Former Frank Kent Cadillac site downtown could become apartments

A Dallas-based investor group is under contract to buy the former Frank Kent Cadillac site on Lancaster Avenue, where it plans a 202-unit apartment community called Cadillac Lofts.

Happy Baggett, a Fort Worth-based real estate developer who sold the 67 acres for what became the Wal-Mart-anchored Renaissance Square shopping center in southeast Fort Worth, said he is working as a consultant with the group, Sonoma Investments.

Baggett confirmed that the 2.4-acre property is under contract but said no details will be revealed until the first of May.

“We’re spending a lot of money,” Baggett said, adding that the project is in final design stages.

He said that the investment group has done “scores and scores” of apartments, mostly in the Dallas area, and that this will be its first Fort Worth project. “They’re very quality guys,” he said.

The project was revealed by Andy Taft, president of Downtown Fort Worth Inc., during the organization’s 33rd annual meeting at the Worthington Renaissance Hotel. Taft offered no further details, only that the project is in the works.

The land at Lancaster and Main Street, at the south end of downtown, has sat empty since a natural gas explosion destroyed the dealership in 1986. The land is owned by the Churchill family.

In the past decade, the location has been sought by hotel developers as well as office and multifamily developers. As late as mid-2014, it was under contract to a developer that planned a 140-room boutique hotel, but that group backed out.

This story was originally published April 1, 2015 at 6:01 PM with the headline "Former Frank Kent Cadillac site downtown could become apartments."