Dallas College unveils plans, names developer for new El Centro campus

Dallas College has chosen Matthews Development, a firm that has led several large projects in Dallas, to oversee its planned $500 million campus and mixed-use development downtown. 

The 800,000-square-foot project will significantly expand the school’s three-acre campus into a “knowledge district” along the Austin Street corridor. The development will house an all-new El Centro campus, administrative offices and training centers to foster collaboration between academia and industry. 

“We are building a model for the college of the future, deeply connected to the economy, embedded in the life of the city and designed to drive talent and innovation at scale,” Dallas College Chancellor Justin Lonon said in a statement. 

The firm selection marks the latest update in Dallas College’s yearslong plan to bolster its downtown footprint — a project that school leaders have cast as a potential driver of growth in Dallas’ faltering urban core. 

The development will use funds from a $1.1 billion bond voters approved in 2019 to construct and renovate facilities across Dallas College’s seven campuses.

The project is designed to serve as a “connected urban corridor” that anchors five surrounding areas downtown: the West End, Arts District, Central Business District, Union Station and the emerging Convention Center and Entertainment District, according to a release. The campus will connect the West End DART Station to the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center. 

The campus will prioritize transit-oriented, walkable design that integrates into downtown Dallas, school officials said in a release. Renderings feature a pedestrian thoroughfare on North and South Austin Street that starts at the West End DART Station and runs multiple blocks through the campus. 

“The goal is maximum flexibility,” Bradford Williams, vice chancellor of operations at Dallas College and president of El Centro, said at a board of trustees meeting Wednesday. “How do we do something that really draws the community in?” 

The new El Centro campus will be more consolidated and better integrated with downtown Dallas, according to the release. The current campus, which serves around 30,000 students, is scattered across several buildings at and near 801 Main St. 

The project will also build training centers, spaces that are intended to encourage collaboration among entrepreneurs, employers and academia to develop new technologies and businesses. 

Dallas College officials say a bolstered downtown presence will allow for deeper employer engagement with the campus, increased access for students to internships, jobs and apprenticeships and encourage entrepreneurship. 

School officials anticipate the project to be completed around 2032, Williams said at Wednesday’s meeting. 

Progress on the development comes as downtown Dallas loses a number of key tenants and city leaders scramble to revitalize the area. 

Multiple major employers and institutions have announced plans to leave downtown, including Neiman Marcus, AT&T and Fifth Third Bank. The Stars and Mavericks also announced plans to move to arena sites out of downtown Dallas. 

Lonon, however, has said the school is committed to investing in its downtown footprint.

“We’re not just staying, we’re deepening that commitment for generations to come,” Lonon said in a statement last year when Dallas College selected its developer finalists. 

Downtown Dallas, Inc. President and CEO Jennifer Scripps has described the project as central to the city’s future and an opportunity to bring more students, talent and economic activity into downtown.

Lonon has said that he believes building a stronger higher education ecosystem and talent pipelines could attract more companies to the area. 

He has referred to Amazon’s 2018 decision to base its second headquarters in northern Virginia, passing over 19 other cities, including Dallas, due to the state’s emphasis on education and the fact that a college campus was planned near the location. 

“That’s when we said, ‘Let’s think about how we reimagine what El Centro could be,’” Lonon said at a Dallas Morning News editorial board meeting in November. 

A reimagined campus and expanded programs in business and finance, for example, could build the next workforce for the rapidly-growing finance-related industries in the area, Lonon said. 

Dallas College selected real estate firm Matthews Development, led by Dallas-based developer Jack Matthews, from three finalists who submitted proposals earlier this year, school officials said at the meeting. 

Matthews has made several major investments in and around downtown Dallas. 

In 2023, Matthews’ Inspire Dallas was hired to oversee the $3.7 billion convention center redevelopment under a six-year, $65 million deal with the city. His Matthews Southwest firm also developed the $500 million, more than 1,000-room Omni Hotel adjacent to the convention center in 2011.

Matthews is also a key developer in the Cedars neighborhood just south of downtown. Other projects in the neighborhood feature the Southside development, which includes the preservation of the landmark Sears Roebuck buildings, construction of residential units and development of the Canvas South Side hotel.