{"id":473480,"date":"2026-10-22T15:18:50","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T15:18:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/473480\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T15:18:50","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T15:18:50","slug":"el-paso-deck-plaza-gains-major-donation-funding-indoor-sports-venue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/473480\/","title":{"rendered":"El Paso Deck Plaza gains major donation, funding indoor sports venue"},"content":{"rendered":"

The proposed Downtown I-10 Deck Plaza is getting another round of private funding, inching the project closer to reality.<\/p>\n

The Woody and Gayle Hunt Family Foundation announced a $10 million donation Tuesday, Oct. 20, which will fund the Woody and Gayle Hunt Family Field House, a 55,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility to host volleyball, basketball, and pickleball tournaments, as well as performing arts events.<\/p>\n

The announcement comes only one week after the Fred Loya family announced a $20 million donation<\/a> to the project, officially naming the massive Downtown park the Fred Loya Family Deck Plaza.<\/p>\n

\"Mayor<\/p>\n

Mayor Renard Johnson speaks at a news conference Tuesday, Oct. 20, where the Woody and Gayle Hunt Family Foundation announced a $10 million donation to fund the Woody and Gayle Hunt Family Field House set to be located at the Fred Loya Family Deck Plaza in Downtown El Paso.<\/p>\n

“The Deck Plaza will become where everyone is welcome and everyone belongs,” El Paso Mayor Renard Johnson said during a news conference at Southwest University Park announcing the donation. “And that’s what excites me most about this project.”<\/p>\n

“It gives us an opportunity to bring people together in a way we have not been able to do before,” he continued. “To connect neighborhoods, bring families together and create a beautiful public space that every El Pasoan can enjoy, no matter where they live or how much money they make. And I think that is something really special for our community.”<\/p>\n

The Deck Plaza project has so far secured $74.15 million in funding toward the $207 million needed for the project, including $10 million from the Texas Legislature with a $584,000 city match, $25 million from the El Paso Metropolitan Planning Organization, $3.15 million in federal Community Project Funding and $1 million from El Paso County.<\/p>\n

The project has also secured $35 million in private philanthropy, including the Hunt and Loya donations, and is expected to announce another $5 million donation soon.<\/p>\n

More: Study: El Paso’s proposed Deck Plaza could bring $1B in revenue, jobs, green space<\/a><\/p>\n

“The Deck Plaza, now officially named the Fred Loya Family Deck Plaza thanks to a generous gift from the Loya family, gives us the chance to transform a part of Downtown that has divided our community for generations into a place that connects us,” said Josh Hunt, Executive Vice Chairman and Vice President of Hunt Companies, Inc. “And as we’ve seen over the last several months, that vision is becoming a reality. I believe deeply in this project and what it can mean for El Paso.”<\/p>\n

The Deck Plaza, if ultimately approved, is set to stretch across 6.5 acres atop I-10 between Santa Fe and Kansas streets in Downtown El Paso. Among the amenities slated to be housed atop the Deck Plaza are a performance stage and pavilion for cultural events, concerts, and festivals; a metro-sport field house for activities like volleyball, basketball, and pickleball; a dog park and dog splash park; a children’s playground, walking and biking paths, greenspace and public art.<\/p>\n

The next requirement for the project to move forward is city approval of a plan to incorporate structural elements of the Deck Plaza, such as support columns, into the Texas Department of Transportation’s I-10 widening project. The plan was initially set for approval by the end of October.<\/p>\n

Adam Powell covers government and politics for the El Paso Times and can be reached via email at apowell@elpasotimes.com.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: El Paso Deck Plaza gains major donation, funding indoor sports venue<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The proposed Downtown I-10 Deck Plaza is getting another round of private funding, inching the project closer to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":473481,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[138,140,139],"class_list":["post-473480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-el-paso","tag-el-paso","tag-el-paso-headlines","tag-el-paso-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473480","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=473480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/473481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}