Here’s a bit of non-news we hope to keep writing: a new business has opened near RedBird. Brothers Tim and Terrence Maiden brought a full-service bank to the area because there’s a business case for it.
“This area has historically been under-banked, but there is great client potential, a lot of opportunity in the market,” Tim Maiden told our news colleagues. The two parts of his statement don’t always go together. The legacy of disinvestment in minority communities means many such neighborhoods across the nation remain unattractive to investors and entrepreneurs. But that’s not the case in southern Dallas, where businesses are finding customers in food, professional services and retail.
The story of RedBird’s rebirth is not a story of charity; it’s a story of private sector success. Certainly nonprofits and politicians have been involved, most notably former mayor Mike Rawlings with his GrowSouth initiative. Those pointed things in the right direction, but it’s the market that’s winning now.
That’s what makes this news non-news: It’s not uncommon for businesses to open locations in promising neighborhoods teeming with customers ready to buy what they’re selling. That’s what businesses do. And they should keep doing it in southern Dallas.
What is newsworthy here is that the Maiden brothers are returning home to open Simmons Bank. The twin brothers grew up in the neighborhood and played football at Carter High School. As was detailed in these pages in 2021, upwardly mobile residents of southern Dallas often leave for the suburbs. Investment in the area must be about keeping talent as much as attracting it.
What investors in southern Dallas are overcoming is not low market potential; it’s high levels of bias. The minority-majority section of the city is unattractive only to investors with a certain lens. As RedBird developer Peter Brodsky preaches often, stereotypes are “sticky” and “The objections to this area are not always borne out by the facts.”
RedBird keeps attracting more investors who are paying attention to the facts — Frost Bank, PNC Bank, Starbucks, Tom Thumb and others. What they’re proving is that southern Dallas is a good investment, and that underserved communities don’t have to stay that way. That is very good non-news.
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