Community Park Update: After the Development Agreement
Additional funding and an updated timetable are among the latest developments for the building of Fair Park’s long-promised Community Park. Delivering the park has been littered with broken promises, delays and city fumbling. It’s now closer than it has ever been to being built.
Decades of Dallas’ housing policies, along with patterns of African American migration and displacement were laid out earlier this month here by historian Dr. Marvin Dulaney who told the story of Lot #10’s history and why that parking-lot site is where the park is being built.
Fast forward nearly 60 years and those parking lots endure, but 10 of those 50 acres on the east side of Fair Park will finally be transformed from concrete to lawns and trees with playgrounds and community spaces. That was official in late February of this year when Dallas’ City Council approved the development agreement for Fair Park First (FPF), which allowed the nonprofit to unlock already-raised funds to build the park.
Finalizing the agreement signatures took another two months, adding a delay—though a far shorter one than the drawn-out twists and turns that marked the city’s failed handoff of Fair Park to private management. The city ended its partnership with the management team in September 2025. FPF was the nonprofit arm of the private management team and is back inside the tent, for now, as the entity that oversaw the design, raised the funds and will build the park.
Those delays in executing the agreement reset the timetable to an estimated groundbreaking by the end of the year with construction expected to take about 18 months.
The need for funding is still on the table and FPF recently announced it will receive a $2.5 million donation from the McKesson Foundation to support the design and construction of the park. The foundation’s aim is to create a “wellness” hub in the planned Market Grove that will provide health-focused services and programming such as partnerships with area health institutions to provide health screenings and education for South Dallas residents. The Market Grove will be named the McKesson Market Grove upon the park’s completion.
Well-designed and -executed programming, such as organizing community, recreational and other activities, is vital to the Community Park’s success. At this point it’s not clear who will be in charge of that job. Presumably the default is the Dallas Park and Recreation Department. Park department officials in the past have indicated it’s not a job they want to take on. Officials have said it will look outside of the department to partner with a third party for programming and fundraising. It seems likely that FPF will raise its hand for that job and because of its fundraising skills, it will probably be a candidate.
FPF officials say more than 85% of the project's $40 million fundraising goal has been reached. New commitments, they say, are progressing but not yet formalized. Officials estimate that $3 million more needs to be raised to fully fund the Community Park’s design and construction. FPF expresses confidence that those funds will be raised as the project moves toward the construction stage.
What has been accomplished since the Community Park was marked as the top priority in the 2020 Fair Park Master Plan? Here’s the update.
Completed Work
Environmental and archeological site studies
Design development
Rescaling the original design going from 14 acres to 10.5 acres
Raising nearly $40 million toward the park’s design and building
City signing off on Development Agreement for Fair Park First
Project manager selection (Norm Alston Architects)
Construction Manager at Risk (CMAR) selection (Beck Group)
Ongoing:
Generating Construction Documents and Permitting
Raising remaining funds
On the horizon:
Construction Document Completion
Groundbreaking
Completion – First part of 2028
