Here's the backside of the Armour Office Building at 601 E. Exchange Ave. The front of the building faces east.
The far eastern edge of Exchange Avenue in the Stockyards these days is bustling with construction activity, all of it designed to bring the land use up to a modern iteration of the historic corridor, where in yesteryear good fat steers and hogs awaited their fate on the food chain.
Those were the days, Upton Sinclair.
The tools of excavation are at work redefining 400 E. Exchange Ave. into the almost $50 million multifamily development that San Antonio-based Kairoi Residential has in mind. The first phase of a planned 770 units is under way. This stage will be 418 units at a cost of $35 million, according to documents filed with the state.
Adjacent to that development is the $8 million renovation of the historic Armour Office Building by U.S. Energy Development Corp., which will move its headquarters from Arlington to the property at 601 E. Exchange Ave.
The oil and gas investment company purchased the 51,000-square-foot building in August 2022.
“We really wanted to be a part and contribute to the redevelopment of the Stockyards in the Fort Worth,” U.S. Energy CEO Jordan Jayson said. “And, so, we're hoping to do something that contributes to the great history and in the style that flows throughout the Stockyards.”
U.S. Energy plans to be in the building by October 2024, said Jayson, who added that his company plans to use about 60% of the building and lease the rest.
“I don't think there's anything specifically unique that we're trying to create other than really leverage off the history of the building and the history of the district and create something that's unique in the commercial office space, in the district as well and across the country,” Jayson said.
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“I think that this building is going to continue to contribute to the uniqueness of the Stockyards real estate.”
It will be a welcome addition to the grand plan down there.
U.S. Energy was formed by Jayson’s parents, Joseph and Judy Jayson, in Buffalo, New York, in 1980. The company had success operating assets in the Appalachian Basin in western New York and northwestern Pennsylvania.
Over the years, the company began investing in more and more assets in the Southwest and Midwest.
Jayson took over the company upon the deaths of his parents within months of one another in 2014. He said he decided to move its base of operations closer to those assets, which include holdings in the Permian Basin and Eagle Ford Shale.
“We had a couple of historic partners from Fort Worth and I had been visiting Fort Worth for close to 15 years, had always loved the city, loved the people, and also enjoyed the history of the city as well,” Jayson said. “So, it just felt like a great home to reestablish the firm.”
In total, the company has invested in or operated about 4,000 wells in 13 states and Canada.
U.S. Energy’s base for almost 10 years has been in the Skymark Tower in Arlington. It maintains an office in Buffalo.
The Armour Office Building is the last remaining of the Armour meat packing plant complex, originally constructed in the early 1900s. The Swift plant was on the other side of the street. All of the Armour buildings have been demolished except this building, which was constructed in the late 1940s or early ’50s.
The Armour plant closed in 1962.
The U.S. Energy-Armour project is being completed in concert by architects Bennett Partners, contractor Whiting Turner, and KRS Realty Advisors. Other firms involved include Worth Engineering, Baird, Hampton & Brown, and Dunaway.
Said Jayson: “We're just really excited to be part of this and we recognize how unique it is to be part of the Stockyards.”