Halperin Foundation Commits $23 Million To ‘transformational’ Southern Dallas Deck Park

Over the years, we’ve written extensively about the remarkable results realized by Heritage Auctions. Today, I am delighted to share with you some extraordinarily good – and historic – news involving Heritage leadership for which an entire city is thankful.

Last week, Heritage Co-Founder and Co-Chairman Jim Halperin’s family foundation donated $23 million to the city of Dallas, which will go toward the completion and lifetime care of a long-awaited, desperately needed deck park next to the Dallas Zoo. Previously called Southern Gateway Park, the newly christened Halperin Park – funded by The Halperin Foundation, founded by Jim and wife Gayle – will serve to reconnect neighborhoods separated by a highway 65 years ago and become a destination park for the entire city.

“This city owes a debt of gratitude to Gayle and Jim Halperin,” The Dallas Morning News noted in an editorial published Saturday.

The Halperins’ donation is the largest ever made to a park in southern Dallas – and among the largest donations ever made to a Dallas park. Record results, indeed.

“Building a park like this one takes years of work,” the newspaper’s Editorial Board wrote. “It requires lasting partnership among government agencies and generous philanthropists like the Halperin family.”

The donation also unlocked an additional $7.5 million in challenge grants.

The Southern Gateway Public Green Foundation issued a media release last week, in which President and Chief Executive Officer April Allen said that she is “incredibly grateful for [the Halperins’] genuine commitment to our vision for Southern Dallas. I can’t think of a more fitting name for our future ‘park with a purpose.’”

Dallas media extensively covered the Halperins’ donation: Here you will find coverage from the ABC, NBC and CBS affiliates, as well as stories in The Dallas Morning News and D Magazine.

“This donation, by far the largest single gift in our foundation’s history, 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,” Halperin said. “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.”