Dallas officials admitted their mistakes on Friday, stating that the city failed to properly assess the troubled permitting building at 7800 N. Stemmons Freeway before spending $21 million on it as a planned “one-stop shop” for permitting.
The initial report the city relied on was a surface-level review that did not account for major issues within the building, including deficiencies in the plumbing, electrical, and HVAC systems.
Initially, city officials planned to have 1,400 parking spots but later discovered the building could only provide half of that.
This information comes from a report released by City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert on Friday, which precedes an anticipated investigation by the city auditor that is expected to be released next week.
The Dallas Morning News revealed last year that the city had quietly shuttered the building and instructed employees to return to the Oak Cliff Municipal Center at Jefferson Boulevard, where the permitting office has been located since the 1980s.
Subsequent reports indicated that the building had multiple fire code violations and did not meet the city’s permitting regulations.
Consequently, the City Council initiated an investigation into these issues. Tolbert made resolving this matter a priority as part of her 100-day plan upon assuming the role of interim city manager.
“For such a large, impactful real estate acquisition, the City failed to be as thorough as it should have been, and did not designate a clear project leader,” Tolbert stated in her report, noting that there was no proper process in place to manage large-scale investments like that of the Stemmons building.
Moving forward, the city plans to pause all real estate acquisitions unless approved by voters or the City Council.
City leaders are also planning to engage a contractor to assist in devising a master plan for managing the 5,800 properties currently in the city’s portfolio, as outlined by Tolbert.
As part of their transitional strategy, the city will be selling the Stemmons building, as they no longer require it.
A new online land management software, DallasNow, is scheduled to launch on May 5, which will manage all permits, plats, zoning requests, and other land use applications online, effectively ending the previously envisioned one-stop shop for permitting services.
“The concept of a one-stop permitting center was developed during a time when the City’s permitting operations were in crisis and most permitting applications were still submitted on paper. Fortunately, those conditions no longer reflect our current reality,” Tolbert noted in her report.
The report also identified several missteps made by the city.
In 2022, city staff failed to obtain disclosures from the seller and enlisted the services of JLL, a real estate firm, to carry out a superficial review of the building.
While JLL’s review flagged nearly $2.6 million in repairs, it did not account for significant deficiencies in major building systems, and parts of the facility were reportedly not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
“This failure to properly evaluate the condition of the building prior to purchase put the City at risk and resulted in wasted taxpayer dollars,” Tolbert emphasized.
The Dallas Morning News reached out to two officials at JLL, but did not receive an immediate response.
The report placed responsibility for these issues squarely on former leadership. Key figures including former City Manager T.C. Broadnax, assistant city managers Majed Al-Ghafry and Robert Perez, along with former building official Andrew Espinoza, are no longer with the city.
At that time, Tolbert was a deputy under Broadnax.
Al-Ghafry, who currently serves as the city manager of DeSoto, expressed disagreement with the claim that selling the building would be a mistake, asserting there were no structural deficiencies.
“There was absolutely nothing wrong with the building other than one elevator that was not working,” he remarked.
Al-Ghafry stated that the reason employees had moved out last year was due to issues with the fire suppression system and the malfunctioning IT equipment and elevators.
He also disputed Tolbert’s report, claiming the parking capacity had always been limited to 735 spaces from the outset and that there had never been any plan to maintain the 1,400 spaces as initially suggested.
Notably, even though the Jefferson Boulevard center is smaller, it contains nearly 300 parking spaces.
Al-Ghafry asserted that multiple departments, including the Department of Public Works and Dallas Water Utilities, had expressed a desire to relocate to the Stemmons building, labeling the situation as an exaggerated response.
Since taking office, Tolbert has initiated significant changes to the city’s permitting services, consolidating planning and building development under one roof.
Additionally, her team is undertaking a comprehensive overhaul of outdated codes and processes that complicate property ownership and development.
These efforts have reportedly halved the processing time for permits associated with new commercial constructions.
image source from：https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2025/04/18/dallas-failed-to-do-its-research-before-purchasing-stemmons-building-report-says/
