Developer Gives Sneak Peak Into New Dallas Midtown

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Demolition crews are back at work at the old Valley View Mall in North Dallas.

The developer gave CBS 11 News an exclusive sneak peek into what the new "Dallas Midtown" will look like - years after construction was supposed to begin.

Demolition on the old mall resumed about 5 weeks ago. A parking garage that was connected to Dillard's is finally gone. But for more than a year and a half, it and much of the rest of the site stood frozen in time amid lawsuits between the city and developers about code violations.

Now, Beck Ventures and the city have reached an agreement, and plans are back on track to complete Dallas Midtown.

Part of that agreement included demolishing the site by the end of 2019. Billed as a $4 billion creation of a city within a city, Dallas Midtown promises hotels, condos, office space, and a so-called "eatertainment" district of restaurants and retail.

Beck ventures owns 90 of the area's 450 acres. President and CEO Scott Beck said the project will now also include the country's largest "lifetime village," including an 18-story tower.

Beck said he always felt it was a question of when the project would resume, not if.

"We have the opportunity as a city collectively to increase the tax base in this area of dallas by over $20 billion over the next 15 to 20 years," explained Beck. "What that does for us in terms of tax revenue is tremendous, because we've had a lot of this development sucked out of the city of Dallas."

The few tenants left in Valley View Mall are now gone, except for the AMC Movie Theatre, which is still open.