Fort Worth fires contractor after years of delays on neighborhood revitalization project
The Evans and Rosedale redevelopment project was supposed to be done by now, but after four years of next to no progress, the city of Fort Worth is switching developers.
Dallas-based Hoque Global was hired in 2019 to build a 292-unit apartment complex with 15,000 square feet of commercial space in the city’s Historic Southside neighborhood.
Around 36 units were planned to be set aside for renters earning at or below 60% of the area’s median income with another 36 planned for renters earning at or below or 80%. The rest of the units would be rented at market rate.
However, issues with financing delayed the project to the point where the city decided it needed to change course.
A city presentation from September 2021 showed developers planned to secure financing by the end of 2022 with construction wrapping up by the end of 2023.
The building was part of a roughly 20-year project by the city of Fort Worth to revive the neighborhood, which in the 1930s was the economic engine of the city’s Black community.
The neighborhood sits just east of Interstate 35W and is bounded by Vickery Boulevard to the north, Riverside Drive to the east and Rosedale Street to the south.
Hoque’s ability to get private financing was more difficult than the city anticipated, said Fort Worth city council member Chris Nettles, whose district includes Historic Southside.
“We understand there was inflation, and interest rates increased, but deadlines weren’t met,” Nettles said.
Representatives for Hoque Global did not immediately respond to two phone calls and two emails from the Star-Telegram requesting comment.
The city set aside $13.2 million in grants to help with construction and land acquisition. About $4.2 million of the incentives came from the American Rescue Plan Act. That money needs to be spent by the end of 2024.
The city had already given Hoque two extensions, however, the company was asking for a third extension that would have pushed the completion date to 2025, Nettles said.
“This parcel of land is vitally important to Historic Southside that we don’t want to lost the opportunity to make it happen,” he said.
The neighborhood also lost confidence in Hoque Global’s ability to get the project done, said James Walker, president of the Historic Southside Neighborhood Association. The association voted at its Dec. 11 meeting to withdraw its letter of support for the developer.
The neighborhood is still behind the development, just not the developer, Walker said.
The plan from Hoque Global included a grocery store, green space and restaurants — things the community wants and needs, according to Walker.
“We just need a developer who can do it,” he said.
The city is already reaching out to partners who have built residential developments to move the project forward, Nettles said, with the plan to have a new developer in place by the end of March 2024.
The struggle has been finding a developer for the commercial space, Nettles said. Commercial developers will often look at population density and area median income when deciding where to invest.
The median household income in Historic Southside is Worth Heights is $45,965, according to the Census Bureau. That’s a roughly $27,000 less than the city as a whole.
It’s also in the 76104 ZIP code, which according to a 2019 UT Southwestern study had the lowest life expectancy in Texas.
The city may have to build the housing piece first before building the commercial, Nettles said. He acknowledged that might not be popular, but argued the city has to look at all possibilities to get the Evans and Rosedale project built.
“If we don’t figure it out then nothing happens, and we all lose,” he said.
