posted on January 29, 2012 15:14
Construction is under way on the $12.5 million CitySquare Opportunity Center at the southeast corner of Interstate 30 and Malcolm X Blvd. in Dallas.
Public officials including Mayor Mike Rawlings and other project supporters will get a bus tour of the site at a breakfast Thursday to celebrate the start of construction.
The 52,000-square-foot campus will include a food distribution center; a teaching and production kitchen; a wellness center; and a large employment training center that will house new offices for Workforce Solutions of Greater Dallas and CitySquare’s WorkPaths employment training department. The center also will house the AmeriCorps headquarters/offices and a staging area for a summer and after-school lunch program funded by the Texas Department of Agriculture.
The services are all under one roof with easy access by Dallas Area Rapid Transit rail and bus.
The opportunity center, scheduled to open in 2013, will serve low-income residents of East and South Dallas. The center has been a dream of CitySquare’s President and CEO Larry James, a longtime leader in efforts to end poverty in the heart of Dallas.
"The opportunity center will create both enhanced synergy among a vital group of nonprofit partners and convenience of access for the neighbors who come to us seeking to take positive, proactive steps toward a better, more stable life for themselves and their families," James said.
About half of the $12.5 million in development funds for the facility has already been raised, and a public fund-raising campaign is under way.
Omniplan provided the architectural design and Con-Real serves as general contractor for the Opportunity Center.
1/25/12, Bill Hethcock, Dallas Business Journal