Fort Worth City Council Clears Way for $250 Million Development in Cultural District

Fort Worth’s Cultural District attractions will soon have a major new neighbor.

With the Fort Worth City Council’s approval Tuesday night of a financial incentive package, the Fort Worth-based Crescent Real Estate and CEO John Goff plan to move ahead on a $250 million luxury hotel, Class A office, apartment, and retail and restaurant project on 4.1 acres along Camp Bowie Boulevard at Van Cliburn Way across from the Kimbell and Modern Art museums. Behind the support of the renown museums and Cultural District Alliance, the City Council quickly approved the motion by Councilman Dennis Shingleton.

"This is a great project,” Shingleton said in making the motion.

It’s the first development project in the city for Goff, who once worked for the Fort Worth financier Richard Rainwater and ultimately built his own real estate company. Crescent’s private, invitation-only GP Invitation Fund I reports $3.5 billion in assets under management, 3 million square feet of office space, 3,740 hotel rooms, and the CanyonRanch luxury resort business. Goff last year agreed to co-chair Mayor Betsy Price’s Fort Worth Now task force with the banker Elaine Agather, searching for ways to help business recover from COVID-19 and seeking new business opportunities in the aftermath.

“I came to Fort Worth in ’81,” Goff, who Forbes estimates has a $1.3 billion net worth, said in an interview. “I didn’t have a penny to my name and ended up working here, and raised a family here, ended up starting a business later in my career here. I’ve bought businesses, I have a real love and affection for the city. I just felt it was time we had a great luxury hotel. We have people coming in from all over the world to meet with us. I would love to have a first-class hotel to put them up. I think this location is perfect for a first-class hotel.”

Crescent used to own the 777 Main office tower downtown, which still houses the company’s headquarters, but sold that years ago.

“I’ve never developed anything in the city,” Goff said. “I just thought it was time to bring our development expertise to Fort Worth. As we sit here today, we don’t own anything in the city.”

The tone of conversations over the project between Crescent and the Cultural District’s venerable tenants was remarkably different than those that surrounded previous proposals, which were marked by disputes over obstructed sight lines and major scale that critics said would have overwhelmed the architectural landmarks.

“The scale (of Goff’s plan) is exactly right for the neighborhood,” Eric Lee, director of the Kimbell Art Museum, said in an interview. “It’s designed in such a way that the streets are respected. The scale is human. it seems like the building will be a strong building in and of itself, yet it will complement the neighborhood and the great works of architecture around it.”

Goff and Crescent consulted the museums, sent drones up, measured heights, and designed the development so it would not disrupt “critical sight lines” around the museums, Lee said.

“They’ve got about this the right way, and I think it’s going to produce a wonderful development,” he said.

Cliff Vanderpool, director of communications for the Amon Carter Museum, said the project should help draw visitors to the city. “A 200-room hotel with the added attraction of a fine restaurant will certain benefit the entire city, and it will really give the Cultural District more foot traffic,” he said.

Crescent intends to break ground in the early summer this year, with a targeted June 2023 opening, Goff said. The plans:

• Five-story, 200-room luxury hotel at the southwest corner of Van Cliburn Way and Camp Bowie, with 8,000 square feet of meeting space and a ballroom, 5,500-square-foot restaurant, and an 1,100-square-foot rooftop bar “that’s going to be spectacular,” Goff said.
• Chef Dean Fearing, chef at The Ritz-Carlton, Dallas, owned by Crescent, will be chef and partner at the new hotel restaurant. “We’ll probably take some favorites from Dallas and expansion upon it,” Goff said.
• Eight-story, 160,000-square-foot Class A office building at the other corner of Van Cliburn and Camp Bowie. Goff company headquarters -- Crescent, CanyonRanch resorts, Contango Oil & Gas Co., Goff Capital -- will take up about a third of the building, moving from other locations, Goff said.
• 175 luxury apartments bordering West 7th Street on the north side of the property. “They’ll be the nicest apartments in the city,” Goff said. “They’ll be more generous in size, and with a very high level of finish-out.” He said the company is still determining rents.
• 30,000 square feet of retail, restaurants, coffee shops and other uses in the hotel and office buildings
• Two parking garages, with a combined 825 spaces

OZ Architecture of Denver is the architect for the hotel and office buildings. “We had a tremendous amount of work with them in the past,” Goff said. “Very creative firm.” GFF is architect for the multifamily. Lauren Rottet of Houston will design the hotel interior. “She’s done high-end hotels all over the world.” Crescent has not yet sent the project out to bid for a general contractor.

Crescent will operate everything on the property but the hotel, Goff said. The company has not yet selected a hotel operator and nameplate. “We’re working on that.”

In an unusual incentive package the City Council approved Tuesday, the city will purchase the development’s two parking garages. The city will issue bonds through the Central City Local Government Corp. for $25 million to buy the garages. The debt will be repaid through a lease agreement between the city and Crescent, under which Crescent will pay an $800,000 annual lease rate over 20 years that will cover operations and maintenance. The agreement carries four renewal options.

The city will receive 25% of parking revenues from 400 of the spaces for five years, and 50% after that.

“We’re not giving up any of the hotel occupancy tax (or) the sales tax,” Robert Sturns, the city’s economic development director, said in an interview.

“We’ll probably net around $14 million in new property tax (over 10 years) off the property,” he said. “And we’ll have the garage asset. It would be a long-hold, or we could decide to sell it.”

The city also expects to net $12 million in hotel occupancy tax from the property over those 10 years, and close to $20 million from the hotel tax that would go to pay off debt on the nearby Dickies Arena, Sturns said.

The city and Crescent began negotiations in the late summer and early fall, Sturns said. “We had a lot of back and forth about the structure.” The unusual nature of the agreement came after the city determined it couldn’t use another type of financing for projects within 1,000 feet of a recognized convention center facility, because the Crescent project was too far away, Sturns said.

“It works out better for us in the long term,” Sturns said. “It’s exciting to have a really high-quality hotel in the Cultural District, which is something we have been working on for several years. It’s going to be a great addition.”