New Stockyards hotels may crop up near homes. Where are they and who owns them?

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Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Millions visit the Fort Worth Stockyards annually. The city’s tourism industry is scrambling to accommodate the ever-growing number of honky-tonk hungry visitors.

Developers sensitive to the strain are proposing new hotels on the Stockyards’ fringes, where the district rubs against residential neighborhoods. Through analyzing public records, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram has identified at least four prospective projects along this informal border — each at a different stage of development.

209 NE 29th St.

Property Owner/Developer: Oldham Goodwin Capital LLC, based in Bryan, owns hundreds of commercial and retail sites across Texas. The company opened a SpringHill Suites at the intersection of Northwest 23rd Street and North Main Street in December 2019.

What is/was there: The site’s 15.55 acres were originally zoned for heavy and medium industrial use. The land held little more than trees, dirt and debris in recent years. The property borders a pawn shop, some auto repair stores and a truck yard.

What they want to build: Developers plan to construct a Home2 Suites by Hilton on the southernmost section of the property along Northeast 29th Street. Other portions of land will be used for retail and high-density residential spaces, according to developers.

Status: The Fort Worth City Council unanimously agreed to rezone the property for commercial and residential use Aug. 8, 2023. The zoning commission also approved of the project with blanket consensus the previous month. Construction doesn’t appear to have begun on the project as of March 20; earlier in the month, the developer’s team applied to begin vacating portions of the property.

In their own words

For: “It’s going to be wonderful because this rezoning is going to downzone a historically medium and heavy industrial area to other, better commercial uses.” — District 2 council member Carlos Flores, during Aug. 8, 2023, City Council vote

Against: “I’m in opposition of this because it would lead to displacement,” north side resident Daniella Serrano told zoning commissioners in July. “This sets the precedent for that area.”

2833 & 2825 N. Main St.

Property Owner: Barney Holland Oil Company, a Fort Worth commercial real estate firm that made its name moving fuel before managing land.

Developer: Oldham Goodwin Capital LLC

What is/was there: The city demolished an abandoned Carnival supermarket on the site in 2019. A Chick-fil-A and Starbucks — lessees of Barney Holland Oil Company — have since sprouted up on the property’s southern half; the northern half has remained vacant.

What they want to build: Developers plan to construct a 149-room Hampton Inn and Suites, another Hilton spinoff. The four- to six-story site would have 155 parking spaces, according to site plans.

Status: Earlier this year, Holland and his partners applied to redesignate the land from general to intensive commercial to move forward with the project. The city zoning commission recommended City Council support the change on March 13 in an 8-2 vote. Councilmembers will decide the fate of the case April 9.

In their own words

For: “As you all know, there’s a huge influx of people — tourists, visitors — to the Stockyards and not enough hotel rooms,” Barney Holland Jr. told members of the Northside Neighborhood Association a day after the zoning commission meeting. “As I like to say, ‘Mr. Market’ has identified this as a good spot for a hotel.”

Against: “We already have the pressure from all of the development of the Stockyards,” Gladys Guevara, vice president of the Northside Neighborhood Association told the zoning commission March 13. “As they encroach the residential areas, that’s going to negatively impact those who’ve chosen to live there.”

2414 Clinton Ave. (intersection with West Exchange Avenue)

Property Owner: The estate of James and Janet Lane, according to several public listings. James ‘Jim’ Lane was a Fort Worth attorney and council member. He etched his name in Stockyards lore by lobbying for the site’s now famous twice-daily cattle drives. Lane died in November 2022.

Developer: Graham Ltd., a Fort Worth-based commercial real estate management firm led by Trey Neville. The company owns and operates Hotel Revel on West Rosedale Street.

What is/was there: The 14,000 square foot site, zoned for mixed-use development and subject to Stockyards building codes, is empty as of March 20. The hotel would sit on the western frontier of the tourist district, bookending half a mile of saloon-themed bars and restaurants running east along West Exchange Avenue. The site borders a row of homes just across Clinton Avenue to the west.

What they want to build

Graham Ltd. first approached the city’s urban design commission with plans for a “boutique” hotel in 2022. The original blueprint envisioned a five-story structure fitted with roughly 40 rooms, a pool, and an interior courtyard. The developers requested exemptions from several building codes to bring the project to fruition — chief among them allowing the building to climb 66 feet instead of the maximum allowed 40 feet and supply 16 parking spaces instead of the minimum required 50.

Some nearby residents and business owners laid into the proposal. The Northside Neighborhood Association and the Stockyards Business Association issued public statements in opposition. The building’s design betrayed the vibe and style of the rest of the district, they argued. Its parking layout also couldn’t accommodate the visitors and workers it planned to attract. The commission ultimately recommended denying the proposal.

Graham circled back with a tweaked plan the following summer. The developer shaved off the hotel’s top floor but maintained much of the original aesthetic. It also proposed enlisting a valet parking service to compensate for the lack of onsite spaces. Some commissioners seemed pleased with the changes and lauded the structure’s originality.

For others, the new plans did little to placate old complaints. The Stockyards Business Association again led the opposition. The proposed hotel still had too many floors, too few parking spaces and too unsuitable a design, they argued.

Status: Design board commissioners, split on the project, decided to push off the matter to its July 2023 meeting. Critics of the plan — by the attendance standards of a city ordinance debate — appeared en masse at the next session, repeating the same concerns they’d voiced since the project’s inception. Several opposition speakers had tie-ins with the SpringHill Suites hotel on North Main Street. After about an hour of pitches, critiques, and rebuttals, the commission denied the case without prejudice, leaving the door open for Trey Neville’s team to reapply. It’s not clear where the project stands. Neville did not respond to a request for comment.

In their own words

For: “Mimicking that, in my opinion, degrades what is actually historical,” the project architect, Bart Shaw, told the urban design commission in 2022 in response to concerns about the building’s incompatibility with the Stockyards’ architectural themes. “The idea is to reference the history in a more literary way.”

Against: “This gem has to be cared for, which this proposal does not do,” a representative of the North Fort Worth Historical Society commented during the 2022 urban design hearing. “This proposal does not complement or support adjacent neighborhoods.”

Against: “It’s egregious, it’s not necessary,” former NFL player Hunter Goodwin, president of Oldham Goodwin, said of the proposed height of the hotel during the July 2023 meeting. “By allowing a 54-foot building, you’re affecting the adjacent residential homeowners.” (Goodwin’s company plans to construct another six-story hotel immediately across the street from a row of homes — the proposed 149-room Hampton Inn and Suites on North Main Street.)

2810 Clinton Ave.

Owner/Developer: Stockyards Lodging LLC, a company created in 2021 and registered to a home in Irving. The company’s listed agent, Nimesh Patel, is the co-founder and managing partner of ICON Lodging, a hospitality firm based in Coppell that oversees hotels across the Metroplex.

What is/was there: The property owned by Stockyards Lodging runs from the intersection of Clinton Avenue and Northwest 28th Street north until 2814 Clinton Ave, according to city property map data. The southernmost section, zoned heavy industrial, hosts an auto repair shop; the upper half, zoned for commercial activity (that doesn’t involve alcohol), is an empty parking lot. Bordering a church to the east and a residential neighborhood to the west, the site is a two minute drive from the prospective Hampton Inn and Suites on North Main Street.

What they want to build: It’s unclear; few details about the possible project are publicly available. The company appeared to submit a notice of construction for a hotel with the Federal Aviation Authority Mar. 11. The proposed building would climb 70 feet, according to the filing. The land would presumably need to be rezoned for the project to proceed.

Status: Unclear. The developer did not respond to a request for comment.

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