T&P Warehouse owner takes on development partner

A Wisconsin-based development company that transformed the Historic Electric Building in downtown Fort Worth into apartments 20 years ago has become a development partner in the Texas & Pacific Warehouse project on Lancaster Avenue.

David Vos, development project manager for the Alexander Co., told the board of the Lancaster Avenue Tax Increment Finance District on Wednesday that his company expects to begin construction early next year. He did not disclose the project’s cost.

The eight-story, 500,000-square-foot warehouse building will be transformed into 260 loft-style apartments with a hotel on its east side. Previous plans were to renovate the building into 350 apartments. Plans for street-level restaurants remain. The property has been vacant since the late 1970s.

“This is a very viable project that can be closed,” Vos said. “It’s a great project. It’s a clean project.”

The building’s owner, Dallas-based Cleopatra Inc., headed by Ola Assem, has owned the 1931 building since 1997. The TIF approved $11 million in funding in 2007 and has extended that four times.

Assem was told in March that she would have to produce financial documents in September on at least $35 million of the project, but the TIF board granted a fifth extension Wednesday, until Dec. 14. The Alexander Co. became a development partner in June, Vos said.

Vos, who indicated that his company was first contacted by Assem about five years ago, said that investors are lined up and that a term sheet lays out the investment details.

Councilman Jungus Jordan, who chairs the TIF board, told Vos that the City Council as well as “everyone in the city of Fort Worth” is interested in the project. “You’re going to have a lot of oversight,” he said.

Vos said Assem wants the redevelopment to happen “as badly as everyone else does.”

“We’re hoping it’s moving forward,” Jordan said. “It’s a key element of the success of Lancaster Avenue. We’re all hopeful this comes to fruition. It’s been a long time.”

In June, the city returned its temporary easement on the property to Assem. Neither Assem nor Nadeem Shoukry, a senior vice president at Cleopatra and Assem’s son, was at the meeting Wednesday.

Several other residential and commercial projects are planned for Lancaster Avenue on the south edge of downtown, but only one is under construction.

This story was originally published September 30, 2015 at 5:49 PM with the headline "T&P Warehouse owner takes on development partner."