A plan to put the operation and management of Fair Park into private hands and spare it from decades of decline has cost Dallas years of arguing and months of hard consideration.

But, at last, City Hall appears to have picked a winner to run the park on a day-to-day basis and, hopefully, bring people and their money to South Dallas year-round.

It’s not a done deal, though. Both the Park Board and the City Council must approve the plan, and plenty of debate remains.

The winning bidder is a group that includes the nonprofit Fair Park First and Spectra, a Comcast-owned food-and-entertainment company that manages 319 properties around the country.

Their proposal was one of three submitted to the city last year by groups hoping to get the keys to Fair Park and its expansive collection of crumbling but treasured art deco buildings.

1 / 3The Hall of State building inside Fair Park in Dallas, on Thursday morning, July 26, 2018. (Ben Torres / Special Contributor) 2 / 3Cracked walls on the Creative Arts Shows Place Theatre inside Fair Park in Dallas on Thursday morning, July 26, 2018. (Ben Torres / Special Contributor) 3 / 3Bird feces covers cement outside the main entrance to the Creative Arts Shows Place Theatre inside Fair Park in Dallas on Thursday morning, July 26, 2018..(Ben Torres / Special Contributor)

The park’s 277 acres, including buildings constructed for the Texas Centennial Exposition and the Cotton Bowl, will remain the city’s property under the plan. But all operations and revenues will be managed by Spectra and Fair Park First. The group promises, in return, to save the city $100 million over the next 10 years.

To city management, this is the best deal they’ve been offered, but Mayor Mike Rawlings said he wants to make sure that the park remains the priority.

“The lens I am looking at this through is the vision of putting the park back into Fair Park. That’s what everybody signed up to do, and that’s what we’ve got to do to take it to the next level,” he said. “To do that, it’s going to take the right people, and so understanding who those people are and their capabilities to raise the millions needed and manage that process are where I will be spending my time.”

The decision on the winning proposal comes two years after Rawlings asked Walt Humann, a former Hunt Oil Co. chairman and CEO, to help privatize the park and take over managing the massive property. At the time, it appeared no one else was interested in the job.

Several council members expressed concern that other options for the park’s future weren’t being considered and that Humann’s plan would cost the city too much money. At that point, the city opened the process to competing bids.

Humann's plan, one of the three submitted to the city, requested $11.9 million to run the park for the first year. The other plan, submitted by Oak Cliff developer Monte Anderson, asked for $10.9 million from the city.

Spectra and Fair Park First say they will need $34.5 million from the city over 10 years, starting with just $4.5 million in the first year. The city currently shells out more than $15 million a year for the park’s operations, and upkeep and finances weighed the heaviest in picking the winning bid.

If the proposal is approved, Spectra will bring decades of international venue management experience to Fair Park, city officials said. The company currently works with 22 different fairgrounds and agricultural centers and has never had a contract terminated.

"I think it’s the right team," said Willis Winters, director of the city’s Park and Recreation Department and a leading historian on Fair Park. "We will not have another opportunity to contract with this kind of experience in a generation. This is a once-in-a-generation deal."

Spectra’s bid would give the company 20 years of management control over Fair Park. The City Council would have the power to approve the funding of an annual appropriation to the park, although that would be millions less per year than what the city currently spends.

1 / 3The Band Shell inside Fair Park in Dallas on Thursday morning, July 26, 2018. (Ben Torres / Special Contributor) 2 / 3The sealed and closed Midway at the State Fair of Texas inside Fair Park in Dallas on Thursday morning, July 26, 2018. (Ben Torres / Special Contributor) 3 / 3The State Fair of Texas ferris wheel seen from the Band Shell inside Fair Park in Dallas, on Thursday morning, July 26, 2018. (Ben Torres / Special Contributor)

Fair Park First and its nine-person board will be responsible for community outreach, fundraising, historic preservation and overseeing Spectra’s management and operations of the park.

The nonprofit’s board includes many well-known names, including former council member and preservationist Veletta Lill; the Rev. Donald Parish, pastor of True Lee Missionary Baptist Church; Arcilia Acosta, chief executive of CARCON Industries; and Dan Biederman, a park development expert involved in the planning of Klyde Warren Park.

Spectra and Fair Park First’s goals for the often-empty park include increasing overall activity and attendance, building world-class gardens, involving the surrounding community and enhancing the park’s status as a national historic landmark.

The proposal also includes a list of terms and conditions negotiated by the city. A neighborhood park must be built. Fair Park First must report to the Park Board quarterly for the first two years. The nonprofit must establish a program to use local minority businesses in procurements and sponsorships. And it must recruit and hire employees from South Dallas and adjacent areas.

Fair Park First and Spectra also acknowledged that they will be subject to open records and agreed to conduct public meetings.

Longtime residents of the surrounding neighborhood likely won't be quick to embrace the plan. South Dallas, the neighborhood where Fair Park is located, has endured a history of displacement and unfulfilled promises connected to the park and its most prominent tenant, the State Fair of Texas.

Anna Hill, president of the Dolphin Heights Neighborhood Association, said she already knew who won: Parish called her recently and invited her to an upcoming community meeting about Fair Park. But, she said Friday, he never mentioned anything about his involvement with Fair Park First.

"Like I'm dumb and don't know what's going on," she said. "I might go to the meeting and raise hell."

Bobby Abtahi, president of the Park Board, said he expects pushback against the proposal, which goes before the board Thursday. Representatives from Fair Park First and Spectra will be at the meeting.

As for when Fair Park First and Spectra could finally get the keys to the park? It’s going to be a while, Abtahi said.

“We’re at inning three of this nine-inning game. Innings three through six will be at the Park Board, innings six through nine will be at the council.”

Kevin Felder, the council member whose district includes Fair Park, was deeply enthusiastic when reached Friday night. He said the city staffers who vetted the contract "made the right choice," especially when it came to Spectra and Biederman, who he said would deliver a park on par with Klyde Warren.

"It was a no-brainer as far as I was concerned," he said of Spectra. "It's a win for the city of Dallas, finally. We've got a recognizable and credible operator. I am excited about it. For the first year we're going to work out some of the bugs, but eventually it will spread out in to the community. More and more developers will want to develop in Fair Park, then more and more people will want to live around Fair Park."

Several other council members didn't want to comment until they had read the briefing.

Tennell Atkins, who represents southeast Dallas, was actually on the council when then-City Manager Mary Suhm first proposed turning over Fair Park to a private operator in 2010. He was all for it then, as it would have saved the city millions of dollars during an enormous budget shortfall. But now, he said Friday evening, it's far too early to commit to the contract -- especially since he wasn't on the council when the request for proposals was issued almost two years ago.

"There are pluses, there are negatives to privatizing," he said. "I am going to look at it with an open mind and see what's going on."

Although the current schedule indicates that the Park Board will vote on the proposal by Aug. 16, Abtahi plans to take as much time as necessary to address the many questions that need answering before a vote, he said. And it’s too early, he added, to tell what hang-ups could come once the decision falls to the City Council.