Workforce Center Opens In Dallas International District
Workforce Solutions of Greater Dallas on Aug. 3 celebrated the opening of its newest workforce center.
The workforce center on the eighth floor of Northwood Tower across from the former Valley View Mall is expected to serve North Dallas and surrounding communities like Carrollton, Addison, Richardson, and Farmers Branch with resources for job seekers, including job search assistance, hiring events with employers, resume preparation and interviewing skills seminars, a computer lab, scholarships for skills training, transportation, temporary housing, childcare subsidies, and more.
Located within the Dallas International District – a 450-acre area north of Interstate 635, between Preston Road and the Dallas North Tollway encompassing the recently-demolished former Valley View Mall and Galleria Dallas – local and national leaders are touting the new workforce center as the only such facility within an International District.
“Dallas is powered by our residents, and we’re leading the nation in the growth of foreign-born residents who are coming to Dallas to build businesses, start families, and help Dallas grow into a truly global city,” said Dallas City Councilwoman Jaynie Schultz, who represents district 11, including the Dallas International District. “I’m thrilled to be adding an American job center to help our larger North Dallas community and focus resources on our growing international community in Dallas International District.”
“We’re very fortunate, but we don’t want to rest until we become the city that provides opportunity for all. The workforce center is a lifeline for those in need of extra support. It will help us work cooperatively with our schools, our valued asset, and with local nonprofits that are so integral to helping us serve all of our residents,” added City Councilwoman Gay Donnell Willis, who represents District 13 in North Dallas.
“Dallas is a welcoming place. Dallas recognizes that there’s a strength in our diversity,” said Dallas County Judge Clay Lewis Jenkins. “This American Job Center is strategically located in the International District and is accessible to all of north Dallas County. We expect to welcome Dallas residents as well as those from Carrollton, Farmers Branch, Addison, and Richardson.”
Nicholas Lalpuis, region 4 regional administrator for the U.S. Department of Labor, praised the new workforce center as an “innovation in the American job center arena.”
“We at the Department of Labor are not aware of any American Job Center in an international district,” Lalpuis said. “This is a concept that the Department of Labor has for years had in the workforce system to bring together as many services in one roof.”
Aaron Demerson, a Texas Workforce Commission commissioner representing employers, said workforce centers, like the one opened in North Dallas, play a role in the state economy.
“We’re bringing together what I call the secret sauce in Texas. That’s when we bring together the world’s workforce, economic development, and education. That’s what’s happening in this room today,” said Demerson.
“Every time we open a center like this, we get closer to our goal, which is to ensure that every community has access to the services we provide,” Texas Workforce Commission Executive Director Ed Serma added.
“We know that there are job seekers that will find their dream job in these four walls, and so that’s why we’re excited to be here today. That’s why we opened the center,” said Workforce Solutions of Greater Dallas board chair Carter Holston.
Also in the Dallas International District, Beck Ventures CEO Scott Beck, who owns the property where the recently-demolished Valley View Mall used to be, earlier this summer announced plans for a six-story, mixed-use development including 275 residential units, roughly 26,000 square feet of ground floor retail space, and more at Preston Road and Dilbeck Lane.
Nearby in the district, plans for the Dallas International Commons, anchored by the city-owned Prism Center on Peterson Lane, include a 20-acre park, and Dallas ISD’s first-ever pre-K-12 International STEAM Academy, expected to open in 2025. The North Central Texas Council of Governments also allocated a $10 million grant for the area to plan a regional transportation innovation zone expected to include an automated people mover.
