Is Fort Worth’s Cultural District the next Uptown Dallas? This developer is betting on it

The developer leading two major projects in Fort Worth’s Cultural District with a total investment of $400 million predicts this corridor is on a trajectory to be the next Uptown Dallas — a vibrant, upscale neighborhood that’s walkable with restaurants, luxury hotels, apartments and offices.

Goldenrod Companies expects to begin construction soon on the eight-story Van Zandt mixed-use building on West Seventh Street and two towers around the corner on University Drive that will include an Autograph Collection hotel.

Zach Wiegert, the managing principal of Nebraska-based Goldenrod, is bullish on the Cultural District, which has already seen hundreds of millions of dollars in new development and hotels over the past few years. Although Goldenrod has experience in Dallas, these will be the company’s first projects in Fort Worth .

“We just think it’s kind of ground zero for the future of development in the Fort Worth area,” Wiegert told the Star-Telegram.

Both sites for the projects were cleared months ago, but have seen little activity since — and the clock is ticking for millions of dollars in incentives the city agreed to offer Goldenrod.

Landmark developments

The future home of the Van Zandt at 2816 W. Seventh St. is a fenced-in lot between Currie and Foch streets. Tall green blades of grass grow through gaps in a stack of rusting metal pipes and pink-flowering weeds have devoured two rotting wood pallets. Signs indicating it’s a construction site hang near the fence’s gate, though work seems less than imminent.

A few blocks away will be One University at 1001 University Drive — a 10-story residential tower with an adjacent nine-story building. Old parking lots and bars at the site were bulldozed months ago, leaving a grassy, mostly vacant block directly across from the Modern Art Museum.

Wiegert said construction crews will break ground on the Van Zandt right before or after the holidays. That project is about four to five months ahead of One University, which is slated to break ground in the spring.

Goldenrod signed an agreement with the city for $31 million in economic incentives for both projects. The agreement was split into two, one for each project in September, which Wiegert said was to make securing a lender easier.

When the project was presented to the City Council last fall, the city estimated both developments could generate over $39 million in new tax revenue .

To receive the incentives, Goldenrod must complete the Van Zandt by the end of 2026, and One University by the end of 2027. Wiegert said those are standard timelines for each project.

As part of the incentives agreement, Goldenrod must also prioritize office leases for companies relocating to the city from outside of the Metroplex. The company committed to not leasing commercial space to a bar or nightclub for 15 years.

The West 7th area has long been home to a high concentration of bars. Several high-profile shootings in the district, including the death of a TCU student in September 2023, prompted a renewed push to improve safety in the entertainment district . The city adopted new zoning rules requiring bars or clubs to get special approval before opening in some areas, including West 7th.

Wiegert said large projects like the Van Zandt and One University can help change the character of an area.

“When you do these large mixed-use deals, it has vibrancy all day long, with different people going to and from the project, and that’s really the way you change the look and feel of a district, is redevelopment like this,” he said.

Though both developments are major undertakings, Wiegert said building both at similar times will help streamline the construction process. Combined, they will cost an estimated $183 million to build.

The Van Zandt is an eight-story mixed-use development expected to have 226 apartments, offices, a parking garage and about 13,000 square feet of commercial space for restaurants or shops on the ground floor.

One University’s 10-story residential tower will have 252 apartments and an upscale, 176-room Autograph Collection hotel. An adjacent nine-story tower will house a parking garage and offices. About 30,000 square feet of retail space will be available across both buildings.

Coury Hospitality will manage the hotel, which Wiegert said will be called the Tycoon. A Coury spokeswoman said the hotel is scheduled to open in the third quarter of 2027; it is expected to have a rooftop pool, speakeasy and restaurant.

Commercial real estate firm JLL will be the leasing agency for the the 218,000 square feet of Class AA office space in both developments.

The next Uptown Dallas?

As the Cultural District develops, Wiegert believes it could become a thriving, walkable arts district reminiscent of Dallas’ popular Uptown.

“To me, like Dallas is maybe just 10 years ahead on the same trajectory,” Wiegert said.

The Crescent mixed-use development opened in Uptown Dallas in 1986, spurring a transformation of the district into some of the city’s most expensive real estate. In 2016, the Dallas Morning News reported $1 billion in development was in the works in Uptown, much of it mixed-use. New office and residential projects continue to drive growth in the district.

Today, Uptown Dallas is home to parks, dozens of restaurants and shops, hundreds of apartments and seven hotels, including boutique properties like Hotel ZaZa and Le Meridien Dallas, and high-end establishments like the Ritz-Carlton Dallas and Hotel St. Germain.

“We have an office over at the Crescent Uptown, and we kind of think that to create that vibe and feel around that area, around kind of Foch (Street), University, that area of town would be huge for, you know, just getting both office and residential there, so it’s more of a walkable district with a lot of restaurants and amenities and stuff like that,” Wiegert said.

Goldenrod bought over 35 acres in Dallas’ Trinity Groves district in 2023, which is expected to be extensively redeveloped with housing, hotels and offices on the west side of the Trinity River from downtown.

‘I think that time has come’

Similar to how the Crescent was a catalyst for Uptown, the Crescent Fort Worth hotel’s opening in 2023 on Camp Bowie Boulevard signaled a new era for the West 7th and Cultural Districts .

Crescent Real Estate owner John Goff has been bullish on the future of the districts, too.

“The Cultural District is such an important asset for the city, if not the much broader community,” he told the Star-Telegram in late 2023. “It’s just amazing that it hasn’t had a first-class hotel in or around it. I think that time has come.”

Around the same time the Crescent opened, the four-story luxury Bowie House hotel opened a few blocks away . In September, the Paris-based Michelin Guide awarded the Bowie House “two keys” out of three, an “exceptional” rating shared by only two other hotels in Texas. Meanwhile, the Crescent was recently named the best hotel in Texas by Condé Nast Traveler.

Wiegert, who is also a former NFL player and member of the College Football Hall of Fame, thinks the Cultural District is ripe for more office development. He said as hybrid work has become more popular, employers are looking for offices that are smaller than in the past, but have more top-notch amenities to lure employees back to in-person work.

“They’re using their new office in these great, new, reimagined office spaces as retention of talent is what I think companies are doing,” he said.

Crescent Real Estate has already invested heavily in office space. Its first office tower near the hotel was over 90% leased in less than a year — despite having some of the highest commercial rents in the city. Construction of a second $70 million Crescent Offices tower, which will also have Class AA space, is expected to begin this fall .

Wiegert believes that soon, companies will be more inclined to choose Fort Worth instead of Dallas when relocating to the Metroplex.

“I think these kinds of projects and these kinds of locations, and creating a district kind of like Uptown will be the driving force to bring those headquarters to Fort Worth in the future,” he said.

Wiegert said the Crescent development is certainly competition for Van Zandt and One University, but that’s a good thing.

“They will always be competition from a hotel and from a residential standpoint, but it’s healthy competition,” Wiegert said. “We just want more people to come to this area of town, and make this their home and the place they do business.”