Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings (pictured giving one of his signature GrowSouth T-shirts to Cox Farms’ Cameron Cox at the grand opening of the market at Sylvan Thirty) calls Southern Dallas “our greatest single opportunity for growth in North Texas” with the greatest inventory of land available in Dallas encompassing 185 square miles, which is about 54% of the city’s area. You could fit the cities of Boston, Miami, Pittsburgh, and San Francisco combined into that space. (Just not during football season.)

Because of the untapped potential, the mayor tasked city leaders with creating a comprehensive strategy to jumpstart growth in Southern Dallas within the next three years. Mike says for too long we have viewed Southern Dallas as an obligation rather that an asset. We’ve approached change in South Dallas as a daunting challenge rather than an opportunity for our whole city, he says. His ultimate goal: attract bankers, developers, and investors to the untapped resources the region has to offer.