L.A. Owner Dusts Off Plan for Fort Worth's First Telecom Hotel

"We believe the market has come back strong enough that it is justified and it will succeed," Gerald Ahmann, sales and marketing director for Aspen Communications, a division of Atlantic Pearl Investments Inc., tells GlobeSt.com about the plan for the Oil & Gas Commerce Buildings at 307 and 309 W. 7th St. The firm bought the Fort Worth complex in 1999, three years after it converted the 464,000-sf Univision Tower at 2323 Bryan St. in Dallas.

The Fort Worth buildings were wired in 2001, but the collapse of the tech industry pushed the plan to the backburner. Ahmann says it's now time to sell space in Fort Worth's first telecom hotel. Two data centers have just been added: 3,000 sf that's now being marketed and 10,000 sf that's on standby.

Next week, Enterhost.com, a locally based provider, will set up as the telecom hotel's anchor tenant in a three-year bundled package for 2,500 sf of office space and 200 sf of data center space. The firm is moving from the Planet at 1333 N. Stemmons Freeway in Dallas.

The Oil & Gas Commerce Buildings are 75% leased. Ahmann says the balance of the space will be filled by telecom tenants. He's targeting Fort Worth companies that now use servers in Dallas "because there is not a legitimate redundant power-fiber-environmentally controlled building in Fort Worth." And, he's now hawking fiber for $250 per month to the existing lineup, which includes MCI, Qwest, AT&T, SBC, Above.net, Verizon, Winstar and Broadwing. He's also opened talks with a gaming server contractor.

Ahmann says the conversion cost $5 million, but the Oil & Gas Commerce Buildings have a six-foot height differential so it's effectively doubled the capacity that's available in a complex of its size. The staggered design also made it easier to wire than the more traditional Univision Tower, which now has 65 tier 1 carriers as tenants. Six years after the conversion, Atlantic Pearl sold Univision Tower in 2002 for $202 per sf to Global Innovation Partners LLC of Los Angeles.