Fort Worth waved two developers ahead on separate conversions of aging office buildings, positioning the city to gain hundreds of new downtown apartments.
Chicago-based 3L Real Estate and local developer O-SDA Industries secured a combined $7.35 million in reimbursements from the city’s Tax Increment Finance Zone No. 8. The incentive appears to clear the way for two separate adaptive reuse projects that will add 430 units to the urban core, the Dallas Business Journal reported.
3L Real Estate plans to convert the 16-story, 300,000-square-foot tower at 115 West Seventh Street — formerly the Oncor Building — into 330 apartments.
Built in 1952 and previously home to Fort Worth National Bank, the building will be redeveloped into a mix of studios, one- and two-bedroom units, with amenities including a fitness center and business hub. Construction costs are estimated at $58 million.
The city’s TIF board had initially rejected a $4.75 million incentive package over concerns about how long the property would remain in the range of affordability; officials approved the funds this week after 3L agreed to extend below-market rents on 20 percent of the units for 10 years. City officials say the updated agreement offers better value for taxpayers, with clawbacks in place if affordability requirements aren’t met.
A few blocks away, O-SDA Industries is converting the former Binyon-O’Keefe storage building at 210 East Seventh and 811 Calhoun Street into a 100-unit senior housing development.
The $26 million project, called Georgian Oaks, will also receive $2.6 million in public reimbursements. Built in 1917 and once owned by XTO Energy, the building has sat largely vacant since the oil company exited Fort Worth in 2017.
Construction on Georgian Oaks is expected to begin soon, with project completion slated for late 2026. O-SDA is also using about $4 million in historic tax credits to help finance the conversion.
Fort Worth officials have embraced adaptive reuse as a downtown revitalization strategy, yet no office-to-residential project has fully crossed the finish line.
In early 2023, Bluelofts and Wolfe Investments announced plans to convert the former Oil & Gas building at 309 West Seventh Street into 180 apartments with ground-floor retail, but the project has not moved forward. The building eventually sold at foreclosure auction last year amid claims Wolfe defaulted on a short-term loan to purchase the property.
The 3L and O-SDA efforts now represent the city’s most promising test cases, buoyed by public incentives and tied into a wider redevelopment wave.
Major civic investments, including the $700 million expansion of the Fort Worth Convention Center and the launch of the Texas A&M urban campus, have primed the area for growth. City leaders are betting that office conversions will not only create much-needed housing but help eliminate “zombie buildings” that have long sat dormant in the city core.
— Judah Duke
Read more
Iconic Dallas office building sells for $8M at foreclosure auction
Chase is latest bank to move offices out of downtown Fort Worth
Office leasing perks up everywhere but downtown
