Importer's First US Location Lands in Fort Worth

Buyer Travis Williams will sink about $200,000 into upgrades at the former Alamo Machine and Fabrication site, a 28,686-sf property on the city's West Side. The building is flanked by other industrial product in a close-in area to the CBD that several business people are prospecting to develop into a district comparable to Dallas' West End, Chris Gatewood, the buyer's project manager, tells GlobeSt.com.

Williams hopes to have the imported furniture and furnishings business up and running by late June or early July. The next site for Williams' Travasia importing operation will be the West Coast.

Gatewood says Williams will continue living overseas and most likely at the La Marina beach hotel and golf resort that he's building in Indonesia. The Texas native, once a product locator for Pier 1 Imports, specializes in antiques, collectibles and reproductions, mostly from Taiwan and Indonesia, according to Gatewood.

The former machine shop at 1000 Foch St. was built in 1939. The intent is to retain the architectural integrity as much as possible, says Gatewood, one of three employees lined up to run the Fort Worth wholesale operation.

Fort Worth's Carol Shelton is the project architect. A general contractor has yet to be selected. The conversion calls for an office and secure showroom for Travasia's wares, which will be sold under the moniker of Morton Foch LLC.

The machine shop, positioned on three-fourths of an acre, was on the market for a year due to Alamo's buy-out by Texas Metal Spinning, led by Wayne Beckman. The Saginaw businessman was seeking $390,000, but dropped the price considerably during negotiations, says Karen Simon, senior vice president of Fort Worth-based Woodmont Co. She says the marketing was somewhat difficult because Alamo was operating at the site while the team was trying to sell it. She and Woodmont associate Ned Pou represented the seller while Tom Palmer of the William C. Jennings Co. of Fort Worth brokered the deal for Williams.