SouthFair’s Shipley Agreement Links a Restaurant to Its Neighborhood Mission

SouthFair Community Development Corporation plans to add restaurant operations to its South Dallas development work through a one-unit Shipley Donuts agreement announced July 8, 2026. The shop is expected to open by year-end.

The Shipley announcement identifies Community Donut Corporation as the operating name and SouthFair Chief Executive Director Annie Evans as its leader. SouthFair would serve as landlord, tenant and franchisee at 2807 Al Lipscomb Way, within the new Malcolm’s Point Retail Project.

Shipley calls it the first nonprofit franchise agreement in the brand’s history. Part of franchise revenue is intended to support neighborhood programs and local economic initiatives. The release describes expected local employment and supplier opportunities, without a job count or specified revenue allocation.

Evans has led SouthFair for more than 15 years, according to the announcement. The agreement places a recognized restaurant brand within an organization already working on neighborhood revitalization.

The property financing came first#

Dallas’ November 13, 2024, council agenda material describes the development’s earlier financing problem. Staff and an underwriter concluded that the project could not support the terms offered by its prospective senior bank lender.

Staff proposed a $1,190,354 senior loan from the South Dallas/Fair Park Opportunity Fund, plus a separate conditional grant of up to $312,500. The roughly $2.3 million project included land contributed as owner equity and a subordinate loan from Texas Mezzanine Fund.

The proposed city loan carried 2.5% interest, a 10-year term and 25-year amortization, with interest-only payments during construction. The conditional grant proposal required construction and occupancy certification for the first half. The second half required public opening and 80% leasing and occupancy, alongside agreement conditions.

The proposed loan would enter a construction management account. Draws would run through Texas Mezzanine Fund, the subordinate lender, giving the lenders a single process for disbursing construction funds.

These were staff recommendations in an agenda record with no listed final action. They explain how the proposed financing responded to the building’s ability to service debt. They do not, by themselves, establish executed loan terms or payment of the grant.

A later report confirms the funded loan#

The city’s FY2025 Opportunity Fund annual report, approved by the South Dallas/Fair Park Opportunity Fund board on February 23, 2026, advances the chronology. It says Malcolm’s Point closed its financing during FY2025 and broke ground in late 2025.

The report’s endnote specifies that the $1,190,354 loan was funded in October 2025. That timing falls after the September 30 date used for the report’s fund-balance table, explaining why the funding note accompanies an earlier fiscal-year snapshot. It describes an approximately 4,800-square-foot development at Malcolm X Boulevard and Al Lipscomb Way, intended for retail, restaurant, office and community uses. Completion was expected at the end of 2026.

This establishes a funded development project before the July franchise announcement. The money identified in the report finances Malcolm’s Point, rather than a disclosed Shipley franchise fee or a quantified employment program.

SouthFair’s plan links ownership of the site with operation of a restaurant whose revenue is intended to support neighborhood programs.