Fairfield Lake park’s sale to developer final, despite state’s last-minute $95M offer
Fairfield Lake State Park and the surrounding property is now officially in the hands of a Dallas-based developer.
The land has been under contract with development firm Todd Interests, which intends to transform the property into a gated community.
Both Shawn Todd, the founder of Todd Interests, and a spokesperson for Vistra Corp., which sold the property, told the Star-Telegram on Tuesday afternoon that the deal closed. Todd said the sale was finalized on June 1.
On that same day, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department offered Vistra Corp. to purchase Fairfield Lake State Park and surrounding property for $95 million. In a letter dated June 1, the department told Vistra it was prepared to offer the $95 million for the 5,000 acres, and close by the end of July.
The state has leased the park land for about five decades while Vistra owned the property. But Todd Interests is not carrying through that lease. As the sale date approached, the state at the end of May also offered Todd Interests $25 million to walk away from the purchase.
The $95 million offer, made days later to Vistra, was meant to come into play if Todd Interests didn’t close on its purchase or if the firm agreed to sell the contract rights to the state, according to Parks and Wildlife Commission Chairman Arch Aplin III.
Todd Interests did neither of those things, and instead moved forward with the purchase of the property. The state’s lease on the park land ends on June 13.
Vistra and Todd Interests have not publicly disclosed their contract’s sale price, but the land about 90 minutes southeast of Dallas had been listed for $110 million.
With the sale now final and the lease end date approaching, he state closed the park earlier this week. But state officials are still pursuing one option to obtaining the land: eminent domain. The commission is slated to discuss authorizing the use of eminent domain to take back the lane in a specially called June 10 meeting.
Todd has lambasted the state in recent weeks, alluding to costly legal action and accusing Parks and Wildlife officials of not being fully honest.
On Tuesday, Todd made it clear he doesn’t intend to back down or walk away from the property.
He and his sons, who are partners in the development firm, denounced the state’s consideration of eminent domain and the state’s overall reaction to the land sale.
In a statement to the Star-Telegram, the Todds emphasized that the Park and Wildlife Department didn’t make a formal offer on the property until Todd Interests was already moving to purchase the land. They also accused state officials of “interference” and “efforts of sabotage.”
“Is this how you fulfill Governor Abbott’s promise that ‘Texas is wide open for business’? As a family-owned, Texas-based business and longtime supporters of our state’s pro-business policies, we sincerely hope not,” the statement said.
The Todds’ statement also warned of a “national precedent” that the Parks and Wildlife Commission would be setting if it moved to condemn and take back the lake property.
“A state once considered the vanguard of private property rights would now take from its citizens and diminish the rights of sellers, buyers, and private-property owners of every order,” the Todds’ statement said.
The Todds also received a letter in late May from the state Attorney General’s Office that directed the firm to “preserve evidence” — which the Todds labeled as “an effort of intimidation” and “simply theatrics for the media.”
Until recent weeks, the Todds have largely stayed out of the public debate surrounding the Fairfield Lake property. Todd and representatives of his firm did appear in front of the state legislature during the regular session, however, when state lawmakers were considering ways to halt or slow the sale of the land.
