Construction kicks off this month on Pacific Plaza, downtown Dallas' next major park and the first of four new green spaces planned in the next five years.

The 3.4-acre site on Pacific Avenue also will be Dallas' fourth new city center park since 2009.

Real estate investors and businesses in the area around the site — now a parking lot — are betting the $15 million project will boost their bottom lines with higher property values and more downtown workers and residents.

"We are finally at the launch point," said Robert Decherd, chairman of Parks for Downtown Dallas, which has partnered with the city to build Pacific Plaza. "We are starting a sprint — four new parks in five years."

Along with Pacific Plaza, Parks for Downtown Dallas is finalizing plans for the 5.6-acre Carpenter Park on the eastern edge of the central business district. And near the Farmers Market, designs are almost complete for the 3.8-acre Harwood Park.

A three-quarter-acre park on Market Street in the heart of the West End district is still in the conceptual stages.

Altogether, the new downtown parks will cost almost $70 million and will total almost three times the size of Klyde Warren Park, which opened in 2012.

Half the funding for the new downtown parks will come from Decherd's Parks for Downtown Dallas, with the city providing the rest of the money.

But Decherd, former chief executive of The Dallas Morning News' parent company, A. H. Belo Corporation, said park advocates are also counting on donations to help fund operations and maintenance of the new public spaces.

Naming rights for two of the largest parks — Pacific Plaza and Harwood Park — will be sold for $10 million each, Decherd said.

"For that $10 million, their name goes on the park and the end result creates a $10 million endowment," he said. "Our agreement with the park department is that we will raise money in the private sector. Ten million for the name of one of these parks is a pretty good deal."

Naming rights for the West End park will be $5 million. The family of businessman John W. Carpenter already pledged $3 million to have that park named in his honor.

The group also plans to offer corporate sponsorships and naming rights for a limited number of features in each park.

"We are not going to have a name on everything," Decherd said.

It's similar to the model Klyde Warren Park used to help fund construction and maintain the popular park that links downtown and Uptown Dallas. Dallas billionaire oilman Kelcy Warren gave an undisclosed multimillion-dollar gift to name the park after his son.

For $10 million you can name Pacific Plaza park will open in 2019. (Parks for Downtown Dallas)

"People historically have given to medicine, education and the arts," Decherd said. "Their giving portfolios do not often include multimillion-dollar gifts to park."

Parks for Downtown Dallas hopes to change that with its fundraising campaign. The payoff for the city will be more new open space and recreational facilities.

Construction of downtown's three major parks — Klyde Warren, Belo Garden (2012) and Main Street Garden (2009) -- has proved the ability of such projects to raise property values and lure people back to the city center.

"It's an incredible engine — there is no leverage like that," Decherd said. "Go ask how much revenue you are getting off the commercial properties along Klyde Warren Park and Main Street Garden."

In five years since Klyde Warren Park opened, developers and investors have added almost 2 million square feet of offices and 1,500 apartments and condos in the area around the park, according to a recent study by commercial property firm JLL.

"While it is impossible to split out Klyde Warren's impact from the improvement in our overall economy since the downturn, it is clear that the park has re-energized our urban core," JLL research manager Walter Bialas said in the report. "One important takeaway from our retrospective is the increase in the level of newly occupied office space around the park.

"Overall, the higher occupancy in the existing buildings and the new development have resulted in an estimated 7,000 new daytime workers in the area," Bialas said. "Besides enlivening our downtown, these workers patronize restaurants and bars and local businesses — making for a better and more vibrant downtown for us all."

Plans for Pacific Plaza were a driver in the recent redevelopment of the One Dallas Center high-rise on Bryan Street into office and residential space. And the pending park project was a factor in investor John Kirtland's renovation of the Corrigan Tower, which now houses 150 apartments overlooking the site.

Developer Shawn Todd, who remodeled One Dallas Center, said the Harwood Park plans helped motivate him to buy almost two dozen properties in the neighborhood to be repurposed for new offices, retail and construction.

"What all the parks will do will be one of the most transformational things for the city," Todd said. "It will raise values all the way around."

Cushman & Wakefield executive vice president Mike Wyatt said downtown parks make it easier to sell the central business district to office tenants and apartment renters.

"It animates our city and keeps a heartbeat here," Wyatt said. "It's real and authentic and brings people downtown to use the park. Before, people would come to work and drive home. Now they are coming down here to use the parks."

Pacific Plaza, which breaks ground April 17, will take about 18 months to build.

"Carpenter Park is breaking ground as soon as we finalize the boundaries" with the city and DART, Decherd said. "Harwood Park naturally will be the next one. We hope to be under construction by 2020."