Across Samuels Avenue from the luxurious Villa De Leon condo development, Lincoln Apartments is building a new 300+ unit apartment development. Site prep has been underway for a while now, and at last there is something rising from the site. As seen in the top photo, the development’s parking garage at the rear of the property is now on the rise. The apartments themselves will rise between the garage and Samuels, shielding the parking structure from view. As seen in the second photo, site prep for the actual apartments continues.
Across the street from the new Lincoln apartments, on the other side of the two small homes next to Villa De Leon, site prep is underway as well for some bluffside townhomes being developed by Lincoln as well.
Lincoln’s first Trinity Bluff apartment development, named (appropriately enough) Lincoln Trinity Bluff, was a great success, with the fastest lease-up of any development in the company’s history, so it’s no surprise that the company is continuing to build more developments in the neighborhood. I don’t have a rendering of the new projects just yet, but a facade sample is being constructed across the street from the construction site, so when that’s finished we should have a good idea of what to expect, style-wise. More photos to come as construction progresses.
On Samuels in the Trinity Bluff development, the luxurious Villa De Leon condos next to Charles Nash Elementary continue to steadily progress towards completion. Facade prep is underway and balconies are being installed. The condos start at $786,000.
As can be seen at the top of the building in the photo above, the steel framing of the crown on the Omni Hotel & Condos is now being assembled. The framing will be covered with glass like that used on the condo tower portion of the building below it, giving an angled “swoop” to the top of the tower.
A lot of pavement has been ripped up around the building’s base. What’s happening here is that the existing sidewalks on the site were determined to be too narrow to comfortably accommodate pedestrians, so they’re being expanded.
Next door, the new city parking garage is now getting some facade materials installed. As shown here, tan brick and stone are going up on the structure. The portion in the center where no facade has been installed is where the Houston Street facade’s large black Art Deco-inspired columns will go, rising above the garage’s ground-floor retail space.
The TownSite Co. acquired this building not long ago when it bought what is usually known as the former Motheral Printing site in the Near Southside. TownSite is making plans at the 11-acre assemblage of buildings and vacant lots centered around the intersection of South Main & Pennsylvania for a mixed-use development on the site.
One of the buildings on the property is shown here - though most of you probably won’t recognize it. Until very recently, the building wore the results of a terrible renovation from the ’60s or ’70s - covered in rough concrete panels and gold metal grates. There was little to suggest what lay underneath.
Well, TownSite’s been removing the concrete and metal, and has revealed the building’s original form - a classic red brick loft-style building that was once a Coca-Cola bottling plant.
TownSite’s Phillip Poole shared with me that the company is stripping the modernized facade off as they study the block’s potential for various uses through redevelopment. Phillip was also kind enough to send me these two photos he acquired showing the building during its previous life as the Coca-Cola plant.
Great to see this building getting a chance to be reborn after so much neglect. The potential is here on the Motheral site for a really great mixed-use development and I look forward to seeing more of TownSite’s plans. A big thank you to Phillip Poole for providing the historic photos and information on the project.
(Also a thank you to Eddie Vanston for letting me know that work had begun at the site!)
I’ve been noticing a new building rising on Rogers Road between Collinsworth and Riverfront (near University Park Village), and from the method of construction I figured it was a new apartment development. There hasn’t been any sort of information at the construction site as to what was going on, and I haven’t heard anything about it in the various development circles either.
Well, finally, I’ve got the scoop. The new development is called Gallery 1701, and it’s a new apartment development by none other than Lincoln Apartments. While the building’s not quite finished yet, the leasing office is open, so if you’re curious you can stop by 1701 Rogers Road and check it out. I’ll grab a construction shot soon.
Phase one of SoSeven’s Shops & Lofts is progressing steadily. With construction having neared completion on the first two buildings, which will be office space over retail, most work is concentrated on the third and fourth buildings, which will be condos over retail. Here, the condo/retail building fronting 7th rises alongside the first office/retail building.
Looking down through the path between the two condos buildings towards the offices.
The other condo/retail building of phase one. These buildings sit over an underground parking structure.
We took a look at Museum Place yesterday, and now it’s time for the West 7th development by Cypress Equities down the street. Framing should be getting underway shortly for the apartments above the retail here in these two buildings on either side of Crockett Street. The buildings should top out at 5 stories (one story of concrete + four stories of wood framing).
On the project’s northeast block, the office building at 7th & Foch is getting some facade work done. Around it, another parking garage is rising, and the buildings that will house the fitness club, Lucky Strike Lanes, and Movie Tavern are being framed as well.
Across the street, the Sovereign Bank is making progress as well, with some facade and glass being installed.
Finally took the time away from remodeling to get some construction photos. Here’s an update on the progress at Museum Place in the Cultural District. One Museum Place, the big retail/office/condo building, is very nearly complete, as seen in the photo above. The last bits of glass and such are going up now, and there’s also now an alcohol license notice in the corner retail space for Eddie V.’s Edgewater Grill.
Across the street, the Flatiron-style retail/office building is progressing nicely as well. Almost the entire slanted south side of the building is complete, and work on that side’s ground floor is going now as well. The building’s other two sides, which looked like some sort of black paneling in earlier renderings, are actually dark brick, as seen below in the photo of the building’s north side:
As more of Museum Place moves ahead, I still think it’s my favorite of the big three 7th Street developments. There are a lot of oddly-shaped blocks here and the project is filling them in interesting ways, and thus far I like the architecture of the project better than the other two. I look forward to seeing more progress on the project - roadwork and site prep continue on the rest of the project’s blocks.
Web site: museumplace.com
Condo sales web site: museumplaceliving.com
I was unable to attend the presentation developer Tom Struhs gave on the Trinity Bluff project at the TRV offices last night, but I’ve pieced together some notes from the presentation from various sources. Here’s some of the interesting stuff Mr. Struhs revealed:
- The Bass family is in some sort of planning stages for a grocery market for the block between 1st, Pecan, Weatherford, and Grove (Map).
- The Fort Worth Fire Department’s Station #1 is recommending a traffic light be installed at Belknap & Pecan.
- Where the famed Fried hicken store once stood along Belknap in the Trinity Bluff area, a Marriott brand hotel is planned.
- Retail is planned in Trinity Bluff, of a neighborhood complimentary sort - dry cleaners, etc. Sundance Square-style entertainment is unlikely due to alcohol restriction around Nash Elementary.
- Ten foot easements were given to the city between the various Trinity Bluff developments along the actual bluff for eventual access paths to TRV waterfront attractions and amenities.
Some interesting stuff in there. A Bass-planned grocery market is something I have not heard anything about before.
The Fort Worth Business Press reports that the West 7th development is continuing to add tenants to its roster, and that Cypress has switched from Starwood to another hotel operator. The new hotel will be announced by the end of the month.
The ground floor of the hotel building will feature retail with an elevator lobby that will take guests to the third floor of the building, where the hotel’s grand lobby will be located. Also on the ground floor will be an American grill themed restaurant that will occupy 6,000 square feet of space.
Williams said some of the planned retailers for the development include an upscale Mexican food restaurant and an Irish pub as well as a steak house and a Mediterranean café.
Got enough restaurants? How about some fargin’ retail?
That’s my biggest complaint with the 7th Street developments - about 99% of the ground-level tenants are restaurants. Would love to see some retail-type places make the move, but of course I have to remember my own advice: as long as the physical form is good, the ground-floor programming will eventually work itself out.
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