Developer Picks Up Speed on $200M CBD Plan

FORT WORTH-In a long-awaited debut, the five-year owner of the former Tandy Center has unveiled full details to a $200-million redevelopment of the four-block CBD landmark. The two-tower overhaul is the largest, one-shot mixed-use endeavor in the city's history.

Construction crews have been replacing windows and prepping the north tower--Two City Place--for nine months. Now, it's time to push full throttle. Work on major exterior changes for the 320,000-sf high rise at 100 Throckmorton St. will begin shortly after the calendar flips as will the hard push for reservations for 156 condos in its sister tower, Two City Place at 300 Throckmorton St. The office tower will be ready for its first office tenant in the spring while the condo tower isn't scheduled to open until 2008, with its work getting under way in mid-2007.

In laying out the time schedule, Dallas-based developer PNL Cos.' president David Porter also aired plans for Three City Place--a 30-story glass tower with more residential space. He tells GlobeSt.com that the trigger could be pulled for the third tower when Two City Place is 75% sold "if market timing permits." For now, PNL's focus is on the existing space.

"We're very excited to get it kicked off," Porter says. "People will be able to see the vision and understand Tandy Center is going to be transformed into a new mixed-use project."

NAI Huff Partners' Leland Prowse and William Behr have lined up one office tenant, Range Resources Corp., for five floors and are in talks with several banks and multi-floor tenants for spots in the 19-story tower, the landmark former headquarters for RadioShack Corp. and Tandy Corp. Next week, PNL's four-member accounting team will relocate from the Dallas headquarters to Two City Place, which is being marketed at $22 per sf to $25 per sf plus electric.

The office tower overhaul, costing $35 million, will include removal of a two-story overhang to glean more natural lighting in the lobby. Upcoming work includes connecting west and east Second Street, which was bisected in the mid-1970s for Tandy Center's construction. "It will transform the way we move around in our Downtown corridor and once again change our skyline," Mayor Mike Moncrief says.

Tap Pritchard, PNL managing partner and City Place's project manager, says the once-abandoned street will return to city hands when the work's done. PNL's gain is it effectively gets a new front door to the development. Likewise the overhang removal will create a new identity for the office tower, which now appears to be part of the Renaissance Worthington Hotel by virtue of the layout. The existing skywalk, though, between the two properties will remain intact. It's envisioned to one day link Three City Place to the Worthington.

Two City Place will have 15,000 sf to 20,000 sf of street-level retail. The redevelopment plan calls for wrapping the buildings' bases with retail so it could have as much as 50,000 sf when the work's done, according to John Gilbert, PNL executive vice president and COO. The retail leasing team has yet to be picked.

Highlights for One City Place include a half-acre "amenities park" on the top of a four-story structure. Residents will have a 24-hour bellman, valet parking and access to the Renaissance Worthington's four-diamond hotel services. "It's really raising the bar for a luxury location in Fort Worth," Porter says. The package includes a putting green, enclosed dog walking park, swimming pool-spa area and terraced Zen garden.

"City Place will become a magnet for people who are in dire need of office space and also become a vertical neighborhood," says the mayor of a CBD with a 5% office vacancy. "But as we continue to grow, it's also important to note that we don't forget our heritage. We remember Charles Tandy as we look at David's new vision."

The City Place development team includes Easop LP, founded and owned by Pritchard; architects Gideon Toal of Fort Worth and Dallas' HOK; and landscape architect Talley Associates Inc., also from Dallas. Garrison Partners Inc. of Chicago is in charge of condo sales. Turner Construction Co. is the general contractor.