WILL COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT DELIVER RESTORATION OF FAIR PARK?

More than six months have passed since management of our tattered Fair Park has been passed back to the Dallas Park and Recreation Department.

Park Department managers recently presented to the Park Board and the City Council Parks, Trails and Environment committee a progress report on the state of the park since the poorly executed privatization experiment ended last year.

In addition to infrastructure upgrades, the return of high school football games to the Cotton Bowl and a new farmer’s market, the Park Department managers unveiled a bold concept for solving the here-to-fore unsolved problem of having adequate funds for Fair Park’s upkeep, restoration and revitalization.

The bold vision is to promote a 40-50 acre section of the 277-acre campus for commercial development. Imagine, said park officials, a hotel and retail/restaurant development that would generate a consistent revenue stream solely dedicated to restoring and revitalizing the remaining 227 acres.

The light purple area on the upper right of the rendering is the proposed site. Everything in that proposed district is surface parking. Thousands of parking spaces that fill once a year during the State Fair of Texas and are mostly unused the rest of the year.

The pitch for private development dollars is easy to understand. A patchwork of bond initiatives, state and federal grants and private fundraising, has yielded, well, patches of random restoration. Revenue from leases/rentals for big events and permanent tenants don’t add up to a capital expenditure budget that can do much more than repair the most basic infrastructure needed to keep the gates open.

And, if site-restricted commercial development can help revitalize one of Dallas’ greatest civic assets, it should receive thoughtful consideration.

As of now there are few details on how such development would occur. Deputy Park department director Ryan O’Connor spoke of “significant development interest” in Fair Park spurring the Park Department to warrant preparations for preparing a request for proposals after completing its due diligence.

One critical detail offered is that any commercial development would be required to provide structured parking (garages) to compensate for lost surface-parking spaces.

There are a few hurdles to clear before any shovels pierce the dirt – environmental ground studies, securing development deals, approval from City Council, to mention a few.

Oddly, though, there was no mention of the State Fair of Texas, the Big Tex-sized Fair Park tenant. You know, “The Most Texan Place on Earth”, that leases and occupies the entire park for the 24 days the fair is open. Also included in the lease agreement is occupancy for up to 60 days before the opening day to assemble and organize the event. After closing, it is allowed no more than 30 days to disassemble. That’s 114 days a year, 24 of which entering Fair Park requires admission to the State Fair.

Assuming a private development is placed in the proposed Leisure/Entertainment & Lodging District, wouldn’t the city have to renegotiate the contract with the State Fair to carve out that district from the lease agreement?

That section of the park provides substantial parking-fee revenue for the Fair. Presumably that revenue would be gone unless there was an accommodation between private garage owners and the State Fair.

That might be tough pill for the State Fair execs to swallow.

Other considerations

Here are more preliminary questions. Today, the district doesn’t exist but if the Park Department can make it happen, these are all considerations. I’m sure there are many more.

• Are there plans to make changes in vehicular ingress and egress along South Fitzhugh Avenue and Washington street? There’s a history of messy gridlock when large concerts let out at the Dos Equis Pavilion.

• Would new development impact access into the park from the neighborhoods on the east side of Fitzhugh Avenue?

• Park Department officials threw out the idea that a deal could be made for the owner of a new development to take over the maintenance of the future Community Park, which will abut the proposed Leisure District.

• Would a private manager be responsible for programming and security in the park?

Stay tuned.