Armstrong: Meet Dallas’ Fair Developers

Anna Hill sees her neighborhood go from “bad to better to great.” At a time when housing prices are soaring and neighborhoods are becoming less cohesive, Hill, president of the Dolphin Heights Neighborhood Association in South Dallas, is optimistic, thanks in part to the efforts of companies like Titan & Associates.

Titan, led by CEO Kwame Ellis and COO Khalid Shabazz, is one of several local companies pursuing what city planners call equitable development — an attempt to repair the broken relationship between historically marginalized communities and the American dream.

In Dolphin Heights, it works.

Historical injustice

Equitable development is a trend that is getting a lot of attention from developers. To understand this, one must understand how hostile real estate development has been to minority communities in the past.

Throughout American history, real estate has been a sure way to create wealth and promote economic mobility. But not for black and brown communities. Due to racially motivated policies like redlining, cultural trends like white flight, and newer neighborhood displacements for the sake of economic development and an increased tax base, various communities have considered the real estate industry as exclusive and harmful. As a result, one of the most transformative investments available to American families is often overlooked in these communities, partly explaining the persistence of the wealth gap.

To address this problem, the federal government introduced an urban renewal plan through the Housing Act of 1949, which aimed to combat the scourge caused by redlining and migration by investing in housing projects social. This ended up displacing more than 300,000 people while creating even more concentrated poverty. It’s no wonder that black and brown communities have a negative relationship with real estate.

Additionally, minorities are less likely to be developers themselves. According to a 2023 study by the Grove Collective Foundation, Black and Hispanic developers make up 0.56% of the industry.

This is what makes the Anna Hill neighborhood’s trajectory from “bad to better to great” remarkable. Equitable development helps reverse decades of disinvestment and empower minority-owned businesses in the process.

Developers in development

Another development company in this area is Innovan Neighborhoods, an urban real estate development company led by Maggie Parker. Innovan invests in developers of color who are interested and committed to building in underserved neighborhoods. To date, 22 developers have participated in Innovan’s Community Developer Roundtable (CDR), which equips them through networking, leadership development and access to capital.

Parker’s previous work leading the Real Estate Council’s community development financial institution brought capital to much-needed projects that some traditional lenders would have deemed unbankable, and led to the creation of the Dallas Collaborative for Equitable Development , which is helping transform West Dallas, the Bottom and the Forest District.

Investing in the color developer who then invests in their community creates ripples beyond the development project, Parker said. Developers hire local entrepreneurs who have roots in the neighborhood and ensure homeownership for families, which provides more roofs to support local businesses. Not to mention the neighbor who gets a few extra dollars to provide an extra pair of eyes for security or site cleanup.

In development circles, impact is usually measured in terms of quantity: how many units are created. But equitable development invites us to reimagine impact differently: the extent to which an investment trickles down to the entire community.

Business roundtable

Parker is not alone in her efforts. A recent CDR bus tour featured cohort participants, and the transformational impact of their work was evident.

Ferrell Fellows of Kingdom Legacy is building a wellness center and business center in the heart of South Dallas, right next to a recently closed grocery store.

Jason Brown of Dallas City Homes is developing a 15-unit apartment complex that will provide stable housing for seniors amid increasing gentrification in West Dallas’ La Bajada neighborhood.

And Ellis of Titan & Associates navigates the challenging topography of Dolphin Heights to deliver quality single-family homes at an affordable price.

These developers are proof that impact is about more than the size or number of sticks and bricks. They also prove that equitable development is worth pursuing.

Development in Dallas can no longer repeat our country’s past failures. We need new models that are inclusive, non-disruptive and that stimulate economic mobility.

For Anna Hill, the results are seen in new homes and new neighbors. She’s lived in Dolphin Heights since the 1980s, when police wouldn’t respond to calls and gang activity was rampant, she told me. Today, she sees families who want to live there.

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