Ennis, Texas

In May, 2013, Ennis was hit by an EF1 tornado. The damage impacted homes in the Historic District and many other businesses in town, with some of the downtown buildings facing demolition. However, their destruction was opposed by local community leaders and activ- ists. As a result, these damaged structures were sold by the city to developers with the inten- tion of repairing and revitalizing them. “The City of Ennis has made a concerted effort to reinvest in its downtown to try and bring back some economic vitality,” explains Dixon. “We’ve been hard at work creating a public/ private partnership to incentivize investment in these old buildings and, thus far, we have over two dozen projects, where people have invested. It’s all in the Downtown Master Plan that was developed in 2016-17. The city has in- vested roughly $6-7 million in matching grants that have gone to these private developers, who, through acquisition and investment, have already invested close to $20 million of their own money. So, it’s about a three-or four-to- one match, private to public dollars. We’re very excited about that and, obviously, the dream ENNIS, TEXAS