A boutique hotel is in the works across from Fort Worth’s Kimbell Museum, again
Another hotel concept is taking shape on the vacant lots north of the Kimbell Art Museum and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth in the city’s Cultural District.
Fort Worth’s Crescent Real Estate filed permits in December with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation for a 200-room “Cultural District Hotel” at the corner of Camp Bowie Boulevard and Van Cliburn Way. Both sides of Van Cliburn between West 7th and Camp Bowie are grassy lots, but previous developers focused hotel speculations on the western lot.
Representatives for Crescent did not return a call for comment, but the filing indicates the roughly 200,000-square-foot hotel will feature a conference room, ballroom, restaurant and a rooftop event area. Costs are estimated at a little more than $53 million.
Crescent is responsible for a number of high-end and large-scale projects across the country including the American Airlines campus in Fort Worth and several Dallas properties. The company’s chairman, John Goff, is the co-leader of an economic recovery task force Mayor Betsy Price established to respond to the coronavirus.
The concept is a better fit for the area than past attempts, said Dustin Van Orne, chairman of the Cultural District Alliance. One concept was tall enough to be seen from within the Kimbell. Van Orne said both the scope and architecture of the Crescent plan match the Cultural District.
“It’s very compatible with what exists in neighborhood, so it’s not like, you know, you’re plopping in a suburban hotel development in an urban museum district,” he said.
The alliance and the museums were briefed on the plans, he said, which include construction on both sides of Van Cliburn. He anticipates all will send letters of support for the project to the city as the current plan doesn’t include changes to the zoning.
Besides the hotel, plans call for a mix of office, ground-floor retail and residential, he said.
Denver-based OZ Architecture is listed as the architect. According to the firm’s website, OZ Architecture has worked on projects ranging from fire stations to resorts. The portfolio includes the The Ritz-Carlton resort in Lake Tahoe, the Richardson Design Center on the Colorado State University campus and the interior remodel of the Magnolia Houston hotel.
OZ also did a design and master plan for McMurdo Station, a sub-zero United States Antarctic research station.
The location, across from Fort Worth’s three major art museums and within walking distance to Dickies Arena and the West Seventh bar and restaurant district, is prime for development, but past concepts never got to construction.
This will be the third time a developer has attempted to turn the lots into a luxury hotel in recent years.
Illinois-based Heart of America Group tried two concepts on the site, called Hotel Renovo. The first would have cast a shadow on the Kimbell’s sculpture garden. In early 2018, after the design was downsized to 10 stories, the city denied tax incentives for the project.
Hoping to avoid being overshadowed by hotel development and encroachment from the West 7th corridor, museums in the district, including the Kimbell and the Amon Carter Museum of American Art worked with the city to establish protections for views.
After the debacle with Hotel Renovo, a height limit of 60 feet was applied to any future construction.
21c Museum Hotels, a Louisville, Kentucky-based company that offers both art galleries and high-end dining in its hotels, resurrected plans for a hotel at the site about a year later with Fort Worth’s Bennett Benner Partners. The 171-room concept did not get off the ground.
Meanwhile, another boutique hotel has been approved up the street at the corner of Dorothy Lane and Camp Bowie. The 120-room Bowie House is on the former site of the Ginger Man bar and a church, which have both been bulldozed. The concept includes a high-end restaurant and 11 townhomes.
This story was originally published December 30, 2020 at 12:44 PM.
