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In 2016 we reported that the old Army reserve center would be remodeled as a new Dallas Park and Rec Department facility. Construction was due to wrap in 2018, but so far the building is still vacant. But, says Trent Williams, senior project manager for Dallas Parks, the project — and the building named the Paul Dyer Administration Complex for retired Park director Paul Dyer — has not been abandoned.
Despite some setbacks — the firing of one contractor and an unsuccessful subsequent bidding process in 2021 — Williams says, “there is hope.”
Much of the renovations are already complete, there is a new, “super-talented” contractor secured, and we will see the main building finished in 2023, he adds.
A brief history of the land — the City of Dallas in the 1950s sold 10031 Northwest Highway to the federal government, which used the property as an Army Reserve training site (Muchert Army Reserve Center). A 1994 congressional act ruled obsolete government facilities like the Muchert be used to house people experiencing homelessness, but the neighbors fought that and won, and in 2009, the U.S. housing department turned it back over to the City of Dallas parks department. (Good thing, considering the building’s possible asbestos issue, which Williams mentioned during our conversation.)
Since then, the existing structures (about 30,800 and 6,400 square feet, respectively), have remained unused. That’s not to say nothing has happened.
The 2016 plan to build facilities for District 1 offices of the DPARD got underway with Denco construction, which cleaned up the property and completed about 60% of the project before running into problems. Construction progression lapsed and the City had to fire them, Williams explains.
“We were observing the site daily and … basically dismissed them from the project after it became clear they were making no progress anymore,” Williams says. “And a little bit after that, we heard that there were at least four or five more projects for other municipalities in the area that were also handled by the same contractor where the same problems happened. Without getting into heavy analysis, they were probably having some kind of money problems.”
When the City went to put the project back up for bid in 2021, the response was “pathetic,” Williams tells us. That’s an arduous process that takes several months. All for nothing, he says.
Now Dallas has secured a reliable contractor, Phoenix 1, and the item is on this week’s council agenda. Once approved, the contractors will pick up the unfinished work and complete the phase of construction by first quarter 2023, Williams says.
“They are super talented at restoration,” he says. “They did the Hall of State at the Fair. They can walk into a building and just know what needs to be done.”
The building already is filled with materials needed for the project. They haven’t had to worry much about vandalism due to the property’s proximity to the police substation, but it’s kept quite secure, says Williams, who is looking forward to the completion of the next phase.
“It’ll finally look like a completed building, and that will allow the person we’ve named it after to go look on it with some favor, he says. “[Paul Dyer] was the former director and he’s still very active in things around town. I know he’s got to be wondering why we are naming a building after him and not finishing it.”
Dyer’s retirement initially was supposed to coincide a little more closely with the building completion, Williams adds.
Part of the plan put forth in 2016 has been completed — that is, the back portion of the project site was renovated for a district park operations service center were recently wrapped and Williams says we should see some City staffers moving in there soon.
