26-story tower approved for downtown Fort Worth

March 17,2015

Scott Nishimura
snishimura@bizpress.net

Plans for a 26-story mixed-use tower in downtown Fort Worth got the go-ahead from a design review board Monday.

The Downtown Design Review Board approved plans for the 640 Taylor building on the site of the former Star-Telegram Annex. The building will be home to the privately held Jetta Operating Co. in Fort Worth and owned by Anthracite Realty Partners, owned by Jetta founder and President Greg Bird.

The building will include retail, other office tenants, parking, and condominiums, according to a detailed plan revealed Monday by Anthracite and Bird.

The building will have 7,000 square feet of ground-floor retail, 230,000 square feet of office, and 900 parking spaces, six to eight condominiums on the top two floors, a skyline restaurant open to tenants and the public, and event spaces available for private events, according to the plan.

"it will be a great site to downtown," Bird said in an interview.

Jetta, a privately held energy firm whose offices are in the Fort Worth Club Tower across the street, had previously said it would move its offices into the new building.

Jetta has about 45,000 square feet of space in the Fort Worth Club and will likely take up at least three of the floors in the new building, Bird said. That building will have about a 20,000-square-foot footprint.

Anthracite plans to put another anchor office tenant in the building, and additional office tenants.

"We're well down the road on discussions" with a prospective anchor tenant, Bird said.

Asked if the tenant would be new to Fort Worth, he said, "they have a presence within Fort Worth and within Texas. It'll be a great complementary client to have downtown."

Catherine Severin, Jetta vice president of administration and corporate communications, said Jetta plans to begin excavating the site in the mid-summer. Construction could take 22-24 months, she said.

"And that is an estimate," she said.

Bird declined to say how much Anthracite plans to invest in the building.

The parking garage will include spaces for the Fort Worth Club and Morningstar Partners, the energy firm founded by XTO Energy founder Bob Simpson that owns the former Star-Telegram complex at 400 W. 7th St.

Pedestrian access to the tower will be from Taylor Street, where elevators will go all parking levels, the 12th floor Sky Lobby floor, 13th floor dining level, offices and condos.

The ground-floor retail space will be along 5th, Taylor, and 6th streets. Jetta will improve the sidewalks with color pavers, planting areas, and pedestrian lighting.

The Sky Lobby will feature a security and visitor check-in area that guests must pass through enroute to the elevator bank. The floor also will include conference facilities.

The dining level will feature views through full-height glass walls onto a 3,400-square-foot dining deck facing downtown's Sundance Square. The dining level is designed for a restaurant and small cafe. Adjacent to the dining area, Anthracite will build a 3,200-square-foot roof garden with extensive landscaping and shade structures.

The dining and roof garden areas will be available for private events.

The office floor’s facade will feature a high-efficiency insulating glass curtain wall, metal panel, and metal louver system.

The parking structure will have a curtain wall and metal louver system, allowing air and light into the garage. The ground-floor lobby will have double-height glass walls.

Bird said Anthracite is turning next to determining the sizes, amenities, and price points for the condos.

"We think it will be a great complement to the building" and "makes it more unique and brings it to life a little bit through all hours od the day," he said.

Bird founded Jetta in 1991. The company operates more than 1,000 wells, primarily on the Texas Gulf Coast, Delaware Basin of West Texas, Southern Mid-Continent Region of Oklahoma and Texas, and Appalachian Basin of Eastern Kentucky. The Oil and Gas Financial Journal has listed Jetta in the top 50 U.S. private exploration and production companies based on operated production in the United States.

Jetta has about 240 U.S. employees, 120-130 in the Fort Worth Club Tower offices, Bird said.

The company anticipates more growth, Bird said. Anthracite bought the 640 Taylor site from the Fort Worth Club last year; the Fort Worth Club had purchased it from the Star-Telegram.

"We're just looking ahead to the next 10 years," he said. "We've been on a pretty steady growth pattern for the last 10 years."

Not only will the new building provide more room to grow, it will complete well in the strong downtown Class A office market, Bird said.

Bennett Benner Partners is the project’s architect. Balfour Beatty Construction will be the general contractor.