Finally, after sitting vacant for so long, and after both a condo conversion and office redevelopment fell through, the former Transport Life Building at 714 Main is getting some attention. The building’s new owners, XTO Energy, have begun carrying out work on the inside, removing the previous abandoned redevelopment debris in preparation for their restoration of the building for office space.

Now, XTO hasn’t really come right out and said that it’s going to be a full-up restoration of the building, but it’s easy to guess that they’re planning on doing just that. They have already done gorgeous restorations to their other properties – the W. T. Waggoner Building (used as their headquarters), the Bob R. Simpson Building, the Petroleum Building, and the former Swift & Co. building in the Stockyards. XTO is serious about their historic buildings, and fortunately for them the Transport Life Building doesn’t have too far to go on the outside, having been semi-restored in the ’80s (though not perfectly).

It will be very interesting to see how XTO proceeds with the Transport Life Building, and I’m sure the restoration work will be very nifty to watch, as always. As XTO moves ahead with the building, look for more posts about its progress here at Fort Worthology.