Contested north side hotel on edge of Fort Worth Stockyards clears next hurdle
A majority of Fort Worth zoning commissioners Wednesday recommended that city leaders rezone 2.53 acres of abandoned land in the north side for intensive commercial use, clearing the way for a new hotel.
Eight of the 10 commissioners supported the construction of a Hampton Inn and Suites on the remains of a demolished supermarket on the corner of Northwest 29th Street and North Main Street. The plan has elicited split reactions from nearby residents, who dispute whether the project will drive development or displacement in surrounding communities.
The proposed hotel creeps across 28th Street, the informal boundary separating the Stockyards from miles of working class neighborhoods. The 149-room structure would leer over a row of homes on Ellis Avenue.
“You might be thinking, ‘Hotels? Why so many hotels?’” the project’s lead engineering consultant, John Ainsworth, asked rhetorically to the commission during a presentation Wednesday afternoon. “We all know the Stockyards is growing; there’s a strong demand there.”
The hotel’s intended developer, Oldham Goodwin, plans to construct another Hilton hotel spinoff a few hundred feet east on another disregarded lot along Northwest 29th Street. Oldham Goodwin, based in Bryan, opened SpringHill Suites a few blocks down Main Street in 2019.
Ainsworth and the property’s current owner, Barney B. Holland Jr., showed in-person to lobby for the zoning change, boasting strong buy-in from nearby businesses.
The applicants brandished letters of support from the city’s Chamber of Commerce, the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, two Stockyards restaurants south of 28th street, and the Chick-fil-A bordering the property’s southern edge. (Holland’s company happens to be the Chick-fil-A’s landlord.)
Homeowners in the vicinity of the would-be hotel also vouched for its creation, Ainsworth said. The president of the Diamond Hill-Jarvis Neighborhood Association Council, a community east of Main Street cordoned off by knots of train tracks, pledged the group’s support in a Feb. 26 email shared with the commission.
“There’s only one neighbor on Ellis that we did not get a letter of support from,” Ainsworth told the commission — a family whose head-of-house was apparently out of town.
Some Ellis Avenue residents expressed a mixture of relief and acceptance about the prospective hotel when discussing it with the Star-Telegram the week before the zoning vote. They’d prefer stores or restaurants, they admitted, but a hotel — something — is better than vacant, neglected space.
One neighbor said he wasn’t aware of his family members (who populate the block) writing letters of support for the hotel. The Star-Telegram was unable to secure copies of the letters from the commission or the developer’s team.
The initial site plan envisioned a six-story building that funneled customer traffic directly onto Ellis Avenue. Ainsworth presented a tweaked version to commissioners: a stumpier structure (four above ground floors instead of six) that instead discharged cars along Northwest 29th Street and the road slicing between the property and Chick-fil-A.
City planning staff had originally suggested denying the proposal; a hotel, they reasoned, was incompatible with the surrounding area and inconsistent with the city’s future land use plans. Many north side residents agree.
Those following online commentary on the case might’ve expected droves of opposition speakers, but only Gladys Guevara, the vice president of the Northside Neighborhood Association, phoned in. (Some angry posters complained that they couldn’t attend the hearing because it was held during work hours.)
“We already have the pressure from all of the development of the Stockyards,” Guevara said, her voice sounding from the chamber’s speakers. “As they encroach the residential areas, that’s going to negatively impact those who’ve chosen to live there.”
Hotels near homes brings costs — noise, traffic, unruly tourists — and few benefits for neighbors, she reasoned. Some worry a subsequent spike in property values may price longtime homeowners out of their houses.
The commission sympathized with Guevara’s concerns about the project, but not enough to share her opposition to it.
“I am at times worried about what hotels do to neighborhoods; I don’t really find the value that a hotel will bring to a neighborhood unless they were involved with the community itself,” commissioner Willie Rankin remarked just before the vote, urging the developers to meet with Guevara’s organization. “We do see how close you are to the highway, we do see how close you are to the Stockyards, so there is another group that will benefit from this type of development.”
Holland, the property owner, stopped by the neighborhood association’s monthly meeting the following evening.
“We could not find a user for the north half of the block,” he explained to 20 or so attendees, District 2 city council member Carlos Flores among them. Hundreds more tuned into a Facebook livestream.
“As you all know, there’s a huge influx of people — tourists, visitors — to the Stockyards and not enough hotel rooms,” he continued, motioning as needed to a site map projected behind him. “As I like to say, ‘Mr. Market’ has identified this as a good spot for a hotel.”
Many in the audience greeted Holland’s pitch with skepticism, reiterating Guevara’s fears that the hotel would generate more clamor and gridlock than economic opportunities for locals.
Others shared enthusiasm. “Looks good to me,” one resident commented as he passed around a digital rendition of the building.
“I’m glad that sales taxes, real estate taxes, and Hotel Tourist Taxes are going to be generated in the millions $$$$ for schools and hospitals for the community,” another commented online.
The City Council will have a final say on the matter at its meeting April 9.
This story was originally published March 14, 2024 at 5:04 PM.
