Historic Fort Worth Building Gets Go-Ahead For Redevelopment
The historic office building at 714 Main St. in Downtown Fort Worth has gotten approval to be redeveloped into a hotel.
The Fort Worth City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to approve the office-to-hotel conversion, the Dallas Business Journal reports.
Development Service Group will turn the 97-year-old property into a 232-room Kimpton hotel.
DSG purchased the property from XTO Energy, which put the building (and six others) on the market in June after it relocated to Houston to be with its parent company, Exxon Mobil. Most of the properties have found new owners.
DSG got an economic development package, with a few requirements: the hotel must be minimum four stars, must complete by June 30, 2021, and must include 10K SF of meeting space, a 3,100 SF restaurant and a 3,100 SF penthouse bar, according to the DBJ. DSG must also invest at least $56M into the project. It will seek historic tax credits and is in line for $650K in public improvements from the Downtown Tax Increment Finance District, the DBJ said.
Turning the vacant building into an occupied hotel will bolster the Downtown Fort Worth market, which took a hit with XTO's departure but is still strong. This conversion is just the latest in a long string of adaptive reuse of older office buildings into hotels in DFW. The strategy is attractive because it is cheaper and faster than building fresh and gives hoteliers urban infill sites with character, experts say.
