FORT WORTH -- It took five years, but the last unsold penthouse perched atop The Tower in downtown Fort Worth is under contract.
"It's out of the blue," said Tony Landrum, head of TLCurban and the developer group that redeveloped the 37-story tornado-ravaged former office tower at Fifth and Throckmorton streets into luxury condo building.Not far away, another long-vacant penthouse, in the Neil P. at Burnett Park building, has sold. The interior space is under construction, and the new owners expect to move in in late October.Are the unexpected penthouse sales indicative of a turnaround in Fort Worth's trendy downtown condo market?Real estate agents seem to think so. Condo sales have taken off since the first of the year, they say.In June, agents with Williams Trew Sotheby's International Realty sold the last condo in Le Bijou for OmniAmerican Bank, which foreclosed on the property in 2009. Williams Trew was given the listing for the 14 unsold units, and the bank asked that the units be sold in three years. That was 21/2 years ago, said Joann Royer, vice president of the Williams Trew urban division.Eight of those units sold for $415,000 to $645,000, or half the original asking prices. "Those were very good prices and the bank, I think, was very pleased," Royer said.After struggling for the first few years, sales have turned at the Neil P., the redeveloped Neil P. Anderson building at Seventh and Lamar streets, and only six of the building's 57 units are available, said Pam Jones, the listing agent with Hurst-based CMT Realty. Residents began moving into the Neil P. in 2005, shortly after The Tower opened to residents.Last year, seven units sold, and that many have sold this year. The long-vacant 11th-floor penthouse closed in December, after the $1 million-plus listing price was reduced to $849,000."It's crazy," Jones said. "Our goal is to be sold out this year."Becky and Greg Fitzgerald, who bought the Neil P. penthouse, are renting on another floor until their 3,800-square-foot condo is completed.The couple -- she's an American Airlines flight attendant and he's CEO of Fitz Aerospace in North Richland Hills -- said they looked at units in the Omni and Montgomery Plaza but decided on the Neil P. because of the uniqueness of the property and friendliness of the other condo owners.And, they acknowledge, because of the 5,100-square-foot rooftop deck. The roof will be tiled and have an outdoor living space, including a kitchen and dining area. The three-bedroom, three-bath condo will have fitness and game rooms and a private elevator. They said they got a good price.They previously lived in an apartment in far north Fort Worth and wanted to be downtown."We like the atmosphere," Becky Fitzgerald said.At The Tower, which introduced high-dollar, high-rise living to Fort Worth, the first two penthouses sold within months of being put on the market in 2007, initially priced at more than $1 million. The third sold in 2009 and resold in the spring.The last unit is the largest at more than 4,000 square feet. It's been in a so-called white box stage, meaning it has been dry-walled waiting for a buyer to finish it out to his or her liking. The listing price had been reduced to $725,000, according to online brokerage websites.Only 18 of the building's 290 units are up for resale, the fewest on the market since the development opened seven years ago and quickly sold out. It wasn't uncommon in the past couple of years for 15 to 20 percent of the units to be on the market, Royer said."That's encouraging to us," Royer said. "When you go back a couple of years, it was looking a little bleak down there."At the Omni Residences, the condo portion of the Omni Fort Worth Hotel, 1301 Throckmorton St., where some units list for more than $1 million, eight have sold this year, five fewer than were sold when the project opened in 2009. Some others are under contract. In 2010, five condos sold, and last year three sold, according to deed records."Things are really starting to kick off there," Royer said.Developments in the West Seventh Street corridor are also experiencing gains.At Museum Place, at University Drive and West Seventh Street, units were leased a couple of years ago because they were not selling. Now, of the 34 units in the building with Eddie V's restaurant at street level, three have sold this year and two are under contract and expected to close in September, said Reese Pettigrew, chief financial officer with JaGee Holdings in Fort Worth and a partner in Museum Place Development Group."I have to admit we are surprised," Pettigrew said. "For the first ones under contract, those were buyers who actually lived outside of Fort Worth and just made the decision to move into the city. Financing was not a huge obstacle for them."That may be a key. Past potential buyers who once decided to sit tight on their money are now moving ahead with plans to own a condo. And with demand up so much, lenders are more willing to give a mortgage on a condo project, a loan that was next to impossible to land a few years ago during the housing crisis.Lenders consider mortgage loans on condos riskier because some of their biggest losses have come from defaults on condos.Marshall Boyd, managing partner at Williams Trew, said developers have forged relationships with banks to lend to potential buyers and some developers have gone through the lengthy process to be on the Federal Housing Authority approved list, meaning that clients can qualify for FHA loans to buy a condo.Currently, the Arthouse at So7 is the only FHA-approved development, according to the Housing and Urban Development website. The Tower's approval expired in May."Demand finds a way to get these things done," Boyd said. "Demand is back."There's also so much more awareness about the condo market, by the public as well as real estate agents.Downtown Fort Worth Inc., a nonprofit advocacy agency, and the Greater Fort Worth Association of Realtors have held classes for a couple of years to certify real estate agents as urban experts, training them on how to sell downtown property.Andy Taft, president of Downtown Fort Worth Inc., said confidence in the condo market is building among buyers and developers. He said his organization has had developers call for demographic information and other statistical research and to talk about possible projects."It's helpful we have been training a cadre of real estate agents," Taft said. "We're building a sales force as the market is returning to us and that's exactly what we hoped would happen."Royer said, "Every time there's a sale, it's a home run."Developers of Montgomery Plaza, the redeveloped Montgomery Ward store on West Seventh Street, sold 94 of the building's 240 units when the project got under way. Sales slowed as the property went through several ownership changes, and now 116 units remain. When units started selling again last year, 11 condos were sold between July and December, deed records show. This year, 13 have sold, deeds show.In December 2010, SkyWalker Property Partners in Arlington bought the unsold 29 condos at Arthouse in So7, across from Montgomery Plaza, and eight remain unsold. Some of those are leased and won't hit the market for several months. Eleven units sold in 2011, Clint Holland of SkyWalker said.The development's new owners never dreamed sales would be this far along after only 18 months, he said."Wish I could figure out what's triggered the increase," Holland said. They are now on target to sell out in three years, he said.Sandra Baker, 817-390-7727Twitter: @SandraBakerFWSTHave more to add? News tip? Tell us
