Development could generate enough revenue at the city-owned Fair Park to maintain and operate the 277-acre grounds, said deputy park department director Ryan O\u2019Connor, who presented the idea during a briefing to Park Board members Thursday. He added that the park department plans to seek proposals and start a process to identify the best options.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not trying to get super ahead of ourselves, but this could be the piece of the puzzle that we\u2019ve been seeking for so long, that could yield that revenue that we need to fully monetize Fair Park,\u201d O\u2019Connor said.<\/p>\n
Breaking News<\/p>\n
By signing up, you agree to our\u00a0Terms of Service<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n The park department began managing Fair Park<\/a> in September, scrambling to transition and set up contracts for services like security and events after a tense split from its previous operator<\/a>.<\/p>\n On Thursday, park department leaders touted the improvements to the fairgrounds, including major repairs<\/a> to HVAC systems and upgrades to irrigation and landscaping.<\/p>\n \u201cWe reintroduced high school football to the Cotton Bowl. We\u2019ve launched a weekly market and we\u2019ve established recurring meetings with key departments to collaborate on work outside of Fair Park,\u201d said Brett Wulke, the general manager at Fair Park.<\/p>\n Dallas handles transition<\/p>\n Previously, Dallas contracted with Fair Park First to manage the park, which in turn hired Oak View Group to run day-to-day operations.<\/p>\n The city terminated the contract last year<\/a>, with officials stepping in to take direct control as the city worked to rebuild its management structure. Since the contract ended, documents show OVG has sought $5 million in damages from Dallas, saying the city improperly ended the agreement, refused to pay invoices for work performed before the termination and failed to reimburse certain expenses and investments.<\/p>\n Related<\/p>\n Park officials have accused OVG of failing to hand over key financial information<\/a> and telling event organizers their agreements with the city were ending. OVG has refuted this, saying park officials never requested the financial records<\/a> before the handover and that it was simply notifying its licensees<\/a> that OVG would need to transition all contracts to the city.<\/p>\n \u201cIn a functional transition, we would have sat with the previous operator,\u201d Wulke said Thursday. \u201cInstead, those clients were notified their events were canceled and we were left picking up the pieces and it took a significant amount of time on our staff to put that all back together.\u201d <\/p>\n Several contracts for the park\u2019s management are still pending. The city is also in talks with several large festivals, continuing to pursue opportunities for Fair Park, Wulke said.<\/p>\n City plans new approach<\/p>\n The park department has been leaning into nontraditional revenue opportunities in the park system, O\u2019Connor said, \u201cbecause we have to.\u201d<\/p>\n The city is looking to Brooklyn Bridge Park in New York as one of its inspirations. The park has a small amount of space available for private development, which pays for the park and goes into a capital reserve fund, O\u2019Connor said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe elements of the private development really blend into the park in a way that doesn\u2019t detract from the functionality of the park,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Related<\/p>\n With development, revenue could come to Fair Park through lease payments or other mechanisms. O\u2019Connor said that beyond revenue, development could drive attendance toward other venues on the fairgrounds.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can\u2019t continue to have a hole, a metaphorical hole, in the campus that\u2019s really nothing more than parking,\u201d O\u2019Connor said. <\/p>\n Officials consider options carefully<\/p>\n Still, Fair Park is over a century old, said Rudy Karimi, the District 14 park board member, warning it\u2019s an important piece of the city\u2019s historic identity.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a fine line that we\u2019re going to walk, and we have to walk this very, very carefully,\u201d Karimi said. \u201cWhen you look around at what\u2019s happening in our city right now, the discussions around what we\u2019re going to do with City Hall and the development there, this creates a lot of disruption within people. It creates a lot of heartache.\u201d<\/p>\n That tension will be magnified when talking about Fair Park and real-estate-driven development, he said. However, he added it\u2019s something to consider and said, \u201cthere\u2019s no doubt in my mind why it\u2019s needed.\u201d<\/p>\n John Jenkins, the park department director, said Fair Park has been the \u201ctoughest political issue to solve in this.\u201d He said he\u2019ll constantly be involving the community and ensuring there\u2019s an upside for them.<\/p>\n O\u2019Connor said the park department also plans to consider whether new development complements the park and benefits neighboring communities.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want this to be reflective of the character of Fair Park,\u201d O\u2019Connor said, adding, \u201cFolks have been trying to figure out for a long, long time: What are we going to have to do at Fair Park to make it successful?\u201d<\/p>\n New development could be an answer and it should be explored fully, O\u2019Connor said. Park officials plan to brief a City Council committee next month.<\/p>\n This reporting is part of the Future of North Texas, a community-funded journalism initiative supported by the Commit Partnership, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, the Dallas Mavericks, the Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Lisa and Charles Siegel, the McCune-Losinger Family Fund, The Meadows Foundation, the Perot Foundation, the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas and the University of Texas at Dallas. The News retains full editorial control of this coverage<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With hopes to generate revenue for Fair Park, Dallas leaders are considering replacing a sea of parking spaces…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":184931,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103,5253,411,1063,223,6534,1884,1883],"class_list":["post-223079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-fair-park","tag-future-of-north-texas","tag-local-politics","tag-news","tag-parks","tag-south-dallas","tag-southern-dallas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Oak](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1774617432_409_CT6H3UZ6YJH3TM2GBMS74FBJPY.JPG\")
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