
and a copy is provided to the Community Affairs Office.
Internet web site: www.dallasfed.org

Oak Cliff Gateway TIF District
Continued from page 7

Washington Mutual’s Irvine headquarters. “This is a unique deal and involves
risk, but that’s what we do every day—
take risks and make loans. We first had
to make sure it was a good business
deal and matched our strategic goals.”
In addition, K-Clinic, a chain of metroplex medical clinics, in 1998 constructed
an office building on Colorado Boulevard. The development is valued by
the Dallas Central Appraisal District at
$420,930.
In 1999, Oak Farms Dairy, one of
Oak Cliff’s largest employers, completed
construction on its main site on Zang

Boulevard and expanded to the south
as part of an $8 million project. Oak
Farms built a milk refrigeration facility
on the existing site and a parking lot
for dairy vehicles and employees on the
expansion site. The facility is lighted,
fenced and landscaped.
Dallas Advantage Charter Schools has
built a K–12 facility at Ewing Street and
Colorado Boulevard. The development,
valued at more than $1.2 million, includes
five buildings and totals more than
41,000 square feet.
Uptown Realtors relocated to a Beckley
Avenue office that the owner had
renovated, increasing its value to about
$200,000. Eight years ago, Methodist

Medical Center built medical buildings
and doctors’ offices in the TIF district.
Since then, the complex has provided
approximately $5 million in tax valuation
annually to the TIF fund.
The city continues to encourage
development in the district and hopes
it will enhance the revitalization of the
southern sector. ◗
For more information on the Oak Cliff
Gateway TIF District, contact:
City of Dallas
Economic Development Department
City Hall 5CS
Dallas, Texas 75201
(214) 670-1693