The Crescent Hotel Fort Worth officially opened for business on Wednesday, adding a new icon to the Cultural District and an anchor of another first-class, mixed-used development for the city.
Surrounded by a group of city leaders and other dignitaries, John Goff and his wife, Cami, cut the ribbon to dedicate the newest addition to Goff’s large and impressive portfolio of real estate developments and investments. Among those developments are The Ritz-Carlton and the Residences at the Ritz-Carlton in Dallas.
For the billionaire businessman who packed up a U-Haul in his hometown of Houston more than four decades ago to move to Fort Worth for a job with an accounting firm, his newest development is a great source of pride and feels personal satisfaction in achieving it.
“This is in my hometown,” said Goff, a protégé of Fort Worth billionaire investor and philanthropist Richard Rainwater. “I always felt that that Fort Worth needed a first-class hotel in the Cultural District so when this opportunity came along, I took it.”
Goff said he would drive by the property at 3300 Camp Bowie Boulevard, directly across the street from Fort Worth’s renowned art museums, on his way to work and imagine the possibilities for the vacant property.
Now, he has reason to end his commute to work there because he has moved his primary businesses, Crescent Real Estate and Goff Capital, to the eight-story, 168,000-square-foot office building that is part of the new $275 million development on a 5.1-acre site.
Besides the hotel and the office building, the mixed-use development includes a Canyon Ranch Wellness Club and 167 luxury residences with various floor plans. While the whole development won’t be fully complete until the beginning of 2024, the hotel had guest bookings on Wednesday and beyond.
The hotel features 200 guest rooms, including 12 luxury suites, two restaurants, a lobby bar, a rooftop bar and 15,000 square feet of event space. The hotel’s two restaurants, Emilia’s and the Blue Room, offer upscale Mediterranean region cuisine, with Emilia’s specializing in pasta and other Italian dishes. The Circle Bar in the hotel’s lobby will also offer light bites from Emilia’s.
Overseeing the hotel’s dining operation is executive chef Preston Paine, a Dallas native who honed his skills working in restaurants in New Orleans while attending college and playing football at Tulane University.
Paine upped his game working in New York prior to the pandemic and then returning to Dallas and serving as chef at five restaurants in the Bishop Arts area. He is also co-founder of Dallas’ Shug’s Bagels, known for New York-style bagels. He earned even more acclaim after appearing as a contestant in this year’s first season of the Food Network’s Ciao House, a cooking competition show that took place in a villa in Tuscany.
Emilia’s is named in honor of Fort Worth’s first international Sister City relationship with Reggio Emilia in Italy. The city’s mayor, Luca Vecchi, attended the ribbon-cutting event.
Goff said the rooftop bar, which will open in the beginning of 2024, is named Ralph’s in memory of Mary Ralph Lowe’s father, Ralph Lowe. Mary Ralph Lowe, the prior owner of most of the new development’s property, agreed to sell the property if Goff agreed to name the bar for her father.
Goff wasn’t the first developer to express interest in building a hotel on the property but he turned out to be the right choice with his attention to detail and his unwavering commitment to align with the wishes and the world-class architecture of the nearby museums.
“It’s an incredible day,” said Mayor Mattie Parker. “This is our five-star hotel in the city, takes us to another level, is a wonderful addition to the Cultural District and is something that all of Fort Worth can be proud of.”
Construction of the hotel and related development began in 2021.
