In an informal report on Dec. 4, the Fort Worth City Council heard an update on the City of Fort Worth, the Fort Worth Housing Finance Corporation (HFC), and the Fort Worth Local Development Corporation (LDC) publishing a Request for Expressions of Interest for Redevelopment of Properties they own.
The properties are in the Evans and Rosedale Urban Village. Solicitations for expressions of interest from local, regional, and national developers have been made.
The Evans and Rosedale Urban Village was an economic and social center for the African-American community in the early 1900s. The Village has been the subject of various planning and community input efforts in the past two decades, but the lots owned by the city and related entities remain mostly vacant despite significant public investment in infrastructure.
In recent years, land prices in the Near Southside area have skyrocketed, pushing interest to the east. City staff believes that makes this the ideal time to attract private investment to the area.
The goal of this RFEI is to provide enough information for a staff recommendation to contract with a specified master developer through a Memorandum of Understanding. The master developer will then be responsible for bringing forward specific project proposals for consideration.
“This RFEI is meant to ascertain interest about an area that is primed for redevelopment,” said Fort Worth Neighborhood Services Director Aubrey Thagard. “Given the success of redevelopment efforts in and around the hospital district, and the considerable public investment already made in the area, we believe that a thorough and thoughtful process will present to the community qualified development partners who have the band width to bring quality development to a part of the city that has been anticipating revitalization for a some time now.”
The selected developer will be expected to honor the area’s heritage as well as past planning and community input endeavors, while configuring the site for the current market opportunities.
The selection criteria will focus on:
*Vision, with respect to the History of the area.
*Quality of Design.
*Economic impact to the city.
*Qualifications and experience of development team.
*Financial capacity of the team.
*Community engagement.
*Alignment with the city’s comprehensive and strategic economic development plans.
“We anticipate releasing the RFEI this week with responses due early next year. Through a public engagement process, we will be looking for a plan that honors the history and heritage of the community, while highlighting the development opportunities that can be realized,” Fort Worth Director of Economic Development Robert Sturns said. “It is our goal to have a memorandum of understanding executed with a development group by early summer 2019.”
