Hotel planned for Fort Worth’s Cultural District

Rendering of proposed Hotel Renovo in Cultural District

The Fort Worth City Council on Tuesday was briefed on plans for an 11-story, 202-room full-service boutique hotel planned for the Cultural District that will open in August 2019, just prior to the opening of the new multipurpose arena.

The boutique hotel, bearing the Hotel Renovo brand and being developed by Heart of America Group of Moline, Illinois, will be located at 3300 Camp Bowie Boulevard, at the northwest corner of Camp Bowie and Van Cliburn Way. The company, which has been in the hotel development business for 38 years, plans to begin construction later this year, assuming the council agrees to approve an incentive calling for the city to rebate the hotel’s 7 percent city occupancy tax for 16 years with the incentive capped at $7.2 million. Without the incentive, the economics for a hotel at that location would call for a express-type hotel, according to the city staff’s analysis. The council will vote on the incentive plan at its next meeting on Feb. 21.

City staff estimates the hotel will generate $13.8 million in state and city hotel taxes over the 16 years of the incentive. Those funds will help pay for the city’s $225 million portion of the new event center.

The plans discussed at the council’s work session said the company plans a $47 million, 12-story hotel with 202 rooms, with 11 suites. At 196,000-square-feet, will have retail space at street level, a 9,000-square-foot restaurant, a 6,000-square foot fitness center, 9,000-square feet of ballroom space and a patio-terrace public area. The restaurant will be the Hotel of America’s J Bar brand. Because the hotel will be 155 feet high, it will require a variance from the city for that height. 

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“This is an 18 month build schedule,” said Kirk Whalen, vice president for the Heart of America Group, who attended the meeting. If it opens by August 2019, it will be available when the planned new 14,000-seat new event center that should be open in time for the 2020 edition of the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo.

This will be Heart of America’s first project in Fort Worth and will be based in the Museum Place development.  

www.heartofamericagroup.com/