{"id":651737,"date":"2026-03-13T03:17:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T03:17:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/651737\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T03:17:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T03:17:18","slug":"dallas-officials-feared-wfaa-tv-would-leave-downtown-over-parking-dispute-emails-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/651737\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas officials feared WFAA-TV would leave downtown over parking dispute, emails show"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dallas officials feared WFAA-TV (Channel 8) might leave downtown <\/b>after the city sought<\/a> to take the station\u2019s parking lot for the expansion of the nearby convention center<\/a>, according to internal city emails. <\/p>\n

Messages from last fall and this year reviewed by The Dallas Morning News show officials worried that losing the parking lot could cause the longtime broadcaster to relocate from its Young Street newsroom, and potentially out of the city. <\/p>\n

A spokesperson for WFAA did not respond to a phone call or emailed questions this week about the station\u2019s parking plans and whether it will remain at its Young Street location. WFAA general manager Carolyn Mungo could not be immediately reached for comment.<\/p>\n

The Young Street studios house one of the last major television newsrooms still in downtown Dallas, a presence the city has long viewed as important to the area\u2019s civic and business core. <\/p>\n

News Roundups<\/p>\n

Catch up on the day’s news you need to know.<\/p>\n

By signing up, you agree to our\u00a0Terms of Service<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n

In September, city attorneys sued Charter DMN Holdings<\/a>, owned by developer Ray Washburne, as they aimed to use eminent domain to seize his roughly 36,000 square feet of land around Young and Houston streets for the overhaul of the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center. The parcel included Channel 8\u2019s parking lot. The station was also named as a defendant in the case. <\/p>\n

The city wrote in its lawsuit that its previous offers to buy the land had been rejected. Washburne had indicated he\u2019d be open to a sale, but told The News the property was tied to an existing ground lease with Channel 8. <\/p>\n

Amid the legal wrangling, city officials were scrambling to keep the station downtown, according to the emails reviewed by The News. <\/p>\n

Linda McMahon, CEO of the city-affiliated Economic Development Corp., wrote city officials Sept. 12, saying the eminent domain case \u201ccould effectively push WFAA out of the city.\u201d The message was sent to City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert; Tolbert\u2019s chief of staff, Ahmad Goree; and assistant city manager Robin Bentley. <\/p>\n

In an email two months later, McMahon wrote that EDC board member Chris Heinbaugh had heard from Mungo that without parking, the station\u2019s \u201creal estate people are looking elsewhere to move them.\u201d<\/p>\n

McMahon later met with Mungo for lunch on Jan. 8. Before that, McMahon asked Bentley for an update.<\/p>\n

\u201cSlow progress is happening,\u201d Bentley replied, noting the city\u2019s attorneys were negotiating with WFAA\u2019s legal team on what she described as a \u201cfriendly transaction,\u201d even as the eminent domain case continued.<\/p>\n

After the lunch, McMahon said the conversation had been encouraging but acknowledged the parking challenge. <\/p>\n

\u201cObviously losing their parking is a major blow and finding space in Dallas with 250 parking spaces is challenging,\u201d she wrote. \u201cCarolyn really wants to be in downtown and is trying to find the right space.\u201d<\/p>\n

The next day, Tolbert urged city staff to quickly resolve the matter.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to get the WFAA issue resolved ASAP! I have heard that our dates are tight with no room for slippage on remaining land items,\u201d she wrote to Bentley.<\/p>\n

Bentley responded that negotiations appeared to be moving toward a deal and that the city attorney\u2019s office was leading the talks. \u201cWe are ok as long as we close by March,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n

A resolution appeared to come in February, when the Dallas City Council approved spending<\/a> $11.3 million to settle the lawsuit and gain the land. Washburne told The News last month he had sold the land to the station before the settlement, and the station confirmed the deal. <\/p>\n

McMahon told The News in a Wednesday email she does not know whether the city\u2019s agreement resolved the parking matter, but that she advocated for the station to stay because \u201cthey are an important part of the city.\u201d <\/p>\n

A Channel 8 exit, if it were to happen, would mark the latest setback to the city\u2019s efforts to keep businesses in downtown Dallas. In recent years, a wave of corporations have announced they\u2019re relocating from downtown to areas including Uptown, northern Dallas and the northern suburbs. Telecom giant AT&T<\/a> aims to shift its headquarters to Plano by 2028. And Fox 4 is planning to leave downtown after more than 75 years and relocate by mid-2026 to a new studio in Irving. <\/p>\n

WFAA has largely been based out of Young Street since 1961, though it also had a studio in Victory Park<\/a> between 2007 and 2021. Its parent company, Tegna, is being acquired by media behemoth Nexstar, which has offices in Irving. <\/p>\n

Email trail<\/b><\/p>\n

The Dallas Morning News reviewed nearly 5,000 pages of emails exchanged over the past 12 months among city officials, consultants and others involved in a range of issues, including economic development downtown and debate over whether Dallas should repair City Hall or relocate government operations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dallas officials feared WFAA-TV (Channel 8) might leave downtown after the city sought to take the station\u2019s parking…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":651738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,1596,14841,14052,358,173,102941,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-651737","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-dallas-city-hall","11":"tag-downtown-dallas","12":"tag-texas","13":"tag-tv","14":"tag-tv-personalities","15":"tag-tx","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116219704107871779","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=651737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/651738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}