The development team overseeing the Stockyards’ splashiest recent bets is gearing up for another. Majestic Realty, co-developer of Mule Alley and the Hotel Drover, is sketching out a significant redo of the century-old Stockyards Hotel, a property that has long traded on its Old West lore but hasn’t seen a full refresh in decades.
The first hints surfaced last year, when Fort Worth Heritage Development — Majestic’s partnership with the Hickman family — filed plans for a $20 million renovation of the 50-key hotel at 109 East Exchange Avenue, a gateway spot near the district’s western entrance, the Dallas Business Journal reported. New filings in mid-November offer a closer look, according to Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation records. Majestic submitted permits to remodel the building and add new outdoor structures, including a 990-square-foot rear canopy, and a 1,344-square-foot front canopy that would help reposition the hotel’s street presence.
Another filing with TDLR pegs the canopy work and deck replacement at about $1.5 million. A separate $1.6 million permit covers upgrades to H3 Ranch and Booger Red’s Saloon — the hotel’s wood-smoked anchor and its adjoining bar — with new kitchen equipment, lighting and mechanical systems on deck. The filings list Dallas-based Nunzio Marc DeSantis Architects, a hospitality specialist with a long resume in luxury design, as the architect of record. Work is tentatively slated to begin in January 2026.
Majestic confirmed the filings, but cautioned that the project isn’t locked in. Rick Kline, who oversees Stockyards operations for the firm, said the company remains “early in the planning process” and declined to elaborate on scope or timeline.
The property’s bones are historic, if not pristine. Built in 1907, the Stockyards Hotel has hosted outlaws, crooners and cattle barons, and today advertises 42 rooms and 10 suites priced from about $129 a night to $649 a night. Its last major overhaul came in the early 1980s, when local businessmen reopened it after a top-to-bottom renovation.
The latest effort comes as Majestic navigates leadership shake-ups and a legal battle with former executive Craig Cavileer, whose ownership stakes across several Stockyards properties were auctioned in May. The firm has said the district pulls roughly 9 million visitors a year, but its broader 300,000-square-foot expansion plan remains unresolved, in part because an economic development deal with the city has yet to be finalized.
— Eric Weilbacher
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