Mature trees frame the Texas Star ferris wheel as it was photographed from parking lot 5 as the iconic landmark, which is permanently located inside the Texas State Fair grounds, waits to take its turn during the annual fall extravaganza which is set to welcome guests from the lone star state and beyond. Photo was taken on September 23, 2026.
Steve Hamm/The Dallas Morning News
The State Fair of Texas’ current administrative building at Fair Park in Dallas, Tuesday, July 28, 2026. The building, built in 1936, is a repurposed fire and police station, and infirmary.
Angela Piazza/The Dallas Morning News
Fair Park’s troubles are far from over.
Former park operator Oak View Group is suing Dallas and nonprofit Fair Park First for $20 million in damages, accusing the city of “wrongfully terminating” its contract to run the park.
The company, which also oversees the city’s Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center, sued the city at the Texas Business Court on Wednesday. The lawsuit says that city and nonprofit officials published “intentional and malicious” false statements about the company.
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The legal fight and the financial issues plaguing the 277-acre city-owned Fair Park could derail plans to revitalize the grounds and deal a major setback to the aspirations of surrounding neighborhoods that have been waiting for the park to reverse the city’s neglect in South Dallas.
Wednesday’s filing comes a year after the city severed ties with Fair Park First and Oak View Group over misspending. In 2024, the nonprofit reported that $6 million in restricted donor funds were used by Oak View Group on day-to-day operations at Fair Park.
But Oak View Group has claimed that all those decisions occurred under the nonprofit’s supervision.
The tenuous relationship between the entities became a flashpoint for South Dallas politics the past year, with each side blaming the other for the lagging developments at Fair Park. The City Council and the Park Board got into a brief turf war on whether the city should contract with Fair Park First again.
Related: Fair Park’s former operator seeking $5 million in damages, says Dallas breached contract
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City officials declined to comment citing pending litigation on Thursday.
The City Council was expected to discuss “legal issues related to the city’s 2018 management contract with Fair Park First” in closed session during the Sept. 16 council meeting but ultimately didn’t.
A divided City Council recently approved an extension of OVG’s contract for the convention center. Some council members expressed concern that they were continuing business with the company.
“There’s no way I’m going to support doing anything with this vendor based on their integrity, the lack of records being turned over to Fair Park, vendors left unpaid, and that maintenance that was not done,” council member Cara Mendelsohn said.
OVG’s attorney Megan K. Smith said the court was the “appropriate forum” to resolve the contractual and financial disagreements.
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Smith said in a statement that OVG had no choice but pursue litigation despite months of direct mediation.
The lawsuit
Under the previous structure, the city didn’t have a direct relationship with Oak View Group even as the for-profit organization had the authority to set up bank accounts and control all funds that belong to the park — including money raised for improvements in and around the city’s crown jewel.
That came as a surprise to many who had always envisioned Fair Park First to be the authoritative figure. Fair Park First officials said then that they had no visibility into transactions that Oak View Group was making.
In the lawsuit, Oak View Group maintains they had always seen the nonprofit as a “pass-through entity.”
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Workers sweep and vacuum the Esplanade Fountain as they clean the Fair Park pool in Dallas, April 13, 2026. The Hall of State can be seen in the background.
Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News
The company says the contract termination was “designed to avoid accountability” for the city’s failures to meet its own obligations of investing enough and that the contract it negotiated with the city makes clear “in multiple places that the OVG would never be obligated to use its own funds to pay Fair Park operating expenses,” a complete reversal from public declarations city officials made in 2018.
It is accusing the city and Fair Park First of withholding, rerouting or failing to account for operating funds in 2024 and 2025, leaving vendors unpaid.
The company is owed at least $5.72 million in unpaid fees and expenses, the lawsuit says.
Oak View Group is also seeking to recoup its compensation for the contract that was supposed to run through 2038 and said that it never knew the state of disrepair the century-old buildings were in before they applied to operate the park.
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The lawsuit indicates a breakdown in communication. Officials had been going back and forth during months of mediation to recoup the misspent dollars and find a way to pay vendors who had been waiting to be paid for the services they had offered. The Park and Recreation Department had also begun an audit to figure out exactly who was responsible for payments. But the findings haven’t been made public.
In March, the City Council gave Fair Park First a separate agreement to oversee the construction of a long-awaited community park. Dallas officials wanted to close the deal so the city didn’t lose key grant funding by missing federal deadlines.
The city took over operating Fair Park once again. But several vendors, to this day, remain unpaid.
This article has been updated with response from the City of Dallas and Oak View Group.
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