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The Changing Face of Irving, TX

For many North Texans life and the Dallas Cowboys are twisted into one thing. The same can be said about Irving, TX. On October, 24, 1971 the Dallas Cowboys made the switch from the Cotton Bowl to the newly built Texas Stadium, and put my home town of Irving on the map. As you can already see from the new stadium being built in Arlington, and what we heard from the professionals during business week, new stadiums are explosive to local economies. They create new jobs, new roads, and new businesses, which completely transform a community into something new and better. In the 1960’s Irving had a population of about 50,000 people, and after the stadium was built the population boomed to the 200,000 plus population estimate we have today. But what happens to a city when its main attraction is gone?

In 2004, Irving lost its partnership with the Cowboys when Arlington voted to build a new stadium in its city. 2004 was also the first year that Irving voted to allow the sale of alcoholic beverages. Irving was already anticipating the loss of revenues created by Texas Stadium, but this proposition was voted down. In late 2008 it was voted on again, and passed, I believe because residents were anticipating the loss of the city’s largest revenue earning real estate property. With the Cowboys leaving and a lagging economy, the city is looking to transform its downtown into more of a Downtown Dallas type of feeling. Plans for new housing communities, condos, lofts, bars, and restaurants are all in the works. Downtown Irving is not much to look at right now, with only a few historical buildings, some banks, and other small businesses. McDougal Companies is company in charge of the redevelopment process With the Trinity Railway Express line stop right in downtown; it connects Irving directly to DFW airport and to Downtown Dallas. This is a prime location for redevelopment and will greatly compliment all the development that has been done in the cities northern areas of Las Colinas and Valley Ranch. Different apartment complexes in the Downtown area that “haven’t met code” have already begun to be demolished to make room for the new project. I am completely for Irving to clean up this area and redevelop, but it is interesting to see how the city quickly goes about creating new codes and stricter enforcement of an area they have neglected for years when they see a potential for profit. New ordinances are also changing the face of Irving. The first of which is on multifamily housing, making apartment owners clean and improve there properties, if they want to keep them. Other ordinances are involved with sign standards, convenience store standards, and commercial standards. All of which are supposed to create a more visually appealing Irving.

A team of agents for the McDougal Company have been canvassing the downtown area informing the people of their project and making offers for their homes. My best friend and his wife lived in the neighborhood, and had met with one of the agents on several occasions. The agent let my friends know that this was going to be a ten year project and that they were just in the early stages of it. The agent then talked about how they were going to rejuvenate the area into a downtown city life. A new housing community would be built to replace their old homes. The company plans to buy all the homes in the area without the city having to use the power of eminent domain. Since the project has a large economical potential, the city has the power to take the property for public use. He then offered them a chance to sell their house to the company. After of few months of negotiation with the agent, my friends decided to sell there 88,000 dollar home for 118,000. Thirty thousand dollar turn on a house in this economy, and for only owning the property for two years is great. With only a small percentage of the homes sold so far, who knows how high they will be willing to go for each property.

The potential for this project is endless. If this area is developed just right, Irving can become the new Frisco, right in the heart of the Dallas metroplex. Instead of being stuck in traffic for hours, a business person working in Dallas could hop on the train and take a 20 minute trip right to their front door. I was ready to move out of Irving when I graduated, but I am now thinking of buying some real estate in the area because of the great investment potential. The Dallas Cowboys have brought on great change for Irving and Arlington, and it will be very interesting see how far that change goes in the next decade. Hopefully the change will breathe new life into Irving and create a new real estate market. If you leave in the Irving area, check out the Irving website for new updates on the project.

By Brian Wisdom

References

City of Irving Website
http://www.ci.irving.tx.us

Irving Information
http://www.city-data.com/city/Irving-Texas.html

Dallas Cowboys History
http://www.nflteamhistory.com/nfl_teams/dallas_cowboys/stadium.html