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Hilton Hotel Annex Sold

Downtown Redevelopment

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#1 John T Roberts

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Posted 23 September 2014 - 12:50 PM

I heard this rumor on Friday, but I did not have any way to confirm it.  The Hilton Hotel Annex was sold and will be used for parking and some kind of redevelopment.  Also, it appears that the old United Way Building (Greyhound Bus Terminal) was sold.  Below is a link to Sandra Baker's article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

 

http://www.star-tele...ommerce-in.html



#2 Big Frog II

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Posted 23 September 2014 - 01:44 PM

Good.



#3 John T Roberts

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Posted 23 September 2014 - 01:51 PM

By the way, the rumor that I heard on Friday was that the new owners were seriously looking at converting the upper floors to apartments.



#4 Jeriat

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Posted 23 September 2014 - 02:02 PM

By the way, the rumor that I heard on Friday was that the new owners were seriously looking at converting the upper floors to apartments.

 

I would like this idea more if they get rid of the cement walls facing Commerce and putting SOME windows on that side.

 

I hope...


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#5 John T Roberts

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Posted 23 September 2014 - 05:22 PM

It would be nice if they opened up the west and the north facade.  They could probably put punched openings in it like the Municipal Parking Garage.  That way, the lower section of the building wouldn't look so much like a parking garage.



#6 Austin55

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Posted 23 September 2014 - 09:07 PM

Can I start by saying, that ST article is very confusing the way it flips back and forth between describing the properties. So it sounds like the guy who bought the Sinclair needed parking, but couldn't obtain the lot he wanted (5th and Jones), so he will use the Hilton Annex garage for parking for the Sinclair building? Am I understanding that right? So where would potential residents of a converted Hilton Annex park (assuming they need a garage that is) But it's also interesting that the 5th and Jones lot is bieng sold to another party, perhaps a part with interest in developing the lot? Sundance maybe?

 

Interested to see what goes on with the United Way lot. Think it would be perfect for a large hotel. Raymond Managment seems to be more of a manager than a developer, and seem to mostly deal with suburban type stuff in the Sacramento area. Kinda seems odd.



#7 RD Milhollin

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Posted 23 September 2014 - 11:39 PM

Ground floor retail, please.



#8 Jimmy

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Posted 24 September 2014 - 08:14 AM

The S-T article states that Raymond's initial plans for 1005 Commerce were a 210-room Hampton Inn.  

 

If that is still the plan, a decent comparison might be the 209-room, 16-story Hampton Inn located one block from the Austin Convention Center: Link w/photos.



#9 dangr.dave

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Posted 24 September 2014 - 08:45 AM

I understand the need for parking, but that is a long trek from the Hilton Annex to the Sinclair Building.  I can't see tenants being too happy about having to walk that far...but, I guess it's better than nothing.



#10 JBB

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Posted 24 September 2014 - 11:04 AM

3 blocks or less than 1000 feet is a long trek? On what planet? They're walking about 2 blocks with their current parking.

#11 Jeriat

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Posted 24 September 2014 - 11:07 AM

I understand the need for parking, but that is a long trek from the Hilton Annex to the Sinclair Building.  I can't see tenants being too happy about having to walk that far...but, I guess it's better than nothing.

 

If this were Dallas or Houston, I'd agree.


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#12 dangr.dave

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Posted 25 September 2014 - 07:15 AM

It's not a long distance for me.  I walk the length of downtown at lunch about every day.  I'm just thinking that propsective tenants of the building will probably not be too keen on the idea of having to park three blocks away and take that walk in their patent leather shoes while carrying a briefcase and a box of Krispy Kreme's.  Maybe it's just that the stretch of street in front of the Annex seems so dull and lifeless; I feel depressed just imagining that section of street.  But, as I said, at least they would have parking. 



#13 JBB

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Posted 25 September 2014 - 08:08 AM

Just pure speculation, but I bet a lot more workers downtown walk more than 3 blocks from the car to their office than you think.

#14 Austin55

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Posted 09 October 2014 - 11:33 AM

Well, someone's been inside. They took some windows.

 

jzmgYlR.jpg



#15 prideftw

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Posted 09 October 2014 - 12:27 PM

I wonder if they are going to change the look of the building from the outside or add lighting.



#16 John T Roberts

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Posted 31 January 2015 - 03:38 PM

The answer may be found at the DDRB.  The building is on the agenda for new glazing and new "paneling".  The Sinclair Building (City of Fort Worth Landmark) and Wild Salsa/Chop House Burger over at City Place is also on the agenda.  From the description in this agenda, it appears the Sinclair Building work will have to be presented before the Historic & Cultural Landmarks Commission, as well.

 

http://fortworthtexa... Mtg Agenda.pdf



#17 Austin55

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Posted 02 February 2015 - 03:29 PM

That's great news on all fronts. Curious what firm(s) will be doing the work on it, and if the plans still call for residential units.

#18 John T Roberts

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Posted 02 February 2015 - 11:07 PM

This building is going to be converted into residential.  There will be approximately 142 units on the floors that previously had hotel rooms.  The existing rooftop pool will be kept.  Parking will remain on the lower five floors and basement.  The good news is that all of the ground floor that is physically possible will be converted into retail space.  That means all of the granite panels on the base, except those that have stairs or elevators behind them, will be removed.  Storefront will go in those places.  If you notice on the existing facade, there are four bays devoted to garage entry and exit.  Under the new plan, only two bays will be used for automobile traffic.  The other two bays (northernmost) will have storefront installed with retail behind.  The overall facade will remain the same, except the lower five levels will have a decorative screen installed in front of it.  There will also be a new bay of windows on the north and south ends of the west elevation in the tower.  A white LED vertical strip will be installed on the corners of the building.  The rendering also shows a horizontal strip at the top on the west side of each wing of the tower.  The architect for the project is Merriman Associates.

 

The application does confirm what I thought was true.  The concrete structure of the parking garage is the remnants of the Wiley G. Clarkson Biltmore Garage, which was designed to have more floors built on top. (which was done)



#19 John T Roberts

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Posted 05 February 2015 - 05:04 PM

On a side note, I now have the height of this building.  The Hilton Hotel Annex is 159 feet tall from the ground level finish floor to the roof of the elevator penthouse.



#20 Austin55

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Posted 05 February 2015 - 05:23 PM

Again, such exciting news. I really didn't expect that this building would be savable. Great news about retail, great that there will be more downtown residents, and I'm really curious how the final result will look.

 

edit-

 

ml1tzHk.png



#21 Fort Worthology

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Posted 06 February 2015 - 09:28 AM

That's a lot better than I ever expect that building to look.  Really exciting.


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#22 John T Roberts

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Posted 06 February 2015 - 09:57 AM

The interesting thing is that this "screen" will be mounted over the original facade of the lower part of the building. 



#23 renamerusk

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Posted 06 February 2015 - 10:12 AM

The interesting thing is that this "screen" will be mounted over the original facade of the lower part of the building. 

 

I hope that this screening detail to garage designs will become a trend.  IMO, with the exception of the Omni Garage, garage facades need some serious upgrading.



#24 Austin55

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Posted 06 February 2015 - 10:42 AM

John- Do you know if the upper floors will be changed in any significant way? With the garage levels receiving such a nice upgrade I was hoping the rest would be altered to match.

I'm also wondering about the East facing wall. Currently its a big slab, but it could offer a nice view over the Binyon O'keefe building to.

#25 renamerusk

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Posted 06 February 2015 - 06:27 PM

Again, such exciting news. I really didn't expect that this building would be savable. Great news about retail, great that there will be more downtown residents, and I'm really curious how the final result will look.

 

edit-

 

ml1tzHk.png

 

Does anyone have any idea how the management at "Hilton" and at  "Marriott" will be able to work together? 



#26 John T Roberts

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Posted 06 February 2015 - 09:20 PM

Austin, the upper floors will not be changed in any significant way.  The existing storefront windows from the old rooms will be the windows for the apartments.  There will be a new bank of windows on the upper levels on the west side at the north and south ends.  Inside the building along the east facing wall is a corridor.  That will remain the same.  They are not opening up the east side to any new windows.  I can't remember how the building was built, but that could be a shear wall and is constructed where window openings might not be possible.  Even if they were, the International Building Code does not allow windows directly on a property line.  Where there is an adjoining piece of property.  (It does allow windows on a property line, if the property line adjoins public right-of-way, like a street.)  There are minimum clearances that have to be met.  Link to DDRB Presentation Credit: Hotel Texas Annex, LLC and MAA Architects, via the city of Fort Worth

 

Rename, at one time, those buildings were under the same ownership, but since the annex was sold off from the Hilton Hotel, they are now under separate ownership.  The Hilton Hotel Annex, now known as 815 Commerce will be converted into apartments.  Therefore, the management teams will not be working together.  Granted, the parking garage in the lower levels will be used for parking at the Autograph Collection Hotel (Marriott), but those operations will be done by that hotel and I'm sure the Hilton patrons will not be allowed to park there.  The only connection that will remain will be the skybridge between the two buildings.



#27 BlueMound

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Posted 06 February 2015 - 11:43 PM

I'm very encouraged by the rendering. Looks really good.



#28 Austin55

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Posted 07 February 2015 - 12:41 PM

New rendering I had'nt seen, shows the upper floors a bit more and how they relate to the garage levels. It is a bit small though. You can also see the lighting strips at the top left. 

 

XQ9uuJc.jpg

 

Edit-Higher Res

 

TJTVC9G.jpg



#29 Dylan

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Posted 07 February 2015 - 01:08 PM

Looks like they're trying to cover up an ugly building with ugly lights.

 

I'm not sure it's possible to make this building look nice.


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#30 renamerusk

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Posted 07 February 2015 - 01:53 PM

Looks like they're trying to cover up an ugly building with ugly lights.

 

I'm not sure it's possible to make this building look nice.

 

     :huh:



#31 Fort Worthology

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Posted 08 February 2015 - 02:42 PM

That's about as good as that building's going to look.  I, for one, am thankful that if it's not getting wiped off the map for a better building, at least it's going to be as good as it can be.

 

Odd, though, that the skybridge is remaining.  It'd be nice to get rid of that.


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#32 Jeriat

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Posted 08 February 2015 - 03:42 PM

Just noticed that some of the Commerce side will have windows...

Still plenty of concrete wall will remain, though. Gotta do something about that.

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#33 Austin55

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Posted 08 February 2015 - 04:50 PM

Who actually owns the skybridge? The Hilton owners or the annex owners?

#34 John T Roberts

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Posted 08 February 2015 - 06:12 PM

Austin, that's a good question.  Unfortunately, I don't know the answer, and I'm doubting the answer is easy to get.  The bridge is over public right-of-way, so the street is owned by the city. 



#35 cjyoung

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Posted 11 February 2015 - 12:06 PM

Looks like they're trying to cover up an ugly building with ugly lights.

 

I'm not sure it's possible to make this building look nice.

I was thinking the same thing. I'm all for keeping architecturally significant buildings, but this ain't one of them IMHO.



#36 Now in Denton

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Posted 11 February 2015 - 01:01 PM

Renderings are nice. But I keep thinking how someone posted other remodel renderings. Tandy Center now City Place comes to mind. And in that project. Looks like they did not do half the things in those "rendering".



#37 Fort Worthology

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Posted 11 February 2015 - 03:03 PM

That's because City Place died and came back and changed developers and the plan for the project changed.


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#38 Austin55

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Posted 11 February 2015 - 03:29 PM

And they still look way better than they did before, IMO.



#39 JBB

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Posted 11 February 2015 - 03:38 PM

I would have liked to have seen the tops of the buildings finished out like the original renderings, but the return of some level of pedestrian friendliness to the whole complex was even better.

#40 John T Roberts

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Posted 11 February 2015 - 03:45 PM

City Place also changed architects in the process, as well.

 

Back to the Hilton Hotel Annex.  The building is really not architecturally significant.  The Biltmore Garage, on which it was built on top of was designed in 1928 by Wiley G. Clarkson.  However, the old facade was removed as a part of the conversion to the hotel annex.  The removal of the facade made the building lose its historic character as well as adding the 9 floors on top.  What we have today is a 1970 building, which is too new to qualify as a historic building.  The design is definitely Mid-Century Modern, but a lot of those buildings, from that period, were not that great.  As for dressing it up, all of the core elements are on the west side; therefore, removing the concrete panels and replacing them with windows would not be feasible.  They do plan to remove the granite on the first floor, and replace it with glass in all the areas where core elements are not present.  The east wall is the biggest blank wall, but the current building codes will not allow openings or glass to be placed in that wall.  To make a long story short, the building's design and building codes are more or less forcing the facade to remain the same.



#41 BlueMound

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Posted 09 April 2015 - 01:02 PM

This FWBP article, from 2 days ago, shows a few more renderings that are new to me.
Looking good.
http://m.fwbusinessp...6.html?mode=jqm

#42 John T Roberts

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Posted 10 April 2015 - 07:53 AM

The Lancaster Avenue Tax Increment Finance Board approved giving $4.7 million to the project.  This money is also dependent on the completion of the renovations to the Sinclair Building and the STS Tower.  Those projects will be asking the Downtown TIF Board for funding, as well.  In addition to all of this money, the Sinclair Building and STS Tower are also being considered for state and federal historic tax credits.  Below is a link to the article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

 

http://www.star-tele...le17988329.html



#43 renamerusk

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Posted 10 April 2015 - 08:29 AM

The Lancaster Avenue Tax Increment Finance Board approved giving $4.7 million to the project.

 

The Lancaster Avenue Tax..curious as to why?



#44 JBB

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Posted 10 April 2015 - 08:37 AM

I noticed that and thought it sounded strange. I'm assuming that the Lancaster TIF may include the convention center and some of the adjacent properties.

And let's be honest: this would be far from the most peculiar TIF in FW. (I'm looking at you, Cabela's TIF.)

#45 John T Roberts

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Posted 10 April 2015 - 10:08 AM

The boundaries of the Lancaster Corridor TIF basically encompass all of southern downtown.  Here are the approximate boundaries: The southern boundary is I-30 over to Henderson, then north on Henderson to 3rd, east on 3rd to Burnett, south on Burnett to 7th, east on 7th to Calhoun, south on Calhoun to where it would intersect with I-30.  There are documents on the city's website that will give you more details.



#46 John T Roberts

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Posted 04 August 2015 - 07:41 PM

I realize this may not be the appropriate place to post this link, but this photo of John F. Kennedy shows what the old Biltmore Garage looked like before its facade was removed and the hotel rooms were built on top of it.  The original base of the Hilton Hotel Annex is the building in the upper left portion of the photo.

 

http://2.bp.blogspot...PA-15306127.jpg



#47 RD Milhollin

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Posted 04 August 2015 - 11:13 PM

Not much ground-floor / street interaction then either.



#48 John T Roberts

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Posted 27 August 2015 - 09:35 AM

Construction is scheduled to start on the conversion project in September.



#49 John T Roberts

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Posted 29 October 2015 - 03:14 PM

I finally found a good photograph of the Biltmore Garage on the UTA Library's website.  I'm providing the link to the main page and then you can click on the photograph to enlarge it.  RD said that it didn't have much interaction with the street back in the day, but considering it was a garage, I don't think it was that bad.  It certainly looked a lot better before they added the floors on top and put a new facade on the original building.

 

http://library.uta.e...tems/show/38874



#50 Austin55

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Posted 29 October 2015 - 03:34 PM

Hard to believe that's the same structure.





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