A Dallas real estate firm is asking everyday investors, not just the wealthy, to help bankroll a mixed-use project near the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Malcolm X Boulevard in South Dallas. Bennu Properties LLC has launched a campaign seeking up to $5 million through a type of crowdfunding that remains uncommon in Texas, with a minimum buy-in of $2,500 per investor.
According to WFAA, Bennu Properties CEO Hasani Burton said the firm is turning to crowdfunding to finance redevelopment of the property, which Bennu plans to convert into a mixed-use innovation, entrepreneurship and cultural hub. Burton has said he believes community stakeholders should have access to, and benefit from, real estate projects that have historically been available primarily to wealthy individuals, and that equity crowdfunding has been used for real estate projects across the country even though it remains rare in Texas. But the structure of this particular raise is notable: rather than equity, Bennu's own regulatory filing describes the offering as unsecured balloon-payment promissory notes, according to the Bennu Properties Form C.
The notes carry 12% interest and have a five-year term, according to KingsCrowd. The offering has a modest $50,000 target but a maximum of $5 million, and Bennu must hit at least that target by September 30, 2027, or the company says all commitments will be canceled and investor funds returned.
What Bennu Plans To Build
Bennu's filing describes turning the site at 2734 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard into a mailing and operations hub for remote businesses, complete with mailing suites, studios, meeting spaces and exterior LED screens. Separately, a writeup from investment-research site KingsCrowd describes Bennu raising funds through the Andes Capital platform for the planned innovation and cultural hub, which is meant to give entrepreneurs and creators access to production studios, collaborative workspaces and infrastructure for digital innovation.
As of the offering statement, however, Bennu said it had not finalized selections or signed binding agreements with a design firm, project manager or general contractor, per the Form C. The filing also discloses that Bennu reported a net loss of $42,969 for the year ended September 30, 2025.
A Broader Push For Diverse Developers In South Dallas
A 2025 study by CREW Network found women make up about 38% of the commercial real estate industry, a figure cited in a Dallas Morning News report on a separate southern Dallas project.
That Dallas Morning News piece detailed Airborne at University Hills, a $130 million mixed-use development led by Women Breaking Ground on 11.4 acres at 7303 University Hills Boulevard near the University of North Texas Dallas campus. The planned project calls for 240 housing units and a 33-room hotel called The Valor Hotel, along with retail space — a far larger undertaking than Bennu's MLK Boulevard proposal, though both represent efforts to bring new development models to southern Dallas.
How The Offering Fits Federal Rules
The SEC's Division of Economic and Risk Analysis has noted that the typical Regulation Crowdfunding issuer tends to be small, young and not yet profitable, and that Texas is among the more popular states for these filings, according to the agency's own economic analysis.
For now, Bennu's campaign remains an open bet: investors who put in as little as $2,500 are being offered notes carrying 12% interest over a five-year term, while the company has disclosed an unfinished contractor lineup. Whether the South Dallas hub comes together as envisioned will depend on whether Bennu can clear its funding target well before the September 2027 deadline.
