Historic Southside Redevelopment Efforts Derailed Again

Going on 25 years, the city of Fort Worth and neighborhood stakeholders have explored bringing redevelopment to the city’s predominantly African American Historic Southside.

Underserved and long neglected since the beginning of desegregation, the objective has been to create a public-private partnership to revitalize the neighborhood into a thriving business and cultural district, including a place for entrepreneurs to brainstorm and bloom.

This district would include residential and commercial uses while embracing and incorporating the neighborhood’s rich history as a business and cultural hub for Fort Worth’s Black community. All the while mitigating the creeping elements of gentrification that can come with it.

Just one mile southeast of downtown Fort Worth, the Historic Southside is one of the oldest Black neighborhoods in the city. Many began moving into the neighborhood in the early 1900s. Legendary businessman William “Gooseneck” McDonald, said to be the first Black millionaire in Texas, had bought up land and sold it to African American buyers.

The Historic Southside is located on the east side of Interstate 35W. It is bordered to the north by East Vickery, to the south by Rosedale, and to the east by South Riverside Drive.

The neighborhood became a thriving commercial home to Black families and Black-owned businesses, including restaurants and grocery stores. There was nightlife there, too. Nightclubs and cafes flourished.

As the grip of segregation began to loosen, some neighbors began to move out and businesses faltered as Black consumers became welcomed into white storefronts.

For more than 50 years, the neighborhood has been a victim of neglect. Rather than a prospering neighborhood and commercial zone, the corridor has been more an expanse for crime, and its cohort, drugs, poverty, and creeping homelessness, set aside “over there” on the other side with Interstate 35W, a line of demarcation with its neighbor to the west, the Near Southside.

Since the early aughts, with an active neighborhood association presence as political advocates, the city has sought to breathe new life into the Historic Southside.

However, as developments have sprung up all over the city, including neighborhoods such as Race Street, the Historic Southside remains the neighborhood prosperity forgot. And now many are asking why after the most promising possibility for the area in generations was nixed.

The $70 million mixed-use Evans & Rosedale Urban Village project awarded to development firm Hoque Global in 2019 was expected to be the one to finally enliven the area, as well as be the catalyst for more growth and opportunities in southeast Fort Worth.

The redevelopment project and renewed hope for the neighborhood remain long-from-finished business after the city canceled its contract with the Dallas-based development firm in December.

“I just question, really, the commitment,” says Wallace Bridges, a longtime member of the neighborhood who has served in the neighborhood association as well as on a committee working on this development. “I've heard it, I've seen it in words, but I've not seen it in action.

“In some ways, it's like waking up to a movie. God, I can't even remember the movie … where every morning the guy wakes up, it's the same day.”

Groundhog Day.

“Groundhog Day, yeah. That's kind of almost what it feels like when it comes to the commitment. The city said, ‘Now, this is real. We are gonna make this happen.’ People in the neighborhood were kind of like, ‘Yeah, yeah, we've seen that and heard that before.’”

Asked if he was talking commitment on the part of the city or the developer, Bridges, also a member of the Fort Worth school board, says, “Both parties. All the parties.”

But there has been commitment. The city has invested millions in the neighborhood, including providing the developer millions more in incentives to build.

Hoque Global, meanwhile, also made major commitments, including, according to CEO Mike Hoque, already investing over $2 million in the project, as well as significant time in the form of more than 50 community meetings to keep the neighborhood informed and address any concerns it had as planning progressed through five years, including two essentially wiped out by the pandemic.

However, with the stroke of a pen, it all went up in smoke.

“Inflation, interest rate increases, and cooling of commercial development have contributed to unacceptable delays, and key deadlines have not been met — even following extensions,” the city said in a statement.

The news left all the involved parties — the city, Hoque, and neighborhood stakeholders — pointing fingers.

Hoque says he believes the project was undone by political forces within the neighborhood and delays caused by the city’s bureaucracy.

In the Beginning

The beginnings of the redevelopment of the Historic Southside began with the city’s “Vision Plan for the Evans & Rosedale Business and Cultural District” in 2000. It was put together by the city, then under Mayor Kenneth Barr and City Manager Gary Jackson. In addition to city staff a neighborhood advisory committee, which was led by Councilman Ralph McCloud. Its 24 members included the late Devoyd Jennings of the Fort Worth Metropolitan Black Chamber of Commerce, Roy Brooks, Rev. Nehemiah Davis, Hazel Harvey Peace, and Opal Lee.

The finished product called for the district to serve as a “gateway” linking the Medical District on the west and downtown to the northwest to the historic neighborhoods to the east.

East Rosedale would become a landscaped boulevard leading east to Texas Wesleyan (that has largely happened) and west to the medical district.

Evans Avenue, it was envisioned, would become a marketplace of shops, community services, and institutions that celebrate the rich heritage of African Americans in Fort Worth. The buildings, streetscape, public plaza and other amenities would have a consistent urban design relating to the neighborhood’s history. It would encourage pedestrian traffic day and night.

Moreover, Evans and Rosedale would serve as an important center for jobs and services as well as a destination for residents in Tarrant County and tourists alike seeking an experience in authentic food, art, goods, and music from the African American culture.  

The Hoque project that eventually came to life is complex, not simply because of the financial aspects of the deal that have become thornier by an unfavorable change in key economic fundamentals. Construction costs have increased by 30% and interest rates have doubled.

The political nuances of a distrusting neighborhood — cynical skepticism stemming from its history and the psychological impediments that come with that — further complicate everybody’s stated hopes and dreams for Evans & Rosedale. And it’s among the key reasons, Hoque says, that development at Evans & Rosedale hasn’t happened in the 25 years it’s been studied.

The Evans & Rosedale development was to stretch 7.5 acres over separate east and west blocks owned by the city. It envisioned 27,000 square feet of commercial space at ground level and approximately 320 residential units above. Building design would take inspiration from existing structures in the area, such as Evans Plaza. Townhomes would line the eastern portion of the site, adjacent to the residential community; and larger structures would stand further west, with the apartments reaching four or five stories near the South Freeway. 

The proposed nearby National Juneteenth Museum, though not a part of the project, was to fit like a glove with it.

The city was pitching in $13.2 million to support the construction of the Hoque development through funds it received from the American Rescue Plan Act, including $9 million in grants for Hoque Global, if it met certain conditions. 

Those conditions included setting aside at least 20% of the planned 292 apartment units and 20 townhomes for affordable housing. Ten percent of the units were to be set aside for households that make 80% or below the Fort Worth-Arlington area’s median income. The other 10% would be for residents making 60% or below the area median income. 

Hoque Global was also required to invest $70 million in both phases of the project, and 15% of subcontractors needed to be minority- or women-owned businesses, enterprises that haven’t always had an opportunity to compete in the local economy. Steven Shelley, a multifamily partner for Hoque Global, says he envisioned the actual number being closer to 30%, though there seems to have been a dispute over where those contractors needed to come from: Fort Worth and Tarrant County or Dallas.

In August 2023, four years after Hoque Global was awarded the project and a year-and-a-half and hundreds of thousands of dollars in preconstruction billable hours by Hoque’s general contractor Cadence McShane Construction, at the city's and neighborhood’s behest, Hoque replaced Cadence McShane, with CBG Building Company. In an email obtained by Fort Worth Inc., the city’s Economic Development Director, Robert Sturns, explains, “We have a robust contracting opportunity for our local business equity firms, and we don’t feel that the current process outlined by Cadence McShane allows for that.”

The contract with the city doesn’t specify where the subcontractors reside, but it was one of the hangups. City officials say they do want to see minority or women-owned businesses in Greater Fort Worth and Tarrant County working on this project and other projects receiving incentives from the city. 

Chris Nettles, District 8 councilman, said that subcontractors hired to do the work need to be, “People who are invested into Fort Worth that are part of the black and Latinx contractors,” adding, “that they are part of the Black chamber and Hispanic chamber in Fort Worth, in Tarrant County.”

Of course, doing that can limit a developer’s ability to control costs. However, allegations of failing to meet stipulations on minority contractors were only the beginning of the hiccups.

Bridges, a representative of the neighborhood, went a step further, saying at least some neighbors were turned off immediately by the developer being from Dallas.

“In my opinion, if I was going into Dallas and I wanted to do a major development in Dallas, I'm gonna get somebody that's from Dallas. That to me was the very first sign that they weren't really serious, that they couldn't even find a go-between person that's from the area to work it. That was probably the beginning, like, ‘Wait a minute, this guy's from Dallas. We couldn't find one person from Fort Worth that could do this project?’

“I'm not a developer, that's not my strength or anything, but I'm more than convinced that we could have found one person. I think that was a lack of knowledge of really understanding the community and the people. And that, to me, caused more delay, caused more apprehension.”

Hoque says that though he started his company in Dallas, he is fully committed to Fort Worth. Hoque’s restaurant group, headed by CEO Nafees Alam, employs between 110 to 170 in Fort Worth, the firm says.

The Developer

Hoque is Bangladeshi by birth. His father was selected by the Bangladesh government to help build a country after the 1971 Liberation War, a brutal armed struggle with Pakistan, which ended with Bangladesh a free and independent country.

Hoque says when he was home during the summer from boarding school in his mother country, he worked for his father in development. “He was grooming me to take over his company,” Hoque says. Those plans changed, however, at age 16. Hoque’s father sent him, unwittingly as it turned out, on a trip to New York City to explore the economic capital of the world. Hoque was supposed to come back and continue his education.

The lure of America and opportunity was love at first sight for the 16-year-old, only recently a high school graduate. Much to the chagrin of his father, Hoque wanted to stay in America. Hoque’s father gave him an ultimatum: come home or be cut off financially. Hoque picked door No. 2. In 1999, he founded Ride Centric, a transportation company with one Lincoln Town Car where he was CEO, chauffeur, and head bottle washer. A few years later, with over 100 vehicles in its fleet, he gave his employees 75% of the company and entered the restaurant business.

In 2005, Hogue founded DRG Concepts, opening Dallas Chop House (a classic steakhouse), Dallas Fish Market (a seafood restaurant), Chop House Burger (a Dallas Chop House burger spinoff), and, in 2011, Wild Salsa (a Mexican restaurant), all in Dallas.

Hoque dipped his toe into the Fort Worth marketplace with Wild Salsa and the Chop House Burger in 2016. In January 2020, just prior to the large outbreak of Covid-19 that shuttered many restaurants, he opened the Wicked Butcher, a high-end steak house, in the Sinclair Autograph Collection Hotel. All of the DRG restaurants shut down during the pandemic, with their openings coming at different times.

Hoque made his first serious foray into the commercial real estate market in 2015 by purchasing and refurbishing the Adolphus Tower in Dallas.

His other projects in Dallas include SoGood @ Cedars, a 15-acre complex with apartments and a brewery. The Newpark District, which in just its first $380 million phase will include a 38-story tower, is 225,000 square feet of office space, a hotel and nearly 300 residential units.  University Hills is a 270-acre urban village near the University of North Texas with hundreds of homes, plus commercial buildings and a town center.

The Smith & Elm development in downtown Mansfield is a $50 million mixed-use development with 249 residences, nearly 12,000 square feet of retail, office, and restaurant space, and a nearly 8,000-square-foot civic plaza.

He has plays outside of North Texas, too.

The Vineyard at Florence, a $500 million “residential winery” with 1,000 homes under development, 50 miles north of Austin.

All these projects align with Hoque Global’s mission of investing and developing projects that benefit traditionally underserved communities, like Evans & Rosedale. All of his other projects, Hoque says, under construction or in the pipeline are proceeding on time.

Also planned for the Evans & Rosedale development was a Global Silicon Valley (GSV) innovation center to connect residents, entrepreneurs, and small business owners. GSV is a company founded by CEO Michael Moe that invests in the innovation and opportunity presented by technology entrepreneurs. GSV, begun in 2010, connects leading minds focused on transforming society and business around learning and work.

Says the GSV website: “Our north star is that ALL people have equal access to the future.”

The Dispute

The city, in canceling the contract, alleges that Hoque, in addition to concerns about minority- and women-owned subcontractors, missed key deadlines on securing financing for the project.

Hoque Global argues that the city is oversimplifying the complicated nature of the project. While they acknowledge some deadlines were missed, they say the missed deadlines were associated with changes the city made to the deal, like requiring them to replace the general contractor after originally accepting them when being awarded the project. 

“There was a time we had four lenders fighting for this project,” Hoque says. “And we missed that opportunity because the city was just taking different directions.” To be clear, there have been missed deadlines, but Hoque alleges they were missed because of complications within the city.

City officials, when terminating the contract, cited Hoque’s seeming inability to close the financing to begin the initial phase of the work and had not received any building permits for the first phase. 

In a letter, dated Jan. 12, issued to the city from Hoque’s attorneys at Munsch Hardt, obtained by Fort Worth Inc., the developer argues that any failure to receive or obtain building permits was because of “unreasonable delays” by the city in issuing permits.

Hoque had completed plans for the project by Jan. 30, 2023, the letter reads. However, the city didn’t allow for submitting for building permits until May. That was done on May 22. As of December, when the contract had been canceled, Hoque and his attorneys say the city still had not issued any permits, though the plans had been complete for close to a year and with the city for seven months.

Moreover, Hoque says the hitch in financing stems from an environmental site assessment that found lead contamination on the property. As of Oct. 31, Hoque’s attorneys say, the developer and the city were still waiting on clearance from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

“The parties understood that no lender would provide financing for the Project with existing environmental issues and were working together toward remedial activities,” the attorneys wrote. A city official acknowledged there were issues with permitting and the environmental cleanup but said those were not at the heart of the delays.

While Hoque says the firm met the DEI requirements of the original agreement, he adds that it agreed to replace its general contractor to better satisfy the city’s DEI wishes in August if “they would give us the time needed to get the project financed with HUD.”

Using HUD financing was a change in direction that apparently raised tentacles of concern with the city. Previously, Hoque had planned to do only private financing. However, with the changing economic fundamentals, Hoque officials say they had to change course.

“Going to HUD financing is kind of a lengthy proposition," Sturns told Dallas Business Journal. “It just kind of became untenable for us to continue to hold things out, given that we’ve been working on this project for several years."

New York-based Dwight Capital is involved in Hoque’s project in downtown Mansfield. Hoque officials showed us a letter, dated May 25, from Dwight Capital indicating that it was also involved in financing the Evans & Rosedale project as a HUD lender, the only requirements remaining for closing were “building permits and a fully executed construction contract with a guaranteed maximum price.” Encore Bank was also interested as a conventional lender.

At a September meeting with Mayor Mattie Parker, Chris Nettles, who represents the area, and economic development staff, Hoque officials say they provided an update on CGB, the new general contractor and that, given the “strange” capital environment, HUD was the best choice going forward. Even in making that direction in change in financing, “it wouldn’t mean much delay, given that the city still had a lot of work to do on the environmental and permitting fronts.”

In September, Sturns told the Fort Worth Report that closing deadlines had been put on hold. Meanwhile, Hoque officials say they continued monthly meetings with community stakeholders to provide updates.

The firm’s last meeting with the city was the first week in December. Hoque says company officials met with the city’s diversity and inclusion office, along with the new general contractor, CBG. All seemed to go well, according to Hoque officials.

Seven days later, the city sent out a notice of termination to Hoque Global, which Hoque says came out of nowhere. City officials, including Nettles and Parker, have vowed to get a development done. City staff is currently seeking a new developer, who, it is presumed, will use HUD financing, the very thing the city said was the breaking point that led to the termination of Hoque Global.

Though officials say the city won’t have to start all over, the new developer will need the requisite 10 months or so to secure the financing while Hoque was already a business quarter into the process.

More than anything, Hoque is disappointed about the way his partnership with the city on the Evans & Rosedale Urban Village development fell apart. It was a missed opportunity for that community, he says.

In a letter to Sturns and Parker dated Jan. 30, obtained by Fort Worth Inc., Hoque pledged any personal profit he realized from the finished development to be a donation to the Juneteenth Museum. The city, he says, has not responded to his offer.

In a letter dated Feb. 14 to Sturns, Arthur Santa-Maria, Hoque Global vice president and project lead, said Hoque Global’s disappointment in being terminated from the project, “is not at all limited to our own investment and hearts and souls poured into this project, but extends to the neighbors and community members who believed, finally, Evans & Rosedale was going to become a reality.”

Concerning deadlines missed that his firm was responsible for that did not relate to changes made by the city, Hoque says, flatly, “zero.”

“We did everything the city asked us to do,” says Hoque. “Everything.”