Industry Noize: Gexa Energy Revitalization

The 26-year-old amphitheater is showing its age with different-colored and detached seats, outdated signage, and poor landscaping and parking.

“God almighty. It’s in bad shape,” Fair Park executive GM Daniel Huerta told the Dallas Morning News. LN’s cash infusion will update the Gexa Energy Pavilion cosmetically, but Huerta wondered if the venue is in need of a complete transformation to remain competitive in the region.

“It all looks late ’80s,” he said. “The place hasn’t changed since it was built.”

The city of Irving is reportedly about to break ground on a new entertainment complex that will feature an amphitheater and Plano recently hosted the Suburbia music festival at Oak Point Park featuring artists including David Guetta, Alabama Shakes, and Oak Point Park.

“In a few years they may say, ‘Let’s do our own amphitheater and lure Live Nation to run that one,’ and then this is left empty,” Huerta continued. “The fact it’s one of the few of its kind built near the downtown core is a big plus for Dallas. And it’s next to the DART station. It’s positioned rather well, and it adds to the mix of Fair Park.”

In return for funding the upgrades, LN will have $500,000 taken off its rent each year for the life of the lease, which expires in 2028, the Morning News said, and a 20-cent per ticket fee will go to the South Dallas/Fair Park Trust Fund.

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