Women Breaking Ground, a Black female-led development group, announced plans for a new $130 million project in South Dallas. Here are all the details.
On Sunday, it was announced that the Women Breaking Ground development coalition would be spearheading a new $130 million project in South Dallas called the Airborne at University Hills. The group is led by a team of Black women developers who will be constructing a 33-room hotel, retail space, and 240 housing units on the 11.4 acres of land located close to the University of North Texas at Dallas. The boutique accommodations, known as The Valor Hotel, will include units reserved especially for veterans and their families, seniors, and local students.
The development’s focus on veterans, and its name, were drawn from co-developer Valerie Ballard’s own upbringing. Her father, Jesse Staten, served in the Vietnam War with the Airborne unit. Construction is slated to start sometime in the spring, and the nonprofit development coalition will be holding a fundraiser on Arbor Day (April 24) that will include a tree-planting and groundbreaking ceremony. It’s an endeavor the women are excited to undertake, as it showcases the importance of their initiative and the work they hope to achieve in Dallas.
Speaking about Women Breaking Ground and the significance of their development, one of the group’s co-developers, Rhonda Pratt, said, “When you go to construction sites and you see these high rises going up, you’re lucky to find a woman doing anything in a hard hat. Even more so in the lead role, per se, which is the developer.” Pratt, along with Ballard, Lorraine Love-Tayor, Victoria Shepherd Burnett, and Keesha Moore are looking to change that—one $130 million project at a time.
The development coalition is focusing on new opportunities for growth
In addition to retail amenities, the hotel, and mixed-incoming housing, Airborne, which will be located at 7303 University Hills Blvd., is set to include a “Harmony Garden” to hold events, and will also feature a series of walking trails. One of the co-developers working on the project at Women Breaking Ground, Keesha Moore (who also serves as the president of African American Real Estate Professionals in Dallas-Forth Worth), said she and her partners were interested in creating local opportunities for expansion.
“I’m familiar with the area and I want to see the growth happen in the area that I grew up in, because it’s just been pushed to the back burner and nobody really wanted to do anything,” she said. Moore added that Women Breaking Ground felt as though “now is the time for that to happen,” and that she, along with them, “want to be a part of that growth.”
