The future of 1300 Gendy St., the current site of the city-owned Fort Worth Community Arts Center, could include restaurants, a hotel, apartments or an outdoor amphitheater if one of two plans presented to the community moves forward.
A city-appointed task force recommended that Fort Worth issue a request for proposals to redevelop the site following a 2022 building assessment that identified a need for $26 million in repairs. That number is closer to $30 million today, the city says.
Garfield Public/Private LLC and Goldenrod Companies were among four developers that submitted plans to the city and were the only teams selected to share their proposals with the community.
The request for proposals recommended, but did not require, developers to include a live theater space and incubator for emerging artists; incorporate the architecture of the existing building; and include existing tenants to the extent it would be economically feasible.
However, at a June City Council meeting Mayor Mattie Parker assured the crowd, “As your mayor, I will not approve any RFP (request for proposal) that doesn’t maintain as a priority and a requirement … that (the) theater is maintained and you have a community art space. It’s imperative to me.”
The Garfield Public/Private LLC plan identified three anchor tenants for the site: Jubilee Theatre, The Cliburn and the forthcoming Fort Worth African American Museum, along with two proposed restaurants, an outdoor amphitheater, a makerspace and other amenities in their roughly 113,000-square-foot development.
The presentation included representatives from two of the anchor tenants as well as Michael Bennett, the CEO and principal at Fort Worth architecture firm Bennett Partners, who would work with them on the project.
“None of us doubt this building and what it can do, but when this building was built, Fort Worth had a population of 360,000 and it was the 38th largest city in the U.S. As you all know, today we’re the 13th largest city in the U.S., with a population of 962,000, so times have changed,” Bennett said.
He described the team as passionate preservationists and said their proposal included keeping the distinctive trees, a semicircular driveway and front porch area that have long distinguished the facade of the original building. But Bennett said they would not be able to preserve the full existing structure in order to fulfill other needs and design elements of their plan, such as the multipurpose performance studio for The Cliburn.
Goldenrod Companies proposed keeping the recognizable facade of the W.E. Scott Theatre at the center of its development and adding new buildings and outdoor plazas around it, including a 175-key hotel and a 250-unit apartment building.
The plan also includes restaurant space, banquet halls that can be rented out and connected outdoor space for hosting art fairs and drawing people from one section of the site to another.
“This is the first step in the process, and we are going to be good listeners and hear what the city needs and what the artists need and design the palette of our space to accommodate you guys,” said John Zogg, Southwest Region President at Goldenrod.
Throughout the presentation, the Goldenrod team highlighted the idea of placemaking and creating areas where people can engage throughout the site, from attending performances and outdoor workshops to watching artists at work in their studios — with a vision that these things could happen simultaneously.
Coury Hospitality will manage the hotel, while Goldenrod will manage the apartment building, and the for-profit portion of the project will allow continuous contributions to the project’s maintenance, Zogg said. They did not identify other anchor tenants but said management of the other facilities will likely involve some partnership with the city.
Share your feedback
Missed the meeting? You can watch a recording or see the proposals here.
All feedback is due by 4 p.m. Oct. 16. Interested residents can fill out this form or this template and email the city using the instructions below:
To submit an email: FMSPurchasingResponses@fortworthtexas.gov
Subject: “Attn: Charles Benson RFP 23-0071 Public Meeting”
Failure to follow submission instructions could result in your comments not being received.
Source: City of Fort Worth
Nearly 140 residents attended the Oct. 11 meeting, and the majority of those who spoke during the two question-and-answer sessions shared their concerns and highlighted the need for a public, noncommercial venue where artists can have studio space and share their art.
Natalia Dominguez is an artist, educator and doctoral candidate at Texas Christian University. After the meeting, she said she was disappointed that the public didn’t get to see all four proposals and felt that the process hadn’t been fully transparent.
“I fear that they already have a selection and will say, ‘We asked the community, we did all these things, crossed all the boxes,’ but at the end of the day I wouldn’t be surprised if they chose something that we didn’t want,” she said.
Ultimately, Dominguez said, she wants what is best for the community and believes that this is a great opportunity for the city to collaborate with visual artists in Fort Worth.
Multidisciplinary artist and composer James Talambas shared a similar sentiment and said that there has not been enough community focus and involvement throughout the process.
“Neither project had a focus on affordable workspaces, galleries and performance spaces that can be used by self-funded artists not associated with big money or institutions,” he said.
“If Fort Worth doesn’t focus on and fund its self-made, upstart artists, it will never become a world-class cultural city.”
Marcheta Fornoff covers the arts for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at marcheta.fornoff@fortworthreport.org or on Twitter. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
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