Dallas developer buys 4.6 acres in downtown Fort Worth to support ‘vibrant urban center’
November 13,2024
See full Fort Worth Star-Telegram article by Harrison Mantas and Matt Leclercq here.
Dart Interests, a Dallas-based real estate investment firm with a gilded portfolio that includes luxury Manhattan condo towers and a $1 billion sprawling beach resort in Orlando, has added to its holdings in downtown Fort Worth with the purchase of four parcels totaling 4.6 acres west of Sundance Square.
The purchased parcels are all within four blocks of the former public library property, which Dart Interests bought from the city in May 2023 for $18 million, after the library said it no longer needed such a large building. While the developer’s early concepts suggested two 20-story towers for the 2.3-acre library site, the firm has not released more details about its plans.
According to information released by Dart Interests to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, it plans to develop the newly purchased sites, though details have not been determined. The company said it will take over operation of the office building at 300 Burnett St., which was part of the most recent purchase.
“This expansion marks another step forward in Dart’s long-term commitment to Fort Worth, enhancing the area’s connectivity and contributing to the vibrancy of downtown,” Dart Interests said. “This acquisition aligns with the company’s vision for enhancing the public realm and supporting Fort Worth’s evolution as a vibrant urban center.”
The properties — on Burnett Street, West Second Street, West First Street, Henderson Street and West Weatherford Street — were purchased from Farmers and Foresters, LP, Dart Interests said. The purchase price was not disclosed. The combined appraised values of the properties is about $13.5 million, according to the Tarrant Appraisal District.
The project would significantly transform what’s now a largely underdeveloped, pass-through side of downtown that has seen little to no new construction in recent years. Many of the blocks west of Taylor Street, where the entertainment district fades, are surface parking or government offices.
“Additional project details will be shared as planning progresses, and Dart Interests looks forward to engaging with our neighbors and the community,” the company said.
Andy Taft, president of Downtown Fort Worth Inc., was encouraged by news of the Dart Interests purchases.
“It’s a very exciting commitment to downtown,” he said. “It makes all the sense in the world that the developer of the library would control the space around them for future development, and it’s very exciting that they pulled the trigger on that.”
DEVELOPMENT ADJACENT TO SUNDANCE SQUARE
The development could add competition for neighboring Sundance Square, the privately owned firm that owns much of the city center’s retail and commercial space. Roughly a quarter of downtown storefronts are empty and some Sundance tenants have questioned management’s vision. Already just south of Sundance, there’s at least $1 billion in new development in the pipeline, spurred by the future Texas A&M-Fort Worth campus.
With corporate headquarters in Dallas, Dart Interests is a real estate investment and development firm with multifamily residential, commercial and hospitality properties in 12 markets across seven states. The company operates from a single source of capital, which it says allows it to act more deliberately to “control our destiny and flex our creativity.”
The firm’s founder is Kenneth Dart, a billionaire businessman whose family founded Dart Container, the maker of Solo cups.
Some of the firm’s projects in the works include a 30-story luxury condo tower called The Leyton in New York City’s Upper East Side, a few blocks away from a 19-story condo tower called The Clare that the firm developed in 2017.
High-end destination resorts in Dart’s portfolio include the $1 billion Evermore Orlando Resort development on 1,100 acres next to Walt Disney World in Florida, with thousands of rooms and residences, a lagoon and two Nicklaus-designed golf courses.
In Denver, Dart Interests is invested in a $181 million NOVEL RiNo multi-family development in the city’s arts district with a rooftop restaurant and ground-floor retail. Its partner in that project, Crescent Communities, has three NOVEL-branded residential towers in Dallas. An 18-story NOVEL South Capitol apartment building stands 13 stories in Washington, D.C.’s trendy Navy Yard.
In Houston, the firm invested in redeveloping a 35-acre office complex called Republic Square, the former headquarters of Exxon Chemical, as an anchor for future development.