The exterior of Dallas College’s El Centro Campus in downtown Dallas on Friday, Nov. 14, 2025.
Juan Figueroa/Staff PhotographerDowntown Dallas will soon see an expanded Dallas College El Centro campus.
The community college announced Wednesday that Matthews Development, a real estate firm that has led several large projects in Dallas, will oversee its planned $500 million campus and mixed-use development downtown.
The 800,000-square-foot project, described as a “knowledge district,” will significantly expand the school’s three-acre El Centro campus. It will also house administrative offices and training centers to foster collaboration between academia and industry.
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As downtown Dallas loses key tenants, Dallas College leaders have described the development as a demonstration of their “deep and enduring commitment to downtown Dallas,” according to a release.
Here’s what to know about El Centro and the future of Dallas College’s downtown presence.
Dallas College’s first campus
El Centro, which opened in 1966, is Dallas College’s first campus.
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The campus had 4,047 students on opening day, archives show, and by 1968, the college graduated 153 students. Over the years, El Centro expanded beyond the original downtown campus, adding the Bill J. Priest and West Dallas campuses.
El Centro, named to reflect its location in the center of Dallas’ downtown area, now serves more than 30,000 students. The current campus downtown is scattered across a handful of buildings at and near 801 Main St.
The flagship campus is renowned for its nursing, culinary and hospitality, architecture and fashion programs.
It was the first campus of Dallas College to offer a nursing program and establish relationships with hospitals in the Dallas area. In 2020, the campus acquired a 50,000-square-foot kitchen in northwest Dallas for its culinary arts and baking and pastry programs.
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An “urban corridor”
The project is designed to serve as a “connected urban corridor” that anchors five downtown areas: 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 West End DART Station to the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center.
The development will prioritize transit-oriented, walkable design that integrates into downtown Dallas, according to the 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.
A rendering for the proposed new development for the reimagined El Centro Campus downtown.
The project includes an all-new, consolidated downtown El Centro campus at its existing site, as well as technology, innovation and business training centers, which are spaces intended to cluster entrepreneurs, institutions, start-ups and academia to encourage collaboration.
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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.
Reinvesting in downtown Dallas
The downtown development project comes as city leaders are scrambling to stabilize the city’s urban core.
Multiple major employers and institutions have announced plans to leave downtown Dallas, 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.
Dallas College, however, is doubling down on its commitment to rebuilding downtown Dallas.
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Lonon has said that he hopes building a stronger higher education network and talent pipeline could attract more companies.
A new campus and expanded programs in business and finance, for example, could position Dallas College to build the next workforce for the rapidly-growing finance-related industries in the area, Lonon said.
A developer with downtown projects
Real estate firm Matthews Development, led by Dallas-based developer Jack 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.
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Matthews is also a key developer in the Cedars neighborhood just south of downtown.
Backed by a massive bond
The reimagining of Dallas College’s downtown campus will use funds from a $1.1 billion bond approved in May 2019 to construct, improve, renovate and equip buildings across the community college’s seven campuses. It represents one of the largest community college investments in Texas history.
That bond money is divided into $235 million for industry-aligned workforce projects and programs; $332 million for student-related instruction and success programs; and $535 million for the creation of a downtown Dallas Education and Innovation Hub.
The downtown hub will house the new El Centro campus. It will also include a technology and innovation center for businesses and entrepreneurs and a business training center that will meet the needs of North Texas companies.
As of November, more than $325 million of bond money has gone toward new academic spaces and renovations.
Staff writer Nick Wooten contributed to this report.
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