Why this old-school shopping center may be demolished. Who’s fighting to save it?
The rumors have been flying about the future of the historic Westcliff Shopping Center.
Fears of stealth dorms and losing beloved establishments have had residents in the surrounding neighborhoods swapping gossip about the shopping center about a mile south of TCU.
The post-war shopping center is largely unchanged with an Alberstons grocery store and a number of mom-and-pop stores, including Jabo’s Ace Hardware and the popular Cafe Bella Italian restaurant.
Near TCU, it’s the kind of place that two or three generations would frequent on a regular basis, said city councilman Brian Byrd, whose district includes the shopping center.
Now there’s a tentative plan to tear down the shopping center and replace it with housing for senior citizens, Byrd said. But word has gotten out about the project before formal plans have been drawn up.
“There is a group that has the entire site under contract, pending a zoning change to have an independent living facility and some assisted living,” Byrd said.
The 10.3-acre property sold in 2017 to Consolidated-Tomaka Land Company for $15 million.
But the developers have told Byrd and a small number of neighborhood leaders that they also plan to have more than retirement living on the site. He said they plan to add a park and want to preserve Cafe Bella and the Ace Hardware store.
One thing that won’t be coming to the shopping center site is student housing.
“We will push against anything that could be or will become a stealth dorm,” Byrd said.
At this point, no request for a zoning change has been filed with the city.
“When they came to me, they didn’t have a plan,” Byrd said. “They haven’t done a formal presentation. They just have an idea.”
Loren Baxter, the president of the Westcliff Neighborhood Association, said there is concern about what could replace the shopping center.
“I think change is going to happen one way or the other,” Baxter said. “I think we need to look at the plan and how it might fit and how we as neighborhoods can help.”
Baxter said “a working task force” plans to meet with the developers, but no firm date has been set.
“We’re only in the first two weeks of discussions,” Baxter said. “The developers have been very forthright.”
One of the buyers of the property, Jeff Bryant, declined to talk about the project when contacted by the Star-Telegram.
Bryant was one of the owners of WGH Heritage, which owned Westchester Plaza. It faced financial hardship and had problems with state regulators over inadequate staffing, residents missing medications and a leaky roof that flooded the top floor. It shut down in 2017 and was imploded earlier this year.
WGH Heritage agreed to pay $30,000 in civil penalties to the Texas attorney general’s office to settle a lawsuit stemming from complaints that the assisted-living facility did not have a working sprinkler system for eight months in 2012, according to Star-Telegram archives.
The shopping center had a grand opening in 1949 and included Mott’s Five & Dime and Worth Food Market. It later became known for Bolen’s Toy Palace, owned by the late Fort Worth Mayor Bob Bolen. J.E. Foster & Son was the original developer.
For tenants in the Westcliff Shopping Center, there’s a sense of unease at this point.
Eli Golemi, the owner of Cafe Bella, doesn’t know what to believe. She’s heard the rumors but nothing directly from her landlord.
She stopped remodeling her business because of the uncertainty over the shopping center’s future.
“I’m worried they’re going to destroy the shopping center,” Golemi said. “We all have very long leases and we don’t know what’s going to happen.”
If the project does go forward, Byrd said, the developers will need to be transparent about their plans.
“They need to visit more with the neighborhood,” Byrd said.
This report includes material from the Star-Telegram archives.
This story was originally published August 14, 2018 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Why this old-school shopping center may be demolished. Who’s fighting to save it?."