NEWS RELEASES

Fort Worth Star-Telegram (TX)
November. 29, 2006

Luxury condos in the works

FORT WORTH -- The developers of Trinity Bluff plan to break ground early next year on a six-story building with 23 luxury condominiums overlooking the Trinity River at the northeast edge of downtown with some units costing more than $1 million.

The development in the historic Samuels Avenue neighborhood will be called Villa de Leon, for its European villa style of architecture and for Alonzo de Leon, a Spanish explorer credited as the first European to see the Trinity River in 1690 and who gave it its modern name.

"He could have stood on that very spot. I like to think of it that way," said Tom Struhs, who heads the development team.

Struhs said the building will be aimed at buyers at the high end of the housing market. The condos will sell for an average of $350 a square foot, meaning the units, at 2,500 to 3,000 square feet, will likely range between $875,000 and slightly more than $1 million.

Villa de Leon will have an underground parking garage, Struhs said. The building will have some common areas among its amenities, including a catering kitchen, grand living area, workout room and pool.

The condos will have fireplaces, elaborate kitchens and bathrooms, large closets, and wood windows and flooring, he said. The condos would be the top end of the market for the area -- now called Trinity Uptown -- which more than a century ago was a showcase of large Victorian-style homes. Town houses under construction nearby range in price from $299,000 to $546,500.

"What we want to do is try to market this building directly to the prospective customers," Struhs said. "We have seen a significant interest. People want to live downtown, but not in the hustle and bustle of a tall building. The truth is, the real high end has not been addressed at all."

Earlier this year, Dallas-based developers dropped plans for a 60-story tower at Seventh and Calhoun streets that would have included offices and condos. Now they are only considering a much smaller office building. Initially, plans included condos priced at more than $300 a square foot, but the developers said they felt the project was getting too costly for the market.

Andy Taft, president of Downtown Fort Worth Inc., said Villa de Leon is a significant project in the push to establish a center-city housing market. "

Just a few years ago, the northeast corner of downtown was not paid much attention," Taft said. "Today, the strength of downtown, the promise of the Trinity River Vision and the investment that Tom Struhs and his partners have made in Trinity Uptown are coming together to support a project of this magnitude."

Struhs and his partners -- his wife, Elizabeth Falconer, and Rudy Renda of Oscar Renda Contracting Co. -- began buying property in 2002 for Trinity Bluff, the redevelopment of one of the city's first neighborhoods. The once-upscale area had become mostly dilapidated buildings and run-down houses in the past several decades.

Most of those structures have since been razed.

Trinity Bluff is bounded by the Trinity River on the west, Burlington Northern Santa Fe tracks on the east, Belknap Street on the south and Samuels Avenue Baptist Church and historic Pioneers Rest Cemetery to the north.

Villa de Leon, scheduled for completion in spring 2008, is the next step in the redevelopment, which Struhs said will likely take another six years to complete. Their goal is to provide 1,800 residential units, which will include some affordable housing.

Struhs is also building the Pecan Place Townhomes, 26 town houses on East First Street; Lincoln Property Co. is nearing completion on the 304-unit apartment building called Lincoln Trinity Bluff nearby; and Main Street Living is building Palisades, 40 town houses on Bluff Street.

Struhs is planning another condominium tower on 2 acres across Samuels Avenue from Villa de Leon. The details of that building are still being determined, but Struhs said it will be taller than Villa de Leon.

The exterior of Villa de Leon will be made of cast stone and brick, with a slate roof, he said. The building was designed by Fort Worth architect Ames Fender.