Klyde Warren Park’s expansion, which includes a 1.7-acre deck to the west of the property, is anticipated to begin next year.
For the deck, construction costs have doubled from $65 million to $121 million since the time the expanded amenities were envisioned amid high goods and services costs. The Dallas Park Board will vote in December to approve a measure increasing the city’s contribution to the deck project, which also has funding from the state and federal government, as well as the North Central Texas Council of Governments.
The new deck will extend the existing 5.4-acre park and fill the gap between North St. Paul and North Akard streets. On top of it will sit a multi-story, spiraling building with two levels for events and a third level housing a roof terrace.
Kit Sawers, president and CEO of the nonprofit overseeing the park, said the goal is to open and accept bids for the project early summer next year. The Texas Department of Transportation will oversee the contractors, and officials hope the project will be completed by 2029.
Political Points
The park opened in 2012 and has long been viewed as a monumental project that stitched two parts of the city cleaved apart by Woodall Rogers Freeway and became the epicenter of growth, branching out into the Arts District, Uptown and the Harwood District, among others. The park sees 1.3 million visitors every year, and the expansion could increase free events by 30%, Jody Grant, chairman of the Woodall Rodgers Park Foundation, told The Dallas Morning News last year.
The expansion was expected to take shape in 2020, but the pandemic and expensive bids delayed the project. The project got a $6.5 million boost through last year’s $1.25 bond package. Prior to that, the city allocated $10 million from the 2017 bond program.