“Veteran Attractions exec Chris Lyons to help launch Halperin Park”
Chris Lyons has been in the attractions business for 30 years and is now stepping into the role as chief operating officer of the Southern Gateway Public Green Foundation.
Lyons will be responsible for the day-to-day operations of Halperin Park (formerly known as Southern Gateway Park), the five-acre landmark bridge park slated to open in 2026 over Interstate 35E in Southern Dallas. The park received a $23 million contribution from the Halperin Foundation in September for the naming rights.
“This role ties directly to my background,” Lyons says. “Some reference calls came in and said, ‘Hey, you should check out what’s going on with this deck park in Dallas.’ And I did and ended up meeting April (Allen), and everything lined up to come back to Texas and leave the Middle East. You know, I liked Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and I like the Middle East. It’s different, but it’s just too far.”
Lyons has worked with some of the world’s most renowned brands in hospitality, zoos, parks and attractions, including the Houston Zoo and Waldorf Astoria Hotels and Resorts. He joins the Southern Gateway Public Green Foundation having recently served as chief operating officer from 2021-2025 for Worldwide Zoo Consultants in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, where he helped lead the creation, development and management of modern zoological parks, public aquariums and living museums.
“I fell in love with it,” Lyons says. “I liked being outside, moving around and having different things pop up every day, and that’s sort of what led me into operations and just having that fix-it approach, putting out fires and solving problems.”
He knew he wanted to be closer to home after being in Abu Dhabi, and the Halperin Park project provided the perfect opportunity given his background and experience.
The five-acre Halperin Park will be a key catalyst for closing the opportunity gap created when the highway was originally built in the 1950s through the middle of Oak Cliff.
When Interstate 35E was built, it disconnected communities from Downtown Dallas and bulldozed homes belonging to people of color. The new park is seen as a bridge between neighborhoods in Oak Cliff, and its impact will also likely be felt at the Tenth Street Historic District, one of the only remaining intact Freedmen’s Towns in the nation.
Some are wary of the development, according to Texas Monthly, as several Tenth Street residents worry the park will not benefit them but the people who build homes, apartments and restaurants.
They worry that the park will spur speculative land investments and new developments that will push up property values near the park and price out existing residents who can’t afford to pay higher property taxes.
The park is a public/private partnership with the City of Dallas and the Southern Gateway Public Green Foundation, and it has support at the regional, state and federal level.
Once open, the park will attract an estimated 2 million visitors annually and generate more than $1 billion in economic impact in its first five years. In addition to native landscape and green space, park amenities will include: a stage and pavilion for concerts and live events, an inclusive children’s playground, outdoor classroom space, a multi-purpose building for dining and community events, integrated history exhibits, a dedicated food truck area, interactive water features and more. Together with the Dallas Zoo’s Master Plan, the collective capital investment will exceed $250 million, the largest investment in Southern Dallas’ history.
The team that’s working on the project now are fundraisers and planners, and they needed someone to come aboard who understands how a park like Halperin works once it is up and running with people in it, Lyons says.
“I think that’s the biggest thing that I bring to the table,” Lyons says. “You build a certain level of instinct over 30 years. And when you see mistakes, you learn from them, and you see how guests and crowds behave, you can plan for that then in projects like this. We’ve taken lessons learned from Klyde Warren, lessons learned from my background, and hopefully apply them here and have minimal hiccups.”
Klyde Warren Park, a 5-acre park located over Woodall Rodgers Freeway in Downtown Dallas, was named one of the best parks in the country with its designated spaces for kids and dogs, spots to play board games, or host events and live music performances. Food trucks line the park during the day as well.
Halperin Park, unlike Klyde Warren, will feature a turnaround lane. It can also accommodate food trucks or blood drive trucks.
“We’re going to provide a job base here so people that have perhaps no opportunity to go out and get hospitality skills or park skills, which I didn’t have coming out of college, and get hands-on experience,” Lyons says. “We’ll have that here, and people will be able to come here and create a base level of skill for their career that they can then take on the bigger and better things later.”
The park’s primary goal is to provide a space where people can gather.
“The biggest thing is obviously reconnecting Oak Cliff and providing a world class park here right in Oak Cliff that can be a regional destination,” Lyons says. “This park is built by the community and for the community.”