Dallas officials have identified a preferred site for a new 911 dispatch and emergency operations center: a city-owned office tower near police headquarters in the Cedars.
The four-story former IBM building at 1000 Belleview St., near Jack Evans Police Headquarters, was named in a city solicitation published this month. The city is seeking a private development agent to assess the property, plan its conversion and potentially oversee the work.
City staff “anticipates that it will serve as the project site,” the document says, though officials are still evaluating alternatives. The selection is not final, and City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert must bring the results of the review to the City Council for consideration.
The solicitation comes more than four months after the council voted 9-6 to direct staff to explore relocating 311, 911 and emergency operations from City Hall. Council members later authorized up to $1 million for due diligence on as many as four potential sites for 911 and emergency operations.
The 911 call center and emergency operations center are housed in the basement of City Hall. The broader question of whether and how to move city operations out of the I.M. Pei-designed building has divided the council in recent months.
The solicitation appears to mark a shift in the city’s plans for the property.
In May 2024, Dallas voters approved $5 million for improvements to information-technology facilities, the smallest component of a $1.25 billion bond package. The city budgeted the full amount for a data center in the former IBM building.
Work has not begun, according to a city website tracking projects funded by the bond package. It lists an estimated start date for designing in January 2027 and a construction completion date in January 2029.
A year after the bond election, however, the City Council approved a resolution stating the 161,331-square-foot office building and its roughly 1.2-acre tract were “unwanted and unneeded” for municipal use and authorized its sale. The property was then placed on the market.
Rick Ericson, a city spokesperson, did not provide information Monday in response to questions about the data center project or the process for selecting a site for the new 911 center.
“Since 1000 Belleview Street is an existing City asset, it has been identified as a preferred location for further evaluation as a potential new 911 and Emergency Operations Center,” Ericson said in an email. “No final decision has been made by the city council.”
Officials are also considering a November bond election that could include a $441 million public-safety proposition, with $40 million proposed for relocating 911 and emergency operations. Staff is expected to return to council for an Aug. 12 meeting to discuss whether to call an election.
The city’s history with the Belleview property dates to 2000, when it signed a 23-year lease with IBM for parking near police headquarters. The agreement allowed the city to acquire the office building and garage for $1 when the lease expired. The city exercised that option in 2019 and took possession in October 2024.