A 50-mile urban bike trail is quietly being built around Dallas, but the executive behind it predicts it’s about to make some noise.
The Loop is a $120 million project to link existing but disjointed bike trails to create one massive circuit from White Rock Lake to the Trinity Forest, around the Trinity River, and then through the Design District and Victory Park.
At the helm of the endeavor is Jeff Ellerman, chairman of The Loop Dallas and vice chairman at the commercial real estate firm CBRE.
“At this point, 99% of people don’t know anything about it, because we’ve kept a relatively low profile and kept our heads down,” Ellerman told D Magazine. “But 10 years from now, everybody in the entire region will know The Loop. It will be a destination. It will be an active transportation system. It will be a legacy asset for the City of Dallas.”
Having already secured $75 million in public funding and $15 million in private donations, The Loop is expected to be finished in 2026.
Yet, as Ellerman described in the interview, the project took time to get off the ground.
The idea for an expanded trail system came to him in 2014. Ellerman was cycling that fall with Larry Dale of Dale Operating Co. when it occurred to him that there was vast potential for connecting the city’s fragmented trails.
“We had meandered through the Design District and got to the Trinity Skyline Trail on the river bottom,” Ellerman explained. “It’s beautiful with great views of the city, but it’s a chasm that has separated the haves and the have-nots forever.”
The City of Dallas had developed a trail system, but it had plenty of holes.
“It was a spaghetti map of trails that would never get built because the city had no money,” Ellerman said. “It would take private leadership.”
After speaking with then-mayor Mike Rawlings, Ellerman and Dale embarked on a public-private partnership to see a unified, expansive loop built to bring the diverse spaces of Dallas together.
“I view it as a highway system, similar to LBJ,” mused Ellerman. “It will have all these feeders, as neighborhoods and apartments and office buildings want to connect to it. It will be built out over decades.”
Ellerman and Dale established the Circuit Trail Conservancy, later renamed The Loop Dallas, with the help of the projects’ board.
Some board members had prior experience in developing the city’s recreational spaces, such as Linda Owen, who was instrumental in creating Klyde Warren Park, and the late Philip Henderson, the visionary behind the Katy Trail.
While private funds were quickly amassed, securing public bond funds took a bit longer, with $20 million awarded in 2017 serving as a massive boost. Other substantial public sources for The Loop included Dallas County for $10 million and the City’s Sports Arena TIF District for $11.5 million.
Partnerships were forged with entities like TxDOT, the City of Dallas, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and more, to sketch out and build The Loop.
As previously reported in The Dallas Express, The Loop Dallas has also partnered with the Dallas Off-Road Bike Association to develop new mountain bike trails at Creekside Park.
In terms of The Loop, one of its five connectors has already been operational since last May, yet there is still much to be done.
According to Ellerman, The Loop’s completion can’t come fast enough.
“For me, it’s kind of like Christmas time, when you’ve got a really great present you want to give someone,” he told D Magazine. “You’re excited, but you haven’t given it to him yet. I feel like we’ve got something that people don’t know about yet, but everyone will find out about it and will enjoy it for years to come.”
