It’s a big deal for both parties: In a move toward revitalizing its business, the American Paint Horse Association plans to relocate to the Fort Worth Stockyards’ Horse & Mule Barns at East Exchange Avenue, giving developers a link to a key historical component during the Stockyards’ redevelopment.
Officials at the Fort Worth-based APHA say they plan to relocate their headquarters, 45-member staff and retail store in winter 2017-2018 from the organization’s home since 1999 – the Mercantile Center business/industrial park in northwest Fort Worth – to a south-end section of the Stockyards West Horse & Mule Barn.
A final contract lease agreement is still being negotiated with the owners of the West Horse & Mule Barns site, Fort Worth Heritage Development, LLC/Stockyards Station. But sources for both parties involved say they’re optimistic about reaching a deal by the end of summer.
The APHA proposal is the first of what’s expected to be a stream of forthcoming new tenants for the two 1912-vintage Horse & Mule Barns, which will be restored and upgraded in coming months.
“We have signed a letter of intent to sign a contract to move to the Stockyards,” said Billy L. Smith, executive director of the 50,000-member APHA, which has generations of quarter horse breeding roots dating to the early 1960s in Gainesville, Abilene and Amarillo. The APHA’s mission today, according to its website, is to “collect, record and preserve the pedigrees of American Paint Horses, and to stimulate and regulate all matters pertaining to the promotion, history, breeding and exhibition of this breed.”
Read the rest of the article from Worth Wren Jr. for Fort Worth Business by clicking here.
