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Fort Construction Starts West Seventh Warehouse Renovation
11/22/2011
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BY SANDRA BAKER
sabaker@star-telegram.com
A Fort Worth development group is starting construction on the third and final phase of a redevelopment project of 60-year-old warehouses on Foch Street in the increasingly popular West Seventh Street corridor.
A 53,000-square-foot building that until last year served as a sheet metal plant has been gutted to its shell. Now, work will begin to rebuild the structure into a modern facility, to be known as Foch Street Warehouse Building Two, that will draw on its history, said Andrew Blake with Presidio Interests, a venture of Blake and James R. Harris.
Two tenants -- the digital marketing agency iProspect and Texas Hospice -- have leased 32,000 square feet of the building and expect to move in by the end of the second quarter of 2012.
The James R. Harris Co. started buying the old warehouses on the east side of Foch Street, between West Seventh Street and Lancaster Avenue, in 2000 from the O.P. Leonard Jr. Investment Co. The first 70,000-square-foot building opened in 2002 and is leased to an eclectic group of 15 tenants, ranging from a yoga studio to art shops, bakeries and restaurants. The building was completed in 1948-49 by Fort Worth's Leonard family, which founded the city's legendary Leonards Department Store.
The second phase of construction involved a 14,000-square-foot building, an early 1950s structure likely built as a peanut storage and processing warehouse, the developers said. That building has seven tenants, including Chimy's Cerveceria.
The third building is the former Clemons Sheet Metal Works, a company acquired by GST Manufacturing. GST moved out at the end of 2010, when its lease expired, Blake said.
"Our goal has always been to redevelop it," Blake said.
Blake said design plans and marketing efforts began last year, but attracting tenants didn't get traction until earlier this year. The remaining space will be leased for additional offices or shops and restaurants, he said.
"The building is designed to maximize flexibility, and it works really well for either," Blake said.
Since the Foch Street Warehouses began, the West Seventh Street corridor has exploded with growth, including the nearby West 7th development of shops, restaurants, a movie theater, office building and apartments.
IProspect will lease 25,000 square feet, and Texas Hospice will have 7,000 square feet. Texas Hospice is located in about 3,000 square feet in another Foch Street Warehouse.
IProspect was represented by Clint Madison and Adam Ardise with Cassidy Turley. Texas Hospice was represented by Will Martin with the Will Martin Co. and Rodger Chieffalo with Chieffalo Realty. Fort Worth's Bennett Benner Pettit is the architect.
Sandra Baker, 817-390-7727