Chef Tim Love’s shipping container cabins OK’d for his popular Fort Worth restaurant
Celebrity chef Tim Love will become a hotelier after the Fort Worth City Council on Tuesday approved his cabin concept despite opposition from several nearby residents.
Love wants to use the back portion of the lot at his Gemelle Italian restaurant on White Settlement Road, which is already known for its outdoor garden seating, for a micro hotel concept that uses shipping containers as cabins. He says the cedar-clad containers would give visitors a unique experience on the Trinity River and with a price tag at $200 a night, rent to a high-end crowd.
Dubbed Hotel Otto, Love plans to place nine shipping containers-turned-cabins to the east of Gemelle, 4400 White Settlement Road.
Neighbors are less enthusiastic, voicing concern since August over the plan. Those in opposition say limited parking and access to the lot will crowd nearby streets. They also worry the cabins, which feature rooftop decks, will rent to loud partiers, not vacationers. Much of the land is in a floodplain.
The 160-square-foot cabins fit a queen size bed, custom tile walk-in shower and refrigerator. Each unit has a full glass door and a rooftop deck that offers views of the river. They’ll be styled similar to the Gemelle building, according to Love’s presentation. Guests can rent kayaks and bikes to use along the river.
Love will hire two extra employees to keep Gemelle staffed 24 hours to assist hotel visitors. He had wanted to sink two shipping containers into the ground in the restaurant’s garden area for use as a pool, but an updated site plan shows the area as a boccie court.
“This project is the heart and soul of what the city is built on — young entrepreneurs trying new ideas and being creative,” Love said.
Darin Norman, co-director of the River District Inc., the development district that surrounds Gemelle’s to the west, said the hotel would be a gateway to the district, which is quickly becoming a center for housing and retail redevelopment. He sees the hotel as a local employment opportunity as well as a promoter of river activities.
“The hotel is a welcome addition to the river district and furnishes a unique setting for visitors to become acquainted with our values, and the many benefits that the district has to offer,” Norman said.
This was Love’s second attempt to get council approval for the project and opposition was much the same.
He tried to expedite the project through a process where developers can pay extra for the council to hear the case sooner, but the zoning commission in August told Love to communicate with more neighborhoods. In September, Councilman Carlos Flores continued the needed zoning change for 60 days, again telling Love to work with city staff and neighbors to resolve ongoing concerns about parking.
The site plan pitched Tuesday night expanded parking to include 57 spaces on the site, some of which are on city property. More parking is available on a separate lot to the west. The changes were meant to alleviate concerns parking would back up into the neighborhood.
Pat Fletcher, who lives across the street from Gemelle to the north, said despite Love’s pledge to talk to neighbors, she was never contacted. She says she supports the restaurant, but not the sort of late night gatherings a hotel might bring.
“We appreciate and enjoy the quiet community,” she said. “We do not need a party hub.”
Noise at the site has been a concern since Love first pitched the hotel earlier this year. In response, Flores asked police officers to measure the noise at Gemelle’s from various locations at different times of the day. He said they never rose above the city’s limit.
William Schur, who lives across the river in Crestwood, called in to the meeting to voice concern for the cabins’ placement in the floodplain for the West Fork of the Trinity River. He wondered why the city would approve rental units in a known flood zone.
“The first question is whether these structures should be placed in the flood way at all?” he said. “Men, women and children visiting our city should not spend the night in structures of this nature in the federal flood way no matter how trendy and cool they may appear in promotional materials.”
The council approved a rezoning needed so Love could place the shipping containers with an 8-1 vote on the recommendation of Flores. Councilman Dennis Shingleton was the lone no vote.
Flores, who represents the area, said he believed Love had worked out earlier issues with the site plan. After touring the shipping containers-turned-cabins, he said he thought Hotel Otto would create little nuisance.
“Bottom line, the suites edition is a relatively low impact,” he said.
This story was originally published November 17, 2020 at 9:05 PM.
