The I-35 Southern Gateway Deck Park is celebrating what Park and Recreation officials describe as “one of the largest gifts” ever given to the city’s parks, thanks to Jim Halperin, co-founder of Heritage Auctions.
The $23 million donation was announced during Thursday’s parks meeting by April Allen, president and COO of the Southern Gateway Public Green Foundation, who described receiving the funds as a “moment she has prayed for.” The deal between Allen’s foundation and the James and Gayle Halperin Foundation was configured over the last year, resulting in the naming of the deck park after the Halperins.
“Over the past year, we've gotten to know [Jim and Gayle Halperin], they've gotten to know us and know more about the work that we're doing. And I love that they have this kind of entrepreneurial success story which tells the story of what's possible in Texas and in Dallas,” Allen told the Observer. “I think that Oak Cliff has such a can-do, will-do spirit. I feel like the ethos of all of that meshes really well.”
It appears inflation’s latest victim is the price tag on deck park naming rights. When Kelcy Warren purchased the naming rights of the now-beloved Klyde Warren Park in 2012, he paid $10 million.
Like Klyde Warren Park, the now-named Halperin Park will clock in at five and a half acres above Interstate 35 between Ewing and Marsalis avenues, next to the Dallas Zoo. The deck park is being built in two phases, and Allen said the Halperin’s donation will complete funding for the park’s first, $100 million phase, while ensuring construction is able to stay on track for an early 2026 opening.
Halperin Park has been touted as an opportunity to heal a neighborhood divide in southern Dallas that was cleaved by the building of I-35 in the early ‘60s, splitting Oak Cliff. A statement from the Halperin Foundation said the donation to the park was “by far” the largest in the foundation’s history.
“[This donation] is profoundly meaningful to our family — and, more importantly, to a part of Dallas that has been overlooked and under-resourced for far too long,” the statement says. “This donation will serve many purposes: It will use green space to reconnect communities long ago separated by a highway. It will help create a destination park for all of Dallas. And, I hope, it will inspire future generations of Halperins to give back to the city that has given them so much.”
Although Halperin Park has been widely celebrated by city officials, some nearby neighborhoods — like the adjacent 10th Street Historic District, one of the country’s last remaining freedman’s towns — have expressed worries that the deck park bringing overdevelopment and gentrification. With the announcement of a new milestone for the park, Allen seemed to anticipate some neighborhood pushback, telling the park department that she “would not be asking for the name Halperin Park if she did not believe it.”
Allen added that other design elements of the park, such as a “walk of fame” honoring significant Oak Cliff residents throughout history, will be built to ensure the park reflects the neighborhood it claims to bridge.
The naming was met with some opposition, chiefly led by Park Board member Harrison Blair, whose district spans the eastern side of the park, including 10th Street. Motioning to delay the naming vote by a week, Blair was frustrated by the idea that anyone could “put their name on the park and erase our identity.”
He added that with final terms of the deal between foundations being made only last week, the board had not had time to review the contract being offered to the Halperins and had not had time to review the suggested park name with constituents.
“If naming rights don’t matter, why did we take the statue out of Lee Park and rename it?” Blair asked the board. “I can’t vote on something that I can’t stand 10 toes down on. … There is something in that deal that is not good.”
Blair’s motion to delay the vote ultimately failed, with other parks officials expressing concern over “micromanaging a foundation.”
Allen added that the name “Southern Gateway” was always intended to be a placeholder name for the park. They were always just waiting for the right name to come along.
“The park isn't just about bricks and mortar and playgrounds and the pavilion,” Allen said. “It's about restoring our community that was divided when the freeway was built, and I know that that really spoke to [the Halperins].”
