Downtown Fort Worth landmark will become luxury hotel
March 11,2020
See full Dallas Morning News Article by Steve Brown here.
A landmark downtown Fort Worth skyscraper will be converted into a luxury hotel.
San Francisco-based Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants said it will open a 232-room boutique hotel in the 24-story 714 Main building, formerly the Continental Life Insurance Building.
The almost century-old office tower was sold in 2018 by XTO Energy to Tennessee-based Development Service Group Inc.
The planned Fort Worth hotel will be Kimpton’s third property in Texas.
“Texas is a natural place to expand our brand,” Mike DeFrino, chief executive of Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, said in a statement. “Adding Fort Worth to our portfolio alongside Austin and Dallas is vital to our growth in the Southwest.
“Development Services Group is the ideal partner to help bring Kimpton to this part of the state and to the historically rich, energetic and exciting community of Fort Worth.”
Kimpton operates a hotel in Austin and will operate the new Pittman Hotel in Dallas’ Deep Ellum district.
The historic Fort Worth property Kimpton has chosen is in the bustling downtown Central Business District near the Fort Worth Convention Center, the Sundance Square entertainment and retail district and Bass Performance Hall. The hotel will open in spring 2021.
The Kimpton in Fort Worth will have an Italian restaurant, 10,000 square feet of meeting space, a two-story grand ballroom and a penthouse "Sky Bar.”
The tower was built in 1921 as the Farmers and Mechanics National Bank building and was once the tallest building west of the Mississippi River.
XTO Energy carefully restored the building in 2010. Development Services Group bought the tower in November 2018 in a sale brokered by commercial property firm JLL.
Fort Worth’s Bennet Benner Partners Architects and Los Angeles based Forcheilli Glynn are designing the renovations.
“We’re thrilled to take on this project for so many reasons,” Gary Prosterman, president of Development Services Group, said in a statement. “We absolutely love downtown Fort Worth and Sundance Square.
“With this project’s proximity to the convention center as well, it is ideally located to become a leading hotel.”
Location Mentioned: Kimpton Harper Hotel