The apartments planned for the corner of West Vickery Boulevard and South Main Street are one step closer to getting taller.
The Urban Design Commission voted June 23 to approve the addition of two more floors to the project, for a total of 12.
The apartments are part of a larger development headed by Fort Worth Housing Solutions and the Fort Worth Transportation Authority (The T), with Bennett Benner Partners serving as architect. The plan is to build a 262-unit apartment complex and an adjacent 10-story, 200-room hotel on the T transit parking lot. Both buildings will have ground floor retail space totaling about 70,000 square feet.
“This is the most high-profile project certainly in our area, really even a much larger area in the map,” said Mike Brennan, planning director at the nonprofit development group Near Southside Inc. “Getting the design right is really important. We think all of this is coming together in a good way.”
The original plan was to split residential space between the two buildings. With the height change, all the residential units will be consolidated to one building, while the other building will be used solely as a hotel.
In addition to the apartments and hotel, the developers also plan to add about 1,000 parking spaces to serve apartment residents and transit users, making up for parking spaces displaced by the development, said Michael Bennett, president and CEO of Bennett Benner Partners. About 600 spaces will be located in the parking garage connected to the apartment, and about 300-400 spaces will be on a lot east of the development.
Bennett said another reason to add additional parking is to accommodate the incoming TEX Rail, a 27-mile commuter rail project that will stretch from the site of the West Vickery development to Terminal B at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport. The TEX Rail is expected to be operational by the end of 2018.
The next step for the West Vickery project is to get the height change approved by either the Board of Appeals or the Zoning Commission, Bennett said. He said the city will decide which board will hear the case next.
Brennan said he’s hoping the project will move forward so that it will be ready once the TEX Rail comes in.
“Hopefully we can use this as a precedent to encourage similar projects throughout the district,” he said.