The details for Weber & Co.'s proposal to use the eight-story building as a centerpiece for a 45-acre urban village are still being kicked around, but the city had to act before week's end to meet the HUD deadline for a $12-million low-interest loan that would be guaranteed with Fort Worth's Community Development Block Grant allocation, Pat Svacina, the city's spokesman, tells GlobeSt.com. The second part of last night's action clears the path for a $2-million grant application for "Brownfield" dollars to clean up underground contaminants from a long-gone auto-repair center and fueling area.
"There has been good community support," Svacina says, adding that the plan has yet to meet any opposition in public forums. The issue going forward, though, is the project's design as preservationists lobby to keep the building intact to counter a schematic that calls for tunneling through the historically significant structure. Svacina stresses the final design must be in place and accepted by all involved parties before funding would be turned over to the developer.
Weber is courting Home Depot and Target Corp. for out-of-the-box, in-city stores. Still, the lure is the tried-and-true tact of following rooftops, action being stoked by multifamily developers who last year started speculating on the neighborhood's potential as a connector between the CBD and the Cultural District. The last plan presented to council called for converting the 850,000-sf structure into retail and residential use and constructing a 500,000-sf retail village on the surrounding acreage, some of which now houses antiquated warehouses.
Montgomery Ward developed the main building in 1928, with phased-in development boosting the assortment of structures to 1.4 million sf. The exodus started in 1986 with the catalog center, housed in the eight-story building along with a retail store and general offices, and ended in May 2000 with the distribution operation relocating to Corsicana after a tornado cut a swath through town.
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