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TYLER — Businesses and community members in the Downtown Tyler area are speaking out on how the city\u2019s improvement project is affecting day-to-day operations. A project aimed at revitalizing downtown is now creating real challenges for some business owners in the heart of Tyler, according to our news partner KETK.<\/p>\n
J. Witcher, general manager at Rick\u2019s on the Square, says it\u2019s been a months-long uphill battle getting customers through the door. \u201cI would say the main complaint is parking; they just don\u2019t know where to go,\u201d Witcher said. \u201cPeople just are faced with a variety of choices in Tyler; coming downtown right now poses different challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n
Witcher supports a better downtown, but right now, the cost is hitting hard as the restaurants and bars that have been open for more than 30 years are feeling the strain.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe small, now real-time decisions between now and probably two years from now are real and impactful,\u201d Witcher said.<\/p>\n
According to the City of Tyler, the $280 million project will completely redesign the downtown square.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sorry that we\u2019ve inconvenienced people, but when people have all these huge patios to serve their patrons, they\u2019re getting it for free,\u201d Mayor Tyler Don Warren said.<\/p>\n
To ease the strain, the city says free parking is available at two downtown garages.<\/p>\n
The Mayor is asking for patience from business owners, drivers, and visitors, and says to trust the process. \u201cThe traffic study was done, and it was done by professionals, and the people that sit there and say I cannot believe you\u2019re doing this, I cant\u2019s believe you\u2019re doing that, i want to see your seal that says you\u2019re an engineer.\u201d<\/p>\n
The project is expected to wrap up in early 2028 but until then, progress is underway, but not without a price.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are struggling a little bit down here and we could use your support,\u201d Witcher said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TYLER — Businesses and community members in the Downtown Tyler area are speaking out on how the city\u2019s improvement project is affecting day-to-day operations. A project aimed at revitalizing downtown is now creating real challenges for some business owners in the heart of Tyler, according to our news partner KETK. J. Witcher, general manager at … Continue reading Concerns over improvement project<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":1502622,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2026\/04\/downtown-tyler-200x200.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1502043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news-archive-archives"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-16 18:48:57","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2026\/04\/downtown-tyler-200x200.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1502043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1502043"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1502043\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1503028,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1502043\/revisions\/1503028"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1502622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1502043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1502043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1502043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}