357 replies to this topic

[McHand]

Yes, I'm hoping that myself. Surely the traffic it will cause won't be in vain!

[McHand]

The apartments are going up so fast. Things look to be taking shape very well. Is there supposed to be retail on the ground floor?

[John T Roberts]

Yes, retail is supposed to be on the ground floor, including a new Perrotti's Pizza.

[ramjet]

The apartments are going up so fast. Things look to be taking shape very well. Is there supposed to be retail on the ground floor?

Down at the other end of Berry, a friend of mine told me that Travis Avenue Baptist Church dedicated a really beautiful new building last Sunday and the minister talked of some pretty ambitious plans for the church's future building in that area. I would say that speaks well of the neighborhood and the confidence they have in the future of South Fort Worth and Berry Street that they are not running off to the 'burbs like a many churches do. In any case, would anyone be up for photographing the new building and posting it on the forum for a homesick South Fort Worthian up here at the North Pole (also known as Albany, New York)?

[SurplusPopulation]

I am recently back from working for FEMA along the coast, so I have been away from the forum for many months. However I have to get involved in what is going on with this project. TCU has spent many years buying up all of the properties surrounding their campus, and they now own the majority of the land from University to McCart. James Mallory, Fort Worth's dean of traffic attornies, owns two buildings on the west side of Sandage. The tentants are the TCU (formerly Fox's) Barber Shop, Mallory's office, and a mom and pop print shop. These businesses have been here for thirty years or more in their current locations and are owned by people who have paid their dues to see the neighborhood regain its former glory.
TCU wants those buildings, but to date Mallory has refused to sell and turn out his longtime tenants. Myself and many other believe that TCU, with muscle from the city, are trying to force their desired outcome by crippling their business. Now that construction has begun, Sandage as well as the alleys, driveways, and streets that would allow access to these businesses have been blocked for construction. I have seen road construction all my life and I have never seen neighborhood streets blocked off so completely. The streets will be reopened at some point but this is only after a fight from neighborhood leaders who prevented Sandage being blocked off from Berry entirely.
Some may argue that sometimes sacrifices must be made for the greater good; sometimes you have to break a few eggs...
I have no idea what actions can be taken, but something must be done. Unlike the Perotti's situation no provisions for relocating these businesses have been offered, nor will they. These people love this neighborhood, they love this city, and they have invested far too much to have it destroyed by an institution that is cherished but now also resented.
To those at TCU who may read this, the actions you have taken to improve your campus as well as the surrounding neighborhood have been remarkable and you should be and will be applauded. It may make more sense to the "master plan" to own all of the area so as to have more freedom to do what you deem is right and necessary, and lord knows that you have much hard earned power and authority. But please remember that what gives this city its charm is that sometimes behind all the big city trappings it still feels a little bit like a small town, where neighbors matter.

...I will climb down from my soapbox.

[ashivone]

I was a student at the College of St. Thomas More (5 bucks to anyone who knows where the college is) until 2003 and I watched as TCU slowly bought all the property that surrounded us and quickly tore down all the buildings and erected parking lots (there was a running joke at the college that TCU was on a mission to pave the world). I've been away for awhile so I was really happy when I drove by and saw that TCU was actually contructing rather than destructing a building! Maybe now they'll stop trying to make my alma mater a parking lot.

[eshigginbotham]

I am recently back from working for FEMA along the coast, so I have been away from the forum for many The tentants are the TCU (formerly Fox's) Barber Shop, Mallory's office, and a mom and pop print shop. These businesses have been here for thirty years or more in their current locations and are owned by people who have paid their dues to see the neighborhood regain its former glory...

...To those at TCU who may read this, the actions you have taken to improve your campus as well as the surrounding neighborhood have been remarkable and you should be and will be applauded. It may make more sense to the "master plan" to own all of the area so as to have more freedom to do what you deem is right and necessary, and lord knows that you have much hard earned power and authority. But please remember that what gives this city its charm is that sometimes behind all the big city trappings it still feels a little bit like a small town, where neighbors matter.

...I will climb down from my soapbox.

I agree that these businesses have been a part of the community for the past 30 years and have paid their dues to the community. However, I can see another side to this situation. TCU has been in this neighborhood for 95 years and has well paid its dues to the community as well. It has been common knowledge that TCU would be expanding that direction for quit some time and they have known that they are in the path. What would the neighborhood be without TCU? You can't complain about the process that is trying to make the neighborhood worth something again. So if you a business has to move to a new location in the same community to enjoy the revitalization brought by TCU and the city to the community, then so be it. If the business wants to be in a better revitalized neighborhood then take part in the revitalization instead of saying how you were part of it 30 years ago. Be a part of the neighborhood of today.

[cberen1]

You can't complain about the process that is trying to make the neighborhood worth something again.

I can't? Why not? We complain about a lot of stuff more trivial than this on the forum. I think what is at issue here is an unfair stifling of someone's livelihood. If you want my property and you think the way to get it is to crush the financial fortunes of my tennants, you've got some serious moral issues to address. This from a school whose mission statement is about creating "ethical" leaders. What a load.


But, I'm just going off what SurplusPopulation said and he/she could be full of it.

[hooked]

(there was a running joke at the college that TCU was on a mission to pave the world).

They Paved Paradise (And Put Up A Parking Lot) - Counting Crows

Oops, sorry, wrong thread.

[hooked]

We'll allow the song game on most threads, but you did commit two violations: incorrect title (s/b Big Yelow Taxi) and incorrect group (I know Counting Crows has a version but by rule 43(a)1-12 you can never credit a song more properly associated with Bob Dylan and/or Joni Mitchell to any group whose name references a relative of the common grackle).

Busted (. . . flat in Baton Rouge . . . )

[SurplusPopulation]

Yeah that busy freeway Bowie. You only have to go three blocks in either direction to find a sidestreet to get access to Bowie. Somehow however, Kings' was able to manage access to their property.

[LiveattheOasis]

So are they building what we have seen on the renderings from the first page of this topic?

[John T Roberts]

If you are talking about the Grandmarc at Westberry Place, the answer is yes. There is a separate thread on that project located here: http://www.fortworth...p?showtopic=617

I noticed yesterday that the TCU Theater is now for sale or lease if anyone is interested.

[McHand]

The street lamps are going up. I didn't expect them this soon. My husband keeps saying, "When are they gonna turn them on? Are they just for show or something?" I just roll my eyes and tell him they're getting to it. So it looks like we'll see some cosmetic progress on this street very quickly. I'm looking forward to the benches (if that's still part of the plan).

Now if we can only get some economic development.....besides the Grand Marc of course, which is going to be fab.

[mosteijn]

Yeah! I've been noticing the street lights for the past week or so now, they really make a dramatic statement by themselves, yet you'd think they would hardly be noticeable. Are these same kind of lights going to be installed over on the Waits/Forest Park section, anybody? And I've also noticed that there is absolutely nothing going on between Forest Park and the Amtrak overpass...is this just temporary, or are we going to have to wait a few years before something happens here? It would be so awkward to have a nice streetscape transition to a horrible one transition to a beautiful one, all in the same street, know what I mean?

Work is progressing nicely on the western part of Berry; they're almost done with the concrete on the westbound lanes, and they've been installing brick at the crosswalks. No sidewalk, trees, or light fixtures yet. I need to take a pic or two of the construction to keep everyone up to date.

[vjackson]

I told my buddy about the street lights the initiative had placed on Berry. He and I were roommates in a home he had purchased in the Ryan Place neighborhood. He also lives in Dallas now. His response was "Well about time!!!! They were talking about that when I bought my house in 1992 and last time I was there Berry St. still looked like ****!!!!" Before I moved to FW from DC at my buddy's urging, I came to look at FW for a week. My friend would always take alternate routes to hide Berry St. from me, thinking I wouldn't move down if I knew what a crappy street the neighborhood's main drag was. I grew up in cities a lot more urban than FW and Berry wouldn't have worried me at all. However I will admit, it was/is one uuuugly street. Sorry if I think the BSI is a joke. Since I moved, haven't there been two more laundramats opened on Berry?? And several more places have closed. I was on Berry a month or so ago, and I didn't notice any work being done, the street look the same as it did five years ago, except for the few changes near University. Anyway, I"m glad some work is being done...finally. It's such a shame that Berry is a main route to TCU.

[John T Roberts]

What is sad, is that when I was in high school at Paschal (72-76). is when the brick street was torn up, the head in parking was removed, and the street was widened with concrete. After that point the street started going downhill. The shops closed up and things became worse.

I don't live far off of Berry Street, and I'm hoping that the improvements will bring more positive changes to my neighborhood and the other adjacent neighborhoods to the street.

[vjackson]

I've read on this forum and other places about what Berry St. was like once. I would love to see more pictures of the old street. The city must have really done a job tearing up the street, because there are few remnants of anything good...design/development wise.

[vjackson]

While not being a part of it I have been around the BSI since its inception. It's no joke. It's a small group of people who have dedicated private time to improving something for the whole city. They have done the planning and found the funds and have worked with the city to do something about the street. They are not paid and they do not own property on the street.

So excuse me, but I take offense at that joke label, vjackson. What did YOU do to make Berry Street better? What do you know about taking the lead and making something happen, not for profit, but just from a sense of wanting things to change? What you will see happen on Berry Street comes from the ground up, a true grass-roots effort that inculded everything from traffic studies to coalition building.

The BSI is not doing economic development, but they have worked with new businesses to try for better design along the way. Sonic and Walgreens put in monument signs because of BSI. CVS put in a pole sign despite BSI's efforts.

Yes, it has taken a long time, but big projects take a huge amount of planning before anything visible happens. And that planning is real work. Fort Worth is lucky to have private citizens doing a lot of that work, because either it would not get done or we would be paying for extra staff or consultants.

Sorry, if I offended you with the "joke" comment, but sorry that's how I feel. I'm all for private citizens trying to improve an area, but from what I recall BSI made things sound as if things were on the verge of happening and over 10 years later most of Berry is in further decline. I applaud any progress BSI has made regarding the signage, but if the city doesn't get better zoning and design restrictions in the area, you could be fighting a losing battle. I know big projects take time, but 14 years to narrow and add a treelined median to a street???? My buddy purchased his house when he was 24 (he's several year older than I am), he and his wife are approaching 40, and Berry hasn't improved that much. I can only hope the citizens in the BSI have children and are getting them involved, because at this rate, none of them will be around the realize their vision for Berry.

[Now in Denton]

What is sad, is that when I was in high school at Paschal (72-76). is when the brick street was torn up, the head in parking was removed, and the street was widened with concrete. After that point the street started going downhill. The shops closed up and things became worse.

The 70's. Is the worst era in the history of the world for fashion, buildings and highways. IMO. But the music was awsome.

[ghughes]

Progress on Berry Street. A few snaps from last week.

First, sidewalk and intersection treatments:




Then the Mark at West Berry parking garage. I'll start with some design details that only an engineer could love.

Here's a nice chiller installation:



Then there are a bunch of rooftop AC units:



And this is how the cars are kept from going airborn:



To reward patience for continuing to scroll down, here are some new perspectives on things.

First, contending for the top spot in the Ugliest Building category...



And finally, the skyline:





Until next time...!

[Fort Worthology]

First, contending for the top spot in the Ugliest Building category...

<sarcasm>
Aaaaaaaaah...the beauty! The majesty! Thanks, '70s!
</sarcasm>

[mosteijn]

SWEET updates! Is the parking garage at GrandMarc free and/or open to the public? Could be a candidate for parking garage techno party now that we got kicked out of the 3rd St. Garage... Love that view of downtown, the medical district makes it look twice as dense. "Fort God" also looks awesome in the foreground.

They're laying the rebar in for the median. Just last week they were still leveling. I guess things are moving somewhat fast...

[ghughes]

Is the parking garage at GrandMarc free and/or open to the public?

It depends...

I've been up there twice where entry & exit were unhindered, both times on a bicycle.

On the other hand, last month I took my mother-in-law up there in the Suburban to see the sights on her 80-something birthday. When leaving, we found ourselves unable to depart due to the gates being down. Fortunately two or three young ladies who live there came to our rescue and opened the gate.

[Thurman52]

Ok, I drove down the improved Berry St this afternoon, like the bricks and sidewalks, but I thought they were going to make it more narrow? We were on 4 lanes when I went down it this afternoon and, it looked like they were still building 2 more lanes in the Eastbound direction. Did the center median get cut-out? or will they go back and put it in afterwards?

[John T Roberts]

I think they are putting the center median in last.

[Thurman52]

Seems costly, b/c they put down concrete or will have to tear it up to put up the medians...

[John T Roberts]

I think the areas where the medians will go are paved in asphalt right now so they can move lanes around.

[fwfrog]

I got to see some plans for the Berry Street Initiative yesterday at a meeting at the GrandMarc. I'll include some pictures I took with a camera phone (please excuse the less-than-stellar quality).

It seems the development will eventually stretch all the way to I-35... consisting of several "zones" along the way. Near I-35 will be the "exchange" area - indicated by blue signs. Somewhere further west (near Hemphill will be the "parks" area - indicated by green signs). From there to Ryan Place will be the "residential" area - indicated by yellow signs. From Ryan Place to University will be the "University" section - indicated by red signs.

The "University" section will have extra wide sidewalks (if I recall, something like 12 to 15 feet). A lane to park. Two traffic lanes. An extra wide median with trees. And the same thing (in reverse order) going the opposite direction. Berry Street, itself, will be narrowed.

They had pictures of Magnolia (near Palermo's restaurant) as a prototype for what they wanted this mixed-use/urban development to look like.

TCU will allow people to use their newest parking lot (near Berry & Sandage) after 5:00 pm for free parking to walk to the many proposed shops and restaurants just 3 blocks west.

Below, you'll see examples of directional signs... neighborhood (or zone) signs (note the historic black-and-white photo of old Berry Street)... and a picture of the proposed lighting (imagine similarly styled benches and trash cans... I ran out of memory on my camera phone before taking additional pics!)

[Now in Denton]

After Berry street. I hope they will have a loop back north and have a 8th St. Initiative. 8th and Berry is very ugly to look at.

[fwfrog]

After Berry street. I hope they will have a loop back north and have a 8th St. Initiative. 8th and Berry is very ugly to look at.

You'd think with the new Cotton Belt Line stopping right there, that intersection would get a make-over.

[Thurman52]

The University Church of Christ on Berry St to move:

Divine deal: Church becomes sanctuary for Nelrod
Marsha Brown - April 09, 2007
Fort Worth-based The Nelrod Co. has purchased the 40,000-square-foot University Church of Christ at 2701 W. Berry St. for use as its corporate headquarters.

The Nelrod Co., which has about 100 workers locally, will renovate the property for use as office, conference and classroom space, according to Nelson Rodriguez, CEO of the company.

The price was not disclosed.

The Nelrod Co., a 21-year-old firm, is a consulting company with a special focus on government-subsidized housing.

“We are a consultant agency,” Rodriguez said. “We do a little bit of everything with housing agencies. We take all of the HUD calls nationally. We deal with the poorest of the poor. We handled the relocation for 50,000 families after Hurricane Katrina. We do a lot of emergency housing for the government. We do a lot of the Energy Star energy audits. We’re one of the largest energy-rating companies in the country.”

The firm has assisted more than 2,350 public housing authorities and 35,400 individual clients, Rodriguez said.

“The quality and benefits realized by our clients have been nationally recognized by HUD and other organizations,” he said.

As for the new office, Rodriguez is concerned with maintaining the historical and architectural integrity of the original building.

“The two front buildings we’re converting into office space,” he said. “The building is built like Fort Knox. We’re wiring it for high-speed Internet. We’re re-doing the sanctuary including the balcony. In half of the sanctuary, we’re leaving the pews intact for meetings, for the educational portion of the building, we’ll completely renovate. We’ve built another parking lot because we’re so close to TCU and parking is at a premium.”

The University Church of Christ congregation will move to a new complex in far west Fort Worth on Longvue Avenue at Interstate 30, probably by the end of the year. Construction is expected to begin on the new facility immediately. The church will be erected in several phases by K.B. Alexander Co. of Texas Inc., according to Keith Alexander, the company’s CEO .

The first phase will be about 6,000 square feet and will include a sanctuary and a classroom.

The construction on phase one of the new church is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year.

[John T Roberts]

Bud Kennedy has written an excellent column on the changes along Berry Street in today's Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Below is a link to the article:

http://www.star-tele...ory/390090.html

[ghughes]

Well, it's a good article but hardly excellent if you know the real recent history of Berry Street. Bud's claim that the Berry Street Initiative was supported by, let alone initiated by businesses shows a profound ignorance, however. It was neighborhood activists led by Linda Clark that did it all. The businesses and property owners were on the sidelines the whole way, with the exception of the Kubes folks. King's won't even eliminate their Berry Street curb cut to improve things.

It's not like Linda did it for glory or anything, and there was cooperation from District 9 reps starting with Ken Barr through Cathy Hirt and then some great heavy lifting by Wendy Davis. But without the pressure from Linda and others from Ryan Place and Bluebonnet Hills you would see Berry looking even worse than it did 15 years ago. Jim Johnson and Sandra Dennehy are two others I will name and I am sure to be leaving some out. But the point is the Berry Street improvements are another example of citizen initiated improvements in Fort Worth.

By the way, due to Wendy Davis' work on the RTC and TCU's willingness to contribute local matching funds, Berry Street will receive a bunch of regional bucks to improve things from the current stopping point to University. Nice ideas about Eighth will have to wait for new money.

[vjackson]

Bud Kennedy has written an excellent column on the changes along Berry Street in today's Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Below is a link to the article:

http://www.star-tele...ory/390090.html

I read Mr. Kennedy's article with some doubt, as the Star tends to do overblown article in regards to such things, IMO. But I was in town on Friday and drove down Berry St. I was very much in doubt as I saw most of the street in the same, if not worse, condition than I remembered. But much to my surprise, where the steet has been redone near University really does look much better. The only thing is the lack of trees which I thought was part of the project. I hope progress continues down Berry as there's still a lot to do.

[Big Frog II]

I too was hoping for more trees, but regardless the improvements are very nice compared to what we did have on Berry St. I wonder what the time line is for the rest of the street? By the way, even though the Grand Marc retail has been slow to fill, a new Los Vaqueros restaurant has just leased a good portion of the ground floor. They should be open by August.

[ramjet]

Down at the other end of Berry, a friend of mine told me that Travis Avenue Baptist Church dedicated a really beautiful new building last Sunday and the minister talked of some pretty ambitious plans for the church's future building in that area. I would say that speaks well of the neighborhood and the confidence they have in the future of South Fort Worth and Berry Street that they are not running off to the 'burbs like a many churches do. In any case, would anyone be up for photographing the new building and posting it on the forum for a homesick South Fort Worthian up here at the North Pole (also known as Albany, New York)?

Don't know if anyone on this forum has seen it, nor do I know what it looks like, but I hear Travis Avenue Baptist just completed a second new building recently. Anything else good happening on that end of Berry Street these days....?

[John T Roberts]

I knew the church was building it, but I'm not sure it is finished.

[ramjet]

I knew the church was building it, but I'm not sure it is finished.

Was up there last weekend. Looks like it's about finished and they're moving in in late August. The new building starts at the glass swoop and goes back. (I really like the glass swoop. Not bad architecture for Baptists.) And a good sign for South Fort Worth that this historic church is still investing in the future of the area. If you're familiar with the church's property, I understand the next move is to demolish the original brown brick structure that fronts Berry Street, as well as the unattractive addition immediately behind, then rehab and replace the facade of the remaining education building to match the color and style of the sanctuary. That building was connected to the sanctuary with a welcome/reception area that straddles Travis Avenue 2 years ago. The cleared street front along Berry will include landscaping and parking to replace parking lost to new addition in the rear of the sanctuary.





Here's the front of the sanctuary from John R's website. The brown building (and original masonry structure) on the right is supposedly coming down...

http://www.fortworth...outh/travis.htm

And from the Jack White Collection, the ladies are in front of the brown building - looks like facing Berry Street. Little did they know that 85 years later....

http://www.fortworth...atsvignette.jpg

[John T Roberts]

I didn't really have a place to put this, nor did I want to start a new thread. The old Jack In The Box on Berry will be demolished around the end/first of the year and a new Jack In The Box will be built on the site. I think the new restaurant is scheduled to open in April.

[unknowntbone]

It's been a couple of years now since the Berry Street Initiative has left it's visible mark on the street, and as the landscape matures, it just gets better looking. My hat's off to all of those neighborhood activists, politicians, business owners, and university for their cooperation in pulling it off.
I realize that there's still work to do yet, but the results are VERY encouraging for the future maturity of one of Fort Worth's most significant thoroughfares.

[McHand]

I was browsing this thread looking for info on the recently-closed Albertson's, when I came across a photo of the building where I work (thanks Ramjet) -the Children's Center at Travis. I have to say I am very pleased with how it flows with the 1950's sanctuary, and with the Welcome Center. It is a great facility inside too. The interior is seamless.
I haven't heard any news on demolition of the original sanctuary in awhile. I'm speculating, but probably because the children's building is almost, but not quite, paid for. If I happen to hear anything new I will be happy to update. I also go to church there when I'm not working (which isn't often enough).
Regarding Berry St. in general, I am anxious for the street improvements to go past the railroad tracks. I am NOT happy to see the 7-11 at 8th and Berry turned into a Texas Car Title Loan place. But I'm sure that's fodder for another thread.

[cberen1]

It's on the other side of University, but there is some activity on Berry. The Boston Market is being converted into a McDonald's and TCU is building something at Stadium.

I'm sure someone will lament the McDonald's for its inherently negative impact on the neighborhood, society and the whole of human existence, but I'm thrilled to have some McNuggets close to the house for my little kids. It's going to make my life better. Oh and I won't have to drive as far in my 13 mpg SUV to get the McNuggets, so there is some global benefit.

[John T Roberts]

Rundown on Berry Street Activity:

Stadium at Berry - New TCU Admissions Building
Rogers at Berry - the Boston Market is being converted into a McDonalds
University and Berry - the old Alberston's is being converted into a Kroger Fresh Fare
Berry at Waits - 1960's/1970's Jack in the Box prototype being demolished for a new Jack in the Box restaurant.

[John T Roberts]

The Jack In The Box has now been leveled and the old Albertson's is having its front facade partially removed. There is progress on Berry Street, even though it is kind of slow.