Dallas Business Journal
By Spencer Brewer – Staff Writer, Dallas Business Journal
With a crop of new towers in the offing, downtown Fort Worth is on the cusp of a new era.
Multiple companies have made moves to purchase land for future high-rise development, signaling bullishness in the fast-growing city anchoring the west side of the Metroplex. Those developers cite the city’s growing population and strong leadership as some of the reasons for these moves.
Among them, Dallas-based Hillwood recently purchased a block in the heart of downtown. Bounded by Sixth and Seventh streets to the north and south and Calhoun and Jones streets to the east and west, the property could be transformed for numerous uses and has high-rise zoning.
Near the beginning of this year, Dart Interests LLC unveiled plans to convert the former Fort Worth Central Library into a high-rise development potentially featuring two towers. With the sale of the library, located at 500 W. Third St., the city has paved the way for a sweeping mixed-use development in the heart of its urban core.
Neither developer has revealed concrete plans for the projects. Both say they're conducting extensive research into the best use for the sites. Dallas Business Journal spoke to executives from both firms to learn more about what they're thinking and to understand what attracted them to the area.
Hillwood, known for mega-projects including the AllianceTexas business hub in north Fort Worth, will consider office, residential and mixed-use projects at its downtown site. The project is close to the forthcoming Texas A&M-Fort Worth campus and lies within the rapidly changing southern stretches of downtown.
"Fort Worth is poised, probably better than any other city in the country right now, to be a major growth city for the next decade," Hillwood President Mike Berry said. "It’s not that Fort Worth is unknown, but it’s almost undiscovered to the corporate and the investment world."
Hillwood first began building in Fort Worth decades ago. However, most of the its attention has focused north of the city, with the 27,000-acre AllianceTexas taking decades of time and effort, Berry said.
Hillwood purchased the downtown block from electricity provider Oncor, and the transaction more or less took place off market. Oncor has marketed the site before, but wasn't marketing the building at the time.
Hillwood has an extensive relationship with Oncor after the work the firms have done together in Alliance, helping to facilitate the deal.
"We looked at a number of different assets in Fort Worth, and we kept coming back to that site because of where it was located and all the things that were going on around it," Berry said.
Office and multifamily development are the most logical uses for the site, he said. But Hillwood doesn’t intend to build speculative office on the property, meaning the developer will wait until it has a tenant lined up before starting construction.
The company has found residential options intriguing, and will look to the performance of the Deco 969 project to shape its plans. Southern Land Company’s Deco 969 represents the first luxury residential tower to grace the city’s skies in about 30 years. The company celebrated a topping off ceremony for the project earlier this year and it's slated to deliver in 2024.
Deco 969, shown in this rendering, celebrated a topping off ceremony earlier this year.
Hillwood also won’t rule out a hotel for its site, and will also consider mixed uses.
"There’s a lot of reasons to look at Fort Worth and say 'this is a good place to invest,'" Berry said. "For us, it’s pretty easy because we’ve been invested here for 35 years."
On the other end of downtown, Dart Interests still has a ways to go with planning before breaking ground on the Central Library site, Dart Interests President Christopher Kelsey said.
A plan involving two towers still makes the most sense for the company. Executives are considering office and residential uses, but office would likely need a relocating tenant and residential would have to come with a luxury price tag.
Since purchasing the site, the firm has made extensive efforts to learn more about the city, Kelsey said. That knowledge has validated the company’s initial decision to buy the library.
"Fort Worth, while it’s dynamic and cosmopolitan in its own right, is still truly a Texan city, and I appreciate the fact that it has that culture alive and well on the streets," he said.
Dart Interests aims to have a plan together by the new year, then it can begin seeking design and construction firms after. Kelsey estimates it will take 18 months to complete design, with groundbreaking scheduled tentatively for 2025.
Dart Interests will also seek additional sites for future development in Fort Worth.