Dallas approved $5.8 million incentives for new Tom Thumb supermarket at RedBird

The 50,000-square-foot Tom Thumb will have a pharmacy and RedBird will also build 25,000 square feet of new retail next to it.

DALLAS MORNING NEWS: The Dallas City Council voted Wednesday to keep the momentum going at RedBird and approved $5.8 million in incentives for a Tom Thumb supermarket to be built as part of the redevelopment of the southern Dallas mall property.

The council approved the property tax abatements and sales tax grants for a 50,000-square-foot supermarket and a minimum of 90 jobs. For years the council has talked about southern Dallas’ food deserts and now “it’s putting its money where its mouth is,” said council member Tennell Atkins, of District 8 and chair of the city’s economic development committee.

The vote was unanimous after a discussion mostly about the needs of the southern Dallas community and specifically prior investments at RedBird and the progress made after years of unsuccessful efforts by prior owners.

Council member Casey Thomas of District 3, which is just across from RedBird, said it’s time for the kinds of investments made in northern Dallas to come to southern Dallas.

“I don’t know a better place to invest than in a grocery store that will meet the needs of the community,” Thomas said. That’s been the No. 1 request from his districts’ residents who now drive 20 minutes into Duncanville or Cedar Hill to shop, Thomas said.

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Wes Jackson, president of Albertsons’ southern division which includes Tom Thumb, said he was grateful for the overwhelming support of Tom Thumb. ”We know how grocery stores greatly contribute to the health of the local economy,” Jackson said.

Council member Cara Mendelsohn, representing Far North Dallas, tallied more than $40 million in funds that the city had already devoted to RedBird. She said she would vote for the Tom Thumb store, but would not support future requests for RedBird.

“For me, this is a massive amount of money and now it needs to stand on its own legs,” she said.

The incentives also require that RedBird spends at least $12 million on the building and site work, and Tom Thumb’s improvements will be at least $5 million for fixtures and to finish out the building.

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Mayor Pro Tem Carolyn King Arnold said the progress at RedBird was substantial and praised former Mayor Mike Rawlings for his “grow south” efforts and RedBird owner Peter Brodsky for getting it to the point that Tom Thumb is ready to invest in the property.

RedBird owner and developer Brodsky said “serious talks” with Tom Thumb’s parent company Albertsons started about 18 months ago. He expects permits, design work and the securing of financing to put the construction start in early 2024 and the store opening in early 2025.

Tom Thumb fills requests from area residents to have a high-quality grocer with fresh and prepared foods, Brodsky said.

“Tom Thumb is where I shop,” Brodsky said. “If we came in with a lower end, discount grocer or one with limited options, the consumer wouldn’t accept it.”

The property’s 1,500 daytime office, medical and retail workers and 450 residents in the Palladium apartments and surrounding neighborhoods deserve “a Class A amenity,” Brodsky said.

Anga Sanders, a resident active in efforts to bring grocery stores to the southern Dallas food deserts was busy sending council members emails on Tuesday. She lives 3 miles from RedBird and often drives 10 to 15 miles to shop at a Tom Thumb north of Interstate 30. The southern half of Dallas has 54% of the land mass but too few of the city’s grocery stores, Sanders said in her emails to the council.

“I told them to please vote in favor of the incentives,” said Sanders, who runs a voluntary advocacy group called Feed Oak Cliff. “Although subsidies should not be needed, we need to be realistic about the challenges.”

Terrence Maiden, RedBird’s co-developer, said he’s talked with several grocers since the beginning of the process of reimagining the failing mall. Brodsky purchased the 107-acre property in 2015 with help from the city. Much of the former regional mall has been torn down to make room for Palladium Apartments and new medical facilities from UT Southwestern Medical Center and Parkland Health. Construction on a regional location for Children’s Health begins soon. It will be on the second level of the UT Southwestern building, a former Sears store.

A map of the area where a Tom Thumb grocery store is proposed as part of the Red Bird redevelopment in southern Dallas.(Halkias, Maria)

“Tom Thumb is allowing us to attract other tenants around them, and it’s another validation of the progress we’ve been making,” Maiden said.

RedBird is building 25,000 square feet of retail space adjacent to the grocery store, he said. The new Tom Thumb will be slightly bigger than the average Whole Foods Market and almost three times the size of a Trader Joe’s. Tom Thumb doesn’t have a one-size store. Its 60 local stores range from 15,000 to 72,000 square feet. It has small stores in Snider Plaza and the Plaza at Preston Center and large supermarkets in Frisco and in Dallas on Lovers Lane.

At Red Bird, vacant buildings facing Camp Wisdom Road will soon have tenants, Maiden said. A Chick-fil-A is under construction east of Starbucks where a Golden Corral closed years ago. Jamba Juice and AT&T just signed leases to fill the former Movie Trading Company building.

Inside the mall’s west wing, construction begins this fall on a 20,000-square-foot RedBird Rising Fitness Center and Aveda Salon Suites. In May, Dallas College will open a 50,000-square-foot office for its Work Ready program. Other projects are in the works including the addition of new restaurants and a family entertainment concept. A big construction project to come is the repurposing of the empty Macy’s, Maiden said.

“We still have 33 acres of future development that we haven’t touched yet, plus Macy’s and an entire floor of the former Dillard’s,” Brodsky said. “My philosophy for RedBird has been if it’s not an amenity I wouldn’t utilize, I wouldn’t select it.”

Latosha Herron Bruff, senior vice president of inclusion and community engagement at the Dallas Regional Chamber and a lifelong resident of southern Dallas, said Tom Thumb is “a catalyst.” Her job is to inspire Dallas residents and businesses to get involved in southern Dallas.

“We’re hoping it’s the first of many grocery stores and services,” Herron Bruff said. “We’re starting to see momentum and we don’t want this to be one and done.”