Dallas Innovation District serves as key piece of West End transformation
As seen in the Dallas Business Journal on November 20, 2019….
The West End in Dallas is a historic district, but it’s also cutting edge.
Tech firms are streaming into the area, and it’s home to the Dallas Innovation District, focused on bringing together corporate, civic and startup innovation initiatives in a single-district testing ground.
The Dallas Innovation District is a key element of a transformation taking place in the West End that was the topic of this week’s Dallas Business Journal cover story, “Anchored by history, infused with innovation.”
The Innovation District, founded in 2015, is a nonprofit public-private partnership among the city of Dallas, local corporations and startups. It’s run by Dallas Innovation Alliance, which has been a primary driving force behind the latest West End developments. The alliance pushes for initiatives and provides resources and leadership to increase efficiencies with new technologies.
In 2016, the alliance established the Living Lab, a section of the Innovation District where Smart Cities technology is being tested.
In the excerpt that follows, Trey Bowles, co-founder of Dallas Innovation Alliance, explains how the district, the alliance, Smart Cities and the Living Lab intermingle and how they came to exist.
What was the goal of Smart Cities?
What we wanted to do with the Smart Cities strategy was take some of the existing data that was there and use that for good.
Can you give me an example?
We started to use the data that we were getting. For example, we used the pedestrian tracking information we had, took it to the bars and restaurants and said "Here's where people are and when they're there." So they (restaurants) were able to go out and create specials and do things and promote offerings in their space because they had the data on where people were.
What were the results?
They saw about a 12 percent aggregate increase in revenue year over year as a result. Not simply as a result of that information, but it was a component.
TRENDING
Meet the women who will be part of this year's Mentoring Monday
Take a photo tour of the new Virgin Hotel Dallas
Minority Business Leader Awards
Feb. 5
Why did you choose the West End for the Innovation District?
We believed we needed to mark a spot and call it the Innovation District so that we can point people to a place when they ask about innovation in this area. The great thing about Dallas is there’s not just one hub for innovation. There are lots. But the West End made a really good fit when you're connecting the historic nature of what's going on to the future and then bridging that.
How did you get started?
We went to the mayor (at the time), Mayor Rawlings, and said, "Look, we think the big innovative thing is a Smart City strategy. Because of the influx of population into metropolitan areas, by 2050 most of our metropolitan cities will not be able to handle the infrastructure requirements. So you have two options. You can either push people out to the suburbs or you can rebuild the infrastructure that you have.”
How is the Innovation District in Dallas unique?
When you look at some of the innovation districts around the country, some of them are city funded. Somebody comes in and writes a $300 million check from the city and they build this whole thing. This one was interesting because it was a mixture of grassroots activity and a for-profit approach to an ROI. That really played into what makes Dallas so special, which is the public-private partnerships and the connectivity between the nonprofit and for-profit spaces.
The fact that Dallas actually has skin in the game — where private capital has realized this not only makes economic sense but this is a good business decision, it's good for talent acquisition, retainment — how much stronger does that make the West End as a magnet for drawing people from other parts of the city and the region?
I think where the city of Dallas really added value for our purposes was that they said yes to the partnership. They said, "Look, we don't really know what Smart Cities is or what it means, but we like this concept of testing some things out, so go ahead." That allowed us to create the fastest-to-market Smart Cities project in the world, going from idea to in-the-ground in 10 months, and that was because they gave us access to the right-of-way and because they didn't get in the way. We didn't have to go through the same procurement process that the cities have to go through. We basically said these are the things we want to do and we're going to go do them, and nobody could say yes or no as long as we could afford them. A lot of other cities have called and asked how they can do what Dallas did.