Healthy News
City funds wellness center with healthy restaurant in South Dallas
The City of Dallas gave $450,000 to an organization that plans to open a wellness center in South Dallas.
Located at the 3101 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., the MLK Wellness Complex will serve as a community fitness center, providing wellness options for fitness, healthy lifestyle, and diet choices. The facility will also include office space and a healthy food restaurant.
The fitness center will specialize in youth mentorship and athletic training and emphasize a whole-body fitness program. It'll also offer discounted memberships for senior citizens and neighboring businesses.
The restaurant will focus on fresh food, with a fruit-and-vegetable-based menu to serve the growing demand for healthier, vegetarian, gluten-free, and vegan menu options absent in the community.
The office will provide Health and Wellness office for local practitioners to provide wellness services to the community.
According to her bio, Ferrell has consulted as a specialist for multiple land trust and community development corporations advocating for economic development in South Dallas. She volunteers at organizations such as the International Street Church, Global Fellowship Church, The Human Impact, and is seeking ways to dismantle systems of poverty through development, advocacy, and policy reformation.
The 5,063-square-foot space was previously home to the Dallas Weekly news publication offices. It's a super cute brick building a couple blocks from Fair Park which used to be a nice tan brick until someone painted it white in late 2013. Sigh.
The money came from the city's Small Business Center/South Dallas Fair Park Opportunity Fund Program and the Southern Dallas Investment Fund, and goes to Kingdom Legacy LLC, founded by Ferrell Fellows, a real estate broker and developer aiming to increase healthy food options within the South Dallas Fair Park community and create jobs and an opportunity to improve the physical and mental wellness of youth in the area.
The South Dallas/Fair Park Opportunity Fund provides loans and grants to promote economic development and support human development initiatives in neighborhoods surrounding Fair Park. The Southern Dallas Investment Fund supports small businesses in southern Dallas, generally areas south of 1-30 and/or the Trinity River.
"To grow southern Dallas, we must invest in the people of southern Dallas," Mayor Eric Johnson said. "I am pleased that we are continuing to take steps to make our historically undeserved and overlooked communities healthier, stronger and more economically vibrant."
