Exclusive: Look inside Fort Worth’s newest luxury hotel with $6K suite on Camp Bowie

One of Fort Worth’s new and most expensive hotels opened its doors on Camp Bowie Boulevard on Friday.

The four-story Bowie House hotel features 88 studio rooms, 12 lofts and six suites, including a signature suite that spans 2,250 square feet and starts at $6,000 per night.

Rooms start around $650 per night this weekend, according to the hotel’s booking website, though the company is offering a limited 25% discount promotion.

The hotel at 3700 Camp Bowie Blvd. is part of the Auberge Resorts Collection, which operates 26 luxury resorts and 89 restaurants across the U.S. and select destinations in Europe and Central America.

The Star-Telegram got an exclusive tour of the luxury hotel this week and sat down with owner Jo Ellard to discuss the vision behind her first hotel and story behind the property’s development.

Growing up riding and breeding championship horses, Ellard was the youngest person ever inducted into the National Cutting Horse Association’s Member Hall of Fame. Her equestrian career generated earnings of more than $700,000.

Her late husband, Bill Ellard, started a family-owned insurance company 50 years ago that sold for $405 million in 2018 after his passing. Throughout their marriage, the couple raised cattle and bought and developed several ranches, including about 40 homes, Ellard said.

Ellard lives in Dallas and serves on the board for the NCHA, headquartered in Fort Worth. With so much time spent in the western half of the Metroplex, Ellard decided to purchase a cottage off Camp Bowie Boulevard, where she would often stay overnight.

While staying at the cottage for eight years, she would frequently look out the window at adjacent commercial property formerly home to a church site and the longtime beer bar Ginger Man. When the land became available about three years ago, she decided to buy it.

“I didn’t immediately know what I wanted to do with it,” Ellard said. “Sometimes you don’t do a lot of planning and you just are spontaneous.”

A friend of Ellard’s had opened a boutique hotel in Mississippi, and she thought Fort Worth was ready for something similar.

“I can’t say it was a burning desire,” Ellard said. “We had not been in commercial real estate development.”

But when Dickies Arena successfully opened in 2019, she realized Fort Worth needed a hotel of Bowie House’s caliber. Through several feasibility studies, initial plans for a 40-room boutique hotel evolved into the more than 100-room hotel that stands today. Ellard’s original cottage was eventually demolished to make room for the property that exists today.

“Once Auberge came on board, they were really instrumental in helping us lay the space out,” Ellard said. “They’re such professionals and such great operators. They made the difference in this being just absolutely perfect.”

The Fort Worth property will be part of an exclusive Auberge Resorts portfolio that includes addresses in Napa Valley, Aspen, Park City, Los Cabos, Greece and France. It is the company’s second Texas property, after Commodore Perry Estate in Austin.

The Bowie House development wasn’t without controversy when it went before city leaders in 2020. Some residents of surrounding neighborhoods worried about traffic and the project’s scale so close to residences. Ellard met multiple times with residents.

“We spent a lot of time talking with the neighborhood to make sure the project preserved the neighborhood’s historic value,” Ellard said. “They really liked the idea of townhomes serving as a residential buffer between the hotel and the neighborhood.”

Seven on-site townhomes are still under construction adjacent to the hotel. The townhomes range 2,500 to 3,500 square feet, and their construction should conclude by March or April of 2024, Ellard said.

Five of the seven were still available for purchase as of last month with two- and three-bedroom options. Ellard declined to share how much the townhomes will cost.

“The townhomes are a very high-end luxury product, and the owners of those townhomes will have the opportunity to share in the amenities at the hotel,” Ellard said.

Access to hotel amenities includes a la carte room service, entrance to the pool and housekeeping upon request. Each townhome is three stories and features an elevator and two-car garage.

“(Bowie House) has set the tone for any future development on this stretch of Camp Bowie,” Ellard said. “From here to downtown, Seventh Street is well developed, beautifully done, but Camp Bowie really needed this commercial boost, and I think this is the right project.”

An “equestrian thread” runs through the hotel with different “motifs” like leather and cowhide furniture, hat racks and boot benches. Ellard said the hotel is not fully Western, traditional or modern, but rather “a little bit of everything.”

“Fort Worth is a transitioning city that is very, very proud of its heritage and cultural roots and it holds steadfast to those traditions and culture,” Ellard said. “But with the growth of the city, they have realized that Fort Worth is changing. It is transitioning. It’s not giving up what they’re so proud of — the Western culture and the tradition of Cowtown — but it’s a modern version of all of those elements that makes it so unique and so great.”

Ellard said the Bowie House hotel is a once-in-a-lifetime project for her, and she does not plan to open more hotels or develop other commercial real estate in the future.

The Bowie House’s opening comes about a month after the Crescent Fort Worth held its soft-opening a few blocks down the street on Camp Bowie Boulevard.

Rooms in the 200-room hotel started around $450 per night on weekends in November. The property’s Canyon Ranch Wellness Club held its soft opening Friday, and a second phase of the development will eventually bring 170,000 square feet of office space and nearly 170 luxury apartments to the area.

“This hotel and the Crescent have both created a space for visitors from all over the world,” Ellard said. “Both projects have created options that didn’t exist before, and I think it’s just going to open Fort Worth up to leisure travel. There’s so many things of interest in Fort Worth that make it unique and special that you can’t really get anywhere.”

Ellard thinks both the Bowie House and Crescent have put Fort Worth on the world hospitality market.

“Fort Worth really truly does have an identity and cultural following that is very unique,” Ellard said. “There’s not another city in Texas like Fort Worth.”

The hotel has a pool terrace, nature courtyard, game room, library, meeting space, spa and three drinking and dining options.

Fort Worth-based architecture firm BOKA Powell led the hotel’s design, which marketing materials describe as a “masterful union of time-honored and contemporary design, combining brick and cast stone harking back to the days of cowboys with gravity-defying glass features, a verdant pool terrace and convivial gathering spaces.”

Bowie House’s signature restaurant, Bricks and Horses, will be a “contemporary chophouse specializing in dry-aged local beef that will soon be the social hub of Fort Worth,” the hotel says. The Bar at Bowie House will serve all-day bites and a variety of cocktails and whiskeys. Another on-site restaurant, Whinny’s, will include a light-bites menu of frozen drinks, salads and ice cream sandwiches.

The Billet Room is the name of the hotel’s game room, and the Mulberry Room is a library “venue for discovery, sipping bourbon as you read or engaging in deep conversation over drinks and snacks.”

The hotel spa, Ash, will have a steam room and sauna, nail studio, fitness center, boutique, relaxation lounge and five treatment rooms. Services available include apothecary, water dancing, infrared therapy, synergistic skin treatments, massages and fitness classes.

With more than 10,000 square feet of outdoor and indoor event space, Bowie House can host up to 400 guests at a time for corporate retreats, weddings and other events. Venues include a wedding reception ballroom and an arcade.

“It’s with great excitement that we’ll soon welcome guests to Bowie House and bring our unique style of approachable luxury to this already vibrant city,” Gaylord Lamy, general manager of Bowie House, said in a release. “Fort Worth is a culturally rich gem with some of the best parks, gardens, museums, restaurants and entertainment in Texas, and we are excited to help open up this city to global travelers while providing a new and exciting home base for our beloved community. ”