FORT WORTH, Texas — A new development along Fort Worth’s West 7th Street has doubled in size and released new renderings of its design with plans to break ground in June.
Goldenrod had initially planned to finish its mixed-used development in summer of 2023, but it took more than a year to acquire the Snap Kitchen property and neighboring architecture firm at the corner of West 7th and Currie Street.
“It takes a long time to negotiate those deals,” Brandon Schubert, Goldenrod’s head of acquisitions, said. “It made more sense to try to assemble some land and spread out the cost.”
The new land increases the project’s footprint from 0.8 acres to 1.6 acres. When completed, the development will include 226 apartments along with 107,000 square feet of Class A office space and 11,000 square feet of restaurant and retail space along the street. That’s an increase from a 149-multifamily unit that was initially planned.
The larger footprint also allowed the project to cut out one floor of its parking garage while adding stalls.
“It lays out a lot better. It’s a lot more efficient,” Schubert said. “I think it’s got better sightlines for the tenants.”
Just a few blocks away, John Goff’s Crescent Real Estate plans to complete its major Cultural District project at Camp Bowie Boulevard across from the Kimbell Art Museum in August or September.
Initial plans included a 200-room hotel, 167 luxury apartments and a neighboring eight-story building with 168,000 square feet of offices.
Further down the street, The Bowie House will also open in late 2023, bringing 88 rooms and 18 suites along with a restaurant.
“I think the area is primed for a lot of new development,” Cultural District Alliance Chairman Scott Wilcox said. “Just having that additional hotel inventory is going to be incredible for us.”
Wilcox also serves as the COO of the Amon Carter Museum of American Art directly across the Bowie projects.
“I think the area is primed for a lot of new development,” he said. “It’s always had a lot of people coming to it but there just wasn’t enough to do once you got here.”
Wilcox acknowledges new development could mean new traffic headaches. There are plans to beautify the stretch of University Boulevard from Interstate 30 up to West 7th and Camp Bowie, which created traffic issues when the same project occurred on West 7th.
“Traffic has a way of figuring it out as you go through and get more used to being there,” he said. “We don’t really want traffic to flow through the Cultural District, we want it to flow to the Cultural District.”
The other potential pitfall is despite a surge in new bar openings nearby, Crockett Row has struggled with tenant turnover for several years, but Wilcox and Schubert said the new projects make the district a destination.
“We think the more that comes online especially in terms of quality will definitely help,” Schubert said.
Schubert added that Fort Worth has also done a better job in recent years of retaining younger professionals in the 21- to 39-year-old age range that make the new projects profitable. He said they met with Crescent early on to see how the two projects could be mutually beneficial instead of competitors.
The Goldenrod project is now expected to break ground and demolish the Snap Kitchen property in June and open in the first quarter of 2025.
All three projects are adding life to an area that’s been a source of growth for Fort Worth.
“The economic just weren’t there for the developers,” Wilcox said. “Now, I think they are.”