Todd Interests to pursue Fairfield Lake development despite state’s plan to seize land
Dallas developer Shawn Todd said he has no plans to halt work on his planned development on the Fairfield Lake State Park land, even as the state of Texas moves forward with eminent domain to seize the property.
“We’ve not paused anything with respect to the property that we own,” Todd said in a Thursday interview, adding that his firm hasn’t received a formal offer from the state.
Todd Interests called a press event earlier Thursday in its Dallas office building, several days after the state Parks and Wildlife Commission unanimously voted to move forward with eminent domain on the 5,000-acre property that the development firm recently purchased.
At that press event, attorney Monica Latin — a managing partner at the Dallas-based firm Carrington Coleman — said that Todd Interests retained her in the Fairfield situation. Her brief statement did not include any specifics on legal plans, and she took no questions after her statement.
Eminent domain experts have told the Star-Telegram that Todd can fight with the state on how much they pay him for his property, but that he doesn’t seem to have legal standing to fight the seizure of his land.
Jim Bradbury, an Austin-based attorney who specializes in representing landowners in eminent domain cases, said that Todd and his attorney can try to argue that the state can’t take the property. Bradbury doesn’t see a legal path to making that argument, although he added that he isn’t privy to all the facts of the case.
“They may have some fact that they think makes an argument there,” Bradbury said. “But just from my vantage point, it’s hard for me to see.”
Following Latin’s statement Thursday morning, Todd sat with several news reporters and briefly answered questions about the situation.
Both Latin and Todd lambasted Parks and Wildlife officials for failing to acquire the property before Todd Interests stepped in. Todd said that the Parks and Wildlife Commission specifically has been acting like “Russian oligarchy” in its moves to seize his land.
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission voted Saturday to move forward with eminent domain on Todd’s 5,000-acre property, which includes the 1,800-acre Fairfield Lake State Park about 90 minutes southeast of Dallas.
Todd Interests purchased the property in early June from energy company Vistra, which had allowed the state to lease the park acreage for about five decades. Todd Interests plans to transform the entire property into “a luxury lake and golf enclave” gated community. Several Parks and Wildlife commissioners on Saturday pleaded with Todd to pause any demolition plans on the property, pending the state’s eminent domain action.
In Thursday’s interview, Todd wouldn’t directly say whether his firm has upcoming demolition plans. But he did say that his firm is moving forward with the development as planned.
“We’ve received no formal notice from the state of Texas (regarding) eminent domain,” Todd said. He said that the firm has not demolished anything on the property since it purchased the land on June 1, but that “we are fully entitled to do with our property what we choose to do.”
Bradbury, the eminent domain attorney, said that Todd Interests still has full ownership rights of the property and will continue to have those rights until a specially appointed commission enters a ruling on the value of the property. And that ruling is still several steps away at this point.
The chairman of the Parks and Wildlife Commission, Arch “Beaver” Aplin III, told the Star-Telegram on Wednesday evening that it would be “horrific” if Todd Interests moved forward with any demolition plans, even while he acknowledged the legality.
“Right now they’re his assets, but when this is finished, we’re doing it to save a park,” Aplin said.
When asked about legal plans, Todd replied that if the state moved forward with eminent domain, it would be “presumptuous” and a display of the “arrogance” of the Parks and Wildlife commissioners.
He worried about the precedent that the state’s seizure of his property would set in the state, despite Parks and Wildlife commissioners’ promise that this was a one-off situation.
How we got here
The eminent domain vote, and Todd Interests’ retention of an attorney, are the latest twists in a saga that’s played out publicly since January, although it traces its roots to many years earlier.
Fairfield Lake State Park sat on leased land for about five decades. The former landowner, power company Vistra Corp., allowed the state to lease the land at no charge while the company operated a power plant on the adjacent property.
But in 2018, Vistra decommissioned the plant and began preparations to sell the property. The state had informal conversations about purchasing just the state park portion of the 5,000 acres, but Vistra wasn’t open to that idea, so the state never made a formal offer on the land.
Then, in 2022, Todd Interests entered into a contract to buy the full property, which had been listed for $110.5 million. The firm made clear that its plans for the property did not include a continuation of the state park lease.
In the months that followed, state officials attempted to stop Todd Interests’ purchase through formal and informal offers to buy the property, then through legislative action. Both avenues failed.
Since the end of the legislative session, the chairman of the Parks and Wildlife Commission, Arch “Beaver” Aplin III, made one last offer. According to documents obtained by the Star-Telegram, Aplin offered Todd Interests $25 million to walk away from the deal. Todd told the Star-Telegram in an interview that this number was more than the firm had spent on the property at the time. Todd Interests then countered at $30 million but, according to emails obtained by the Star-Telegram, a Parks and Wildlife attorney said the deadlines in Todd Interests’ counteroffer did not permit the state enough time to respond.
Aplin then also offered Vistra $95 million to purchase the property, although that offer would only have come into play if Todd Interests had walked away from its contract or if the contract had fallen through. Neither of those happened, and Todd Interests became the owner of the property on June 1. The state then closed the gates of the park several days later, in preparation for fully vacating the property by the lease end date on June 13.
With Todd publicly saying that he had every intent to move forward with his high-end development on the property, the state made one last move.
On June 10, the Parks and Wildlife Commission gave the go-ahead for the Department to move forward with eminent domain proceedings, although commissioners made the caveat that this was an unusual situation.
This property falls clearly within the scope of Texas’ eminent domain laws, according to Morriss, the A&M professor. He said earlier this week that Todd Interests doesn’t seem to have any way to hold onto the property, although he can try to get the state to pay him more for the property.
“The only thing he can argue with the state about is how much they have to pay him for the property,” Morriss said. “There’s no way he can stop them from taking the property.”
This story was originally published June 15, 2023 at 10:41 AM.
