14 replies to this topic

[Thurman52]

From the FW Star Telegram

Green Oaks Hotel to be torn down, replaced
By Sandra Baker
sabaker@star-telegram.com

The landmark Green Oaks Hotel in west Fort Worth, famous for once hosting Elvis Presley, will be torn down in December to make room for a three-story office building and possibly another hotel, its owners said Monday.

The hotel’s employees were told late last week about the plans and to not book business or guests beyond November, said Bill Cawley, chairman and chief executive of Dallas-based Cawley Wilcox Cos., the real estate development firm that bought the 284-room hotel in 2002.

Demolition of the 42-year-old hotel is scheduled to occur in December and construction will begin on a 185,000-square-foot office building in January. The speculative building should be ready for occupancy in late 2008 or early 2009, the company said.

The site is about 12 acres, but the office building will use only seven acres, said Kenneth Reese, the project’s manager with Cawley Wilcox Cos.

“We do have enough land to develop a hotel on the site in conjunction with the office building and we are in talks with several flagship hotel companies and also looking at whether we develop it ourselves,” Reese said.

Although business is good — and many times of the year the hotel is fully booked — the owners have mulled the idea of tearing down the outdated hotel for more than a year, Reese said.

“It’s just time,” he said. “This is in response to where the market is.”

The Green Oaks Hotel, 6901 West Freeway, is managed by Dallas-based Hospitality Management Corp. Reese said the hotel’s employees will likely be reassigned to other hotels it manages. According to its Web site, Hospitality Management operates hotels throughout Texas, and in Oklahoma, Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

The Tudor-style hotel is located on the south side of Interstate 30 across from Ridgmar Mall. It opened in December 1965 as the Green Oaks Inn. Throughout the years it has hosted several celebrities, among them Tina Turner, Bob Hope, Red Skelton, Janet Leigh, John Forsythe and Jimmy Durante. Presley stayed there in 1974 when he performed at the then Tarrant County Convention Center.

Cawley Wilcox bought the hotel from LaSalle Bank of Chicago, which foreclosed on Calstar in Laguna Niguel, Calif., for defaulting on its mortgage. The bank operated the hotel for about two years.

Cawley Wilcox Cos. also owns the Overton Centre office complex near Hulen Street and Interstate 20 in southwest Fort Worth, and the Ridglea Bank Building off Camp Bowie Boulevard. More than a year the company was in talks to buy land in downtown Fort Worth where it considered building a 60-story office and condominium tower.

Reese said final designs of the office building are still being decided, but it will be a LEED certified building. LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a building rating system that serves as the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction, and operation of high performance green buildings, according to the U.S. Green Building Council.

“We believe it is the right thing to do for the community and for the marketplace,” Reese said. “This will incorporate both energy efficient systems and environmental friendly materials that will benefit the tenants.”

The office building and hotel will be situated to save the existing oak trees, some of which are 42-inches in diameter, he said.

“We are in the design phase of incorporating into the building a feature to pay homage to the Green Oaks Hotel and its history in Fort Worth,” Reese said. “There will be water features, the large oak trees and exterior glass elements that will allow for interaction with the water and views of downtown Fort Worth.”

A name has not yet been chosen, he said.

Sandra Baker, 817-390-7727

[cbellomy]

This. SUCKS.

I have nothing further to add.

[Willy1]

I agree... this sucks. Although the hotel is a little dated, it was still a nice hotel the last time I was there. And, it's a little piece of history on FW's Westside. This hotel actually replaced the old 50's era Western Hills Hotel, which also saw many celebrities (and was even owned at one time my Ricky and Lucy). Western Hills Hotel was located on Camp Bowie and Clayton Road West (the old Albertsons location) and the duplexes behind the old grocery store were originally bungalow's from the WH Hotel... or so I've always heard. Anyway, I hate to see the Green Oaks torn down because it's a one of the last remaining mid-century-ish structures that remain from the mid-1900s along the Western corridor in FW. When it was built I believe it was considered one of the nicest of its kind in the nation, if not the world. It was very fancy shmancy for the 60's.

Anyway, I have some fond memories from the Green Oaks and I'm sad to see it go.

[seurto]

Ditto on the sux part

[vjackson]

Hotels like the Green Oaks are starting to be appreciated again. It's a shame this is being torn down to make way for a measly three story (I'm sure surburban style) office building.

Something similar would have been awesome!!!
http://www.belmontda...bout/index.aspx

http://www.jdvhotels..._sol/experience

[cjyoung]

When the last time any of you stayed at the Green Oaks "Hotel"?

[cbellomy]

When the last time any of you stayed at the Green Oaks "Hotel"?

I stayed there with my family a few years ago when our home AC went out. It wasn't great but it was clean and the pool was nice.

I also stayed there on my wedding night in 1985. Yeah, that was with my ex, but I'm still friends with her and I hate to lose the place for sentimental reasons regardless.

It's getting to where I don't recognize my city anymore.

[cjyoung]

When the last time any of you stayed at the Green Oaks "Hotel"?

I stayed there with my family a few years ago when our home AC went out. It wasn't great but it was clean and the pool was nice.

I also stayed there on my wedding night in 1985. Yeah, that was with my ex, but I'm still friends with her and I hate to lose the place for sentimental reasons regardless.

It's getting to where I don't recognize my city anymore.

The ragged SE side is still the same way I left it.
I've never liked the Green Oaks Motel (I've stayed there once 21 years ago after graduating high school) and I've always wondered why Elvis would have stayed there.

[William Huber]

I stayed there many of times since 1974. I think the last time was back in the 1990's. Its always been a west Ft Worth icon & will be missed.

[pmburk]

I have friends from Oklahoma who stayed there twice recently, and were very pleased with it. We stopped in for a visit, and I thought it was a bit dated, but still perfectly fine. Everything I saw was very clean and not in disrepair.

Maybe I'm an idiot, but I can't wrap my mind around tearing down a successful hotel to build something that is probably destined to become another of the famous west side "half leased/half vacant" random office buildings.

[Thurman52]

Unless I am missing something there is not that many half leased office buildings not Class A at least. Way too many empty shopping centers. I hate to see the hotel go and hope the office building is decent looking.

[pmburk]

Well, maybe not in the immediate Ridglea Hills area - but in west Fort Worth they're everywhere. Take a drive around Cherry Lane, Las Vegas Trail, Camp Bowie west, any of those areas. Half the commercial property is sitting with "for lease" signs out front.

I guess I just don't see the value in taking down a successful hotel to put in yet another office complex.

[John T Roberts]

Here are some exterior photos taken on the last business day of the hotel.

[Dismuke]

Thanks for taking and posting those pictures. I have been thinking I really ought to take some photos of the place before it is gone - not because I ever thought it was especially good architecture but because it certainly was a very visible landmark. Problem is finding time and the fact that the only time I go by it is if I am getting from point A to point B to run errands and such. Now I don't have to - you already did it for me and did a great job of it to boot.

Someone certainly should get lots of credit for keeping that place so successful and nice over the years. How many other independent motel type hotels of that vintage along a highway in this part of the world that are not branded by a national chain are still in business as a legitimate hotel and not either a red light district or a place for people who cannot afford an apartment deposit to stay? Somebody has obviously done something right that very few others have.

[John T Roberts]

Dismuke, you're welcome. I'm now kicking myself for not going inside to take some photos. I'm sure they wouldn't have minded, since they were closing.