Sundance Square is losing a dining landmark. Will this add to tensions with other tenants?
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What’s happening with the Reata in downtown Fort Worth?
A lease dispute pushes Reata restaurant out of Sundance Square.
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Reata restaurant faces move in Fort Worth, leaving Sundance Square and maybe downtown
Sundance Square is losing a dining landmark. Will this add to tensions with other tenants?
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Reata restaurant is leaving its Sundance Square location, but some hope to keep the Fort Worth institution in downtown.
The restaurant, at the corner of Houston and West Third streets, announced Wednesday it would leave that location when its lease expires in June 2024. It is seeking help from the public about where to move, but leaders downtown aren’t ready to concede that would be elsewhere.
Reata leaving downtown would be a huge loss, said Andy Taft, president of the nonprofit business advocacy group Downtown Fort Worth Inc. He said its group will work with the restaurant in hopes of keeping it downtown.
Reata moved to its location after the March 2000 tornado slammed into its home on the 35th floor of the Bank One tower (now known as The Tower) at West Fifth and Throckmorton streets. The restaurant made a comeback just six weeks after the storm, but was forced to close in 2001 so the building could be sold.
During a press event on Wednesday, Reata general manager Russell Kirkpatrick talked about the restaurant’s grit in rebuilding from the tornado, and said this next move would be a new chapter for the restaurant.
Neither Kirkpatrick nor Reata president Mike Micallef addressed tensions with landlord Sundance Square management over changes to valet parking. Sundance raised its rate in 2021 from a flat fee of $3 to $7 for one hour and $21 all day.
Restaurants can still validate that parking, but Micallef has argued in the past that this is too big a cost for downtown businesses to absorb.
A spokesperson for Sundance Square management said the company does not comment on landlord-tenant relations.
Free parking with validation is offered weekdays in a garage nearby at 345 W. Third St., along with another garage across the square. City-funded free parking is available in five garages at night and on weekends.
People will follow Reata regardless of its next location, said Bob Jameson, CEO of Visit Fort Worth.
“It’s representative of Texas and Western cuisine style and people are drawn to that,” Jameson said.
Visit Fort Worth supports a number of restaurants for their ability to tell a unique Fort Worth story, and Reata is one of them, Jameson said.
Jameson acknowledged there is a perception downtown about an undercurrent of tensions between Sundance Square management and some of its longer term tenants.
“To whatever degree that exists, this will not help,” he said.
In an interview with WFAA, Micallef said Sundance Square management rebuffed multiple attempts from Reata to extend its lease past June 2024.
This story was originally published March 30, 2022 at 1:29 PM.
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