East Side developments gathering momentum

BY JOHN-LAURENT TRONCHE

March 03, 2008

Even while the West Seventh Street overhaul continues, area developers already are working to capitalize on what they see as Fort Worth’s next big real estate ploy: the city’s long-languishing East and Southeast sides.

Dallas-based Cypress Equities, Fort Worth-based TownSite Co. and KT Land – the latter spearheaded by developer Tom Struhs and former Mayor Ken Barr – are working on commercial and residential developments that should usher in new housing, rehabilitated buildings and new commercial property.

The East and Southeast sides, which include the Evans-Rosedale and Sierra Vista neighborhoods as focal points, have long lay dormant with respect to development. Community representatives and police argue much of the area’s past crime has dissipated, and developers are moving in to cash in on inexpensive land, tax incentives and an area of town hungry for investment.

Staubach Co. affiliate Cypress Equities is conducting an area market assessment of Evans-Rosedale to determine whether to proceed with the development of property it is under contract to purchase from the city of Fort Worth, said Kirk Williams, Cypress Equities’ vice president of development.

The city declined to comment, but many familiar with the plans said residents could see a mixed-use development – retail, restaurants and residential – along Evans Avenue between East Terrell Avenue south to East Rosedale Street.

The company has a “contract with the city of Fort Worth to purchase the property but until that closes” nothing is certain, said Williams, adding no timeline is available.

In addition to the Evans-Rosedale area, more developers are building farther south, taking advantage of a city-designated Neighborhood Empowerment Zone, or five-year tax abatement, that extends from Interstate 35 west to South Riverside Drive, and Interstate 30 south to East Jessamine Street.

“It’s a historic neighborhood, the center of a lot of African-American history in Fort Worth,” said Barr of Evans-Rosedale, “and it is an area that is very close to Downtown and the Medical District, and it seems to be an area whose time has come to be redeveloped.”

Barr and Struhs have obtained about 130 lots in the Terrell Heights neighborhood, five blocks north of Evans-Rosedale, and are building single-family, brick homes reminiscent in style of those present during the neighborhood’s heyday in the 1920s and 1930s. Three 1,200-square-foot homes are under construction on the 900 block of East Leuda Street, with more planned in the next year. Barr said of the 1,800 lots in the area, about 700 are vacant.

“The houses will be for sale as they’re built,” Barr said. “We don’t know what the market is going to demand. They are in the $110,000 to $115,000 price range but we’ll see what the market will go on.”

Builder Ron Hill, president and owner of Neighborhood Homes, said the community reception has been encouraging and believes commercial development will follow as more residential rooftops appear.

“Once you get enough families here, then retail will say ‘well, we’re missing a significant number of opportunities,’” he said.

Southeast Fort Worth Inc. President Andre McEwing said Cypress Equities is examining building a commercial development in the Evans-Rosedale area that will include the rehabilitation of existing structures and the construction of new buildings.

“They’re actively involved with trying to secure some commercial retail tenants to come into the area,” McEwing said, “to bring that needed commercial retail that complements the Evans-Rosedale area.

“I would love to see it sooner but I’m definitely considerate of the dynamics of what it takes to do a good development,” he said, adding the project is “predicated on the economy.”

Williams said the city expressed interest in finding a developer for the site, and Cypress Equities responded.

Meanwhile, TownSite Co. is about three weeks away from work on two blocks of property two miles east of Evans-Rosedale, across from Texas Wesleyan University, said Lead Development Executive Phillip Poole.

The 30,000-square-foot, store-front retail center will remain home to Burge Hardware, Poole said, but will also include shops to encourage cross-street interaction with Texas Wesleyan students. The university will also occupy a lease space for one of its functions, he said.

“It’s the beginning,” Pool said. “It’s hard work and we’re going to have a lot of issues with code, how are we going to get them permitted – a lot of moving pieces. But at the end of the day there’s just a lot of value in the character.”

The Rosedale revival is not without its skeptics, however.

Fort Worth’s Fairmount neighborhood, located south of downtown to the west of Interstate 35, is in the midst of a revival not altogether different than what could happen to Evans-Rosedale.

“I really feel about that particular area, it’s going to have to be an all or nothing; it’s an area in such a negative light,” said Robb See, co-owner and broker of J.J. Robb Real Estate Services. “Even though Fairmount declined, it never did more than 60 percent. [Evans-Rosedale] truly hit rock bottom.”

J.J. Robb sells homes on the East Side in the $20,000 to $60,000 range, See said. New housing is a step in the right direction, but he added it’s difficult to predict who could be the See-described “urban pioneers” who make the first step into the neighborhood.

“It’s taken 15 years to get Fairmount to where it is now,” he said, “and even now there are people who say ‘well, I just couldn’t live there.’

“I think the most important thing for that area is for the people who are going to be living there – moving there and calling it home – are going to need a feeling of safety and security,” he said.

And while copper theft remains a large problem in the area, Hill said the three East Leuda Street houses are untouched.

“I installed copper on three of my homes, and it’s still here,” he said.

“I understood coming into this that this is not an overnight success. This is a five-year project.”

Barr and Hill say the risk will pay off, and the city’s East and Southeast sides will witness the renaissance many other areas of inner Fort Worth have experienced.

“I just think the timing is accurate when you look at the redevelopment of areas around Downtown, areas like the Medical District or Fairmount, so it’s a natural occurrence that you would expect the developments to continue.”

All parties agree that only time, investment and patience will tell.

“What we think this is, it’s the beginning of a turnaround,” Poole said. “These buildings have a chance to have another life, and we think that’s important.”