If Napa wants an example of a private developer working with a community fair, it may lie in Madera.

The Madera fair board is wrapping up a lease with a retail developer that will funnel $1 million a year into new fair facilities.

The Newman Development Group will lease 28 acres for 63 years, building a Lowe’s and other stores. The fair will get at least $1 million a year, doubling its budget, said Scott Sample, fair manager.

The money will be used to upgrade the facilities used both at fair time and year-round by the community, Sample said. “Our buildings are old and dilapidated and falling apart,” he said.

Madera faced a budget problem similar to Napa’s, Sample said. Rental revenues and state support were not sufficient to make building and ground improvements.

Unlike the Napa fair with 31 acres, Madera has 110 acres, which meant the commercial lease would not squeeze out any fair operations, Sample said.

Lisa Drury, who works for the state Division of Fairs and Expositions, guided Madera through a lengthy bureaucratic process to get state approval for the long-term commercial lease.

“The fairs already have in statute the ability to do something with their land,” said Drury, who conceded that the red tape was “cumbersome.”

Madera is the first of the state’s 50 or so district fairs to successfully negotiate for a public-private venture of this type, Drury said. The process took the better part of this decade, but should serve as template for other fairs, she said.

The long gestation period could have killed many projects, she said. “It’s hard for a business to wait. In five years, the business climate can change,” she said.

Madera is fortunate that it owns highway frontage, bordered on two sides by commercial development including a Wal-Mart, Sample said. Developer interest remained strong throughout.

Cassandra Walker, Napa’s economic development manager, said Madera is proof that fairs can be entrepreneurial if there is the strong local political will to do so.

Sample said he helped recruit business-oriented community leaders who applied for a gubernatorial appointment to the fair board.

The idea of leasing land for stores was thoroughly aired at public hearings, with both the city and county giving support, Sample said. The project had critics, but there was substantial community agreement, he said.

At 31 acres, Napa Valley Exposition is a small fairgrounds — not much bigger than an “urban park,” Drury said.

Joe Anderson, the Expo’s CEO, said Napa needs at minimum eight acres devoted to fair attractions such as the carnival, with exhibits able to occupy multi-use buildings that serve other public purposes at non-fair times.