Steve Babick, Mayor, City of Carrollton
In an interview with Invest:, Steve Babick, mayor of the city of Carrollton, talked about recent highlights and milestones, including the billion-dollar investment in Trinity Mills Station, which is expected to bring in thousands of white-collar and high-paying jobs, attracting relocations from California and other regions. The outlook for the region in the next two to five years is positive, with strong growth and economic conditions, but challenges may arise with interest rates affecting office construction.
What have been some recent highlights and milestones for the city?
The city has leveled off in terms of hyper-growth, so we have time to do more development. We have historically been a bedroom community as well as a logistics hub. That pays a lot of bills and is a great use of land but there are new opportunities. We have a billion-dollar investment happening within our Trinity Mills Station that has been a large focus and that investment is going vertical. We feel that will be the catalyst for future development on our fringes and we are looking to have bookends that complement what is currently in the works.
The station will result in 3,500 to 5,000 white-collar and high-paying jobs and we continue to attract relocations from California and other places in the United States that continue to bring in jobs as well. Investment from the private market into the public space are the public-private partnerships we hope to expand on.
What are some of the overarching opportunities for the city based on the high-value industries coming into the area?
Those relocations mean that people need to have a place to move to. We still have undeveloped land that is ripe for housing but we have been intentional in our trajectory to be more than just a bedroom community. Trinity Mills Station is 30 acres of a 300-acre land parcel.
As you think about the access of transit and the proximity from the standpoint of downtowns, we are very accessible. We are on the Green Line into Downtown Dallas and one stop away from DFW Airport on the Silver Line. The whole northern metroplex was founded on railroads and as we look to the future, we will have three transit rail systems passing through Carrollton. Carrollton has a great deal of untapped potential as developments go vertical along those rail and transit zones.
What are your priorities in terms of strengthening absorption capacity through infrastructure?
We have a few areas that are going to be ripe for continued residential development but as we go forward, that absorption has to go vertical by way of live, work, play developments. That will be done along our rail systems and transit zones but while this is happening, we need to leverage our green spaces to allow that balance. We have invested $2 million thus far for the improvement of walking trails, for example.
What initiatives are on the board in regard to workforce development?
We work closely with our workforce development group to increase access and reach into the workforce. We are situated between several higher-education institutions and that is a fundamental part of ensuring we have a scalable workforce. Another part is having the means for the workforce to access their workplaces to reduce commutes. We also offer incentive grants to attract employers that can bring high-tech jobs to the area.
What are some of the challenges you are dealing with?
Our challenges remain infrastructure and public safety and you fund that with economic development and growing the sales tax base. The difficult part is balancing congestion and not creating bottlenecks. That same access point creates challenges with homelessness and people getting on the train for shelter and being removed where they do not have proper support.
We also need to continue investing in public safety and making sure we have dispatch hubs within these developments so that security can be seen, providing a continued presence in these areas.
What is your outlook for the region in the next two to five years?
We are kicking off our Vision 2040 plan and over the next year, we will focus on research to create the strategy that will give us guardrails as we go forward. In the near term, the outlook is strong and the Trinity Mills Station and the Silver Line will be completed. North Texas continues to see robust growth and economic conditions but the one challenge will be interest rates and the effect higher rates have on the office construction environment. We will continue to navigate through that and will respond accordingly.
