Millions of visitors come to the Fort Worth Stockyards each year, and leaders say one of the area’s biggest challenges is keeping up with parking demand.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, owners of M.L. Leddy’s broke ground on a new $14 million parking garage that will be open to the public. The project is expected to add nearly 250 parking spaces, increasing parking capacity in the area by 32%.<\/p>\n
Wilson Franklin, owner of M.L. Leddy’s, said the project is intended to serve both customers and the broader Stockyards community.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be part of the stockyards fabric means carrying forward a tradition of service and genuine Western hospitality,\u201d Franklin said.<\/p>\n
Fort Worth Mayor Pro Tem Carlos Flores said the garage was identified as a need through a 2023 study focused on the district.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you see it, it’s not gonna look like a parking garage, it’s going to look like something that fits, that is complementary to this district,\u201d Flores said.<\/p>\n
Flores said improving parking and reducing congestion benefits not only visitors but also residents who live near the Stockyards.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Stockyards, you know, gave rise to the neighborhoods around us. And they’re still here, and they’re residents here. If congestion is a problem in the Stockyards, it’s going to affect those neighbors,\u201d Flores said.<\/p>\n
While construction on the parking garage is moving forward, not every Stockyards development is on schedule.<\/p>\n
In August, Stockyards Heritage Development Company announced it was pausing plans to develop roughly 20 acres after reviewing market conditions. The proposed billion-dollar project included hotels, restaurants and retail space.<\/p>\n
Paul Paine, president of Fort Worth Stockyards Inc., said he believes the project will eventually resume.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like to say that it’s a halt because that’s what I’ve been told from Heritage,\u201d Paine said.<\/p>\n
Paine said he remains optimistic about continued development in the district, pointing to other proposals, including a planned multi-million-dollar hotel resort.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m not worried. Development is going to continue,\u201d Paine said.<\/p>\n
According to Paine, the Stockyards gains nearly 1 million visitors each year, a trend he believes will continue to attract investment.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne thing I’ve learned, money likes money, and the stockyards is growing very, very well and fast,\u201d Paine said.<\/p>\n
This story was originally reported for broadcast by NBC DFW. AI tools helped convert the story into a digital article, and an NBC DFW journalist edited it again before publication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Millions of visitors come to the Fort Worth Stockyards each year, and leaders say one of the area’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":460838,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-460837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}