Residents near Arlington’s entertainment district have become accustomed to – if not irritated by – the changes the area has brought to their neighborhood.
Development at AT&T Stadium took away some residents’ beloved shops and restaurants. Traffic for events like games and concerts can make leaving or returning home a hassle when barricades go up and temporary no-parking signs go down.
After living in the area for 25 years on Roosevelt Street, Margaret Stamp would love to leave behind the game-day rituals of picking up beer bottles, dealing with traffic and contending with rowdy visitors.
“You know what? It’s getting to the point where, peace, I’m out. Buy me up. Let me go. You know, I’d like to spend the rest of the time I’ve got somewhere else, not across the street from AT&T Stadium,” Stamp said outside her home.
Across the street, Traci Hemminger owns six homes that she leases on a month-to-month basis. For over a decade, Hemminger has renovated, maintained and rented out homes on the street. However, over the years, she’s developed a greater plan for her property: develop it into upscale housing or an event venue that offers mixed-use and complements the entertainment district.
“It’s going to change the face of this neighborhood again,” Hemminger said. “It’s going to bring the concrete jungle this way. And, you know, as attached as I am to it, taking care of these houses, I’m ready to see progress.”
Hemminger completed a commercial real estate development program at Cornell University with the Cowboy Stadium Development as her main focus. Through the program, she can take her development to entitlements with the city for the development process of the property, she said.
Ideally, Hemminger would like to partner with somebody with equity interest in the deal and help guide the process.
“I really would like to still have a bit of ownership in it, but if it doesn’t work out that way, that’s fine,” Hemminger said. “You know, I just want to have a successful sale and bring something that caters to tourism here or something that caters to the Entertainment District Overlay.”
Hemminger said she’s received general support from her neighbors, some of whom she expects would move for the right price.
Margaret Stamp said she applauds Hemminger’s vision. She’s skeptical, however, about the plan because of the limited amount of acreage.
“Here we sit,” Stamp said. “I wish her vision would take all of this, take all of us with her, you know? But I don’t see that happening.”
Hemminger said she would be able to facilitate buyouts if she were able to find a partner.
“I would love to facilitate that deal. If I get a developer in here that partners with me and their vision is bigger and they want to buy more of these properties out, I think, number one, most of the residents are willing, and I plan on being the facilitator there,” she said.
The plan
Hemminger envisions a 5-to-10-storey set of townhomes, condominiums, high rises or an entertainment complex. Developers she’s spoken to over the years have recommended that her project contain mixed-use amenities such as restaurants, retail and offices. The project is taller than she originally envisioned after developers said 1.3 acres would not be enough for them to build their desired project.
Hemminger said city officials are in favor of putting in something “grandiose.”
“If we’re knocking down these 1940 homes and this is the last area to be developed around the stadium and the entertainment district, they want something nice, you know, something to make a statement,” she said.
Though Hemminger is in talks with two potential developers, she remains open to other proposals.
The proposed height of her project, paired with the residential medium-density zoning on Hemminger’s lots, means she’d have to clear her project with Arlington Planning and Zoning Commission as well as city council members.
Mayor Jim Ross said he is “intrigued” by Hemminger’s proposal – and that the area’s development certainly calls for taller, more dense buildings.
“It fits with putting in One Rangers Way in the entertainment district and some of the condos that are going up just west of there,” Ross said. “It fits with what’s happening in the immediate area there.”
Helen Moise, District 1 city council member, said she hopes the project works out for Hemminger.
“She was one of the first to recognize and understand the economics of being close enough to the stadiums to walk,” Moise said. “She has had the dream to do something bigger for a long time.”
At least a couple neighbors are not quite on board with Hemminger’s plans.
Rich Blanchard said he had less of a problem with a two-or-three-floor development on the other side of the street from his house.
Blanchard lives in his mother’s old house along Roosevelt Street. He said he wishes a previous deal that would have bought out residents and businesses on the block would have gone through.
“I kind of feel like we’re stuck here,” Blanchard said. “Now, there’s going to be a high-rise building built here, which, you know, I gotta tell you, I’m not really happy. And I don’t really agree with all this stuff.”
Buyout waiting game
Blanchard, like some of his neighbors, have grown tired of entertainment district regulations. Perhaps one of the biggest grievances is street parking.
Roosevelt Street is subject to the city’s entertainment district parking ordinances. Enacted in 2018, the city deploys no-parking signs during certain events to curb parking from stadium-goers and allow emergency vehicles to pass through neighborhoods.
Though the measure was meant to help neighborhoods, Blanchard said the policy places a burden on residents with homes that have minimal driveway space – especially since the number of cars per household has increased since the homes were built.
“We’ve gotten their cars off the street. We’ve made arrangements. We’ve done things to make our driveway where we can get more vehicles off the street,” Blanchard said. “So now they show up on game day wanting to know why all these vehicles are parked in our yard.”
Margaret Stamp said she wonders why the city does not offer permits to residents – an accommodation that residents near Dickies Arena have. Instead, she said, residents who do not hear the police knock on their doors have their cars towed – and are stuck with a $250 bill.
“It just doesn’t serve us as people that live here,” Stamp said. “You know, it’s all for the people they’re bringing in.”
A city spokesperson said the parking ordinance does not allow for resident permits or tags, which leaves it up to city officials to change the ordinance.
The spokesperson also wrote that residents are responsible for finding places to stash their vehicles during major events. Arlington police will “make every effort to identify the owner of the vehicle and get in contact with them before they tow.”
Both Stamp and Blanchard said they will eventually move away from the entertainment district.
Mike Hotelling had the same deliberations with his late wife, Laura. The couple maintained the house by themselves, but doing so has gotten harder since the deadly freeze in 2021 that decimated the house’s water heater.
The property taxes on Hotelling’s house have climbed 108% since 2019 – a jump due to both rising property taxes in the region and their location near the entertainment district, Hotelling said.
As a retired military veteran, Hotelling said he has tax deductions that make it relatively cheap for him to live on Roosevelt Street. However, that’s not the reality for all of his neighbors – especially as the entertainment district explodes. He describes Arlington’s future as “Orange County without an ocean.”
“There’s other things that they’ve developed around here that it’s going to make this area just explode over time. I saw that in California, and I’m seeing it here. Like I say, the only thing they don’t have is the ocean. I wouldn’t be surprised if they made one,” he said.
'You can't stop progress'
Hotelling said he’s impressed by Hemminger’s vision, from applying herself in school to her work with developers – and usually being the only woman in the room.
“You know, it’s not going to bother me any,” he said. “I don’t look at that stadium anyhow, you know? I mean, it’s there. It’s not going to make a big difference to me.”
Hemminger said she feels she’s won over the neighbors through the years by being a consistent presence, whether through chatting with them or working on the houses herself.
“Being that we were over here working all the time, the neighbors would come out and we’d talk to them, do things for them, get to know each other. I’ve had a pretty good welcoming, I think,” she said.
If her plan goes well, Hemminger plans to effectively retire as the culmination of her second career draws to a close. That doesn’t come without conflicting feelings about closing the chapter on the homes.
“There’s a lot of history here … I almost hate to see them torn down. I want to, you know, maintain some of the old school things that come with them, but you can’t stop progress,” she said.
Got a tip? Email Kailey Broussard at kbroussard@kera.org.
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