Fort Worth Business Press
1/30/04
By: JERI PETERSEN

Downtown condo purchased…a sign of things to come

The first Pecan Place condominum in Fort Worth has been sold.

Joe Keyes, 27, just became the proud owner of one of Fort Worth’s first for-sale downtown condominiums. The single, sales rep for a pipe-manufacturing company said he had been looking for a home while interest rates were low, but didn’t want a “family house.”

He searched real estate listings on the Internet and checked out some downtown condos he saw there. Fort Worth builder Tom Struhs had just broken ground on a 9-unit complex at the corner of First and Pecan Street, to be called Pecan Place. Keyes was impressed. He got in on the deal early enough to customize his home and recently closed on the property.

He had lived in a duplex near Hulen Mall and said the transition to downtown living has been pleasant; except for the lack of a grocery store, he can walk to almost everything he wants to do. His southwest-facing unit gives him a nice view of the city, and he only has a 15- to-20-minute commute to work north of the city.

Pecan Place really began in 1996, before Struhs knew he would build it. Local advertising agency owner Lee Rogers asked him to build a home downtown, but Rogers wanted to live upstairs and office downstairs.

“We couldn’t find a bank or mortgage company, because was it a commercial loan or a mortgage? In 1996, there was nothing like that in Fort Worth,” Struhs said. “We had gotten downtown zoning, and what we ended up building is what legally is a 4-plex.” Struhs finished the 2-story building called Cassidy Corner in 2000, where he and his wife, Elizabeth Falconer, live. Rogers lives in the upper portion of the other half and keeps an office on the bottom floor.

A lot has changed in eight years, including zoning and mortgage lending for multi-use buildings, and Fort Worth is abuzz with talk of folks moving downtown to live and work. Tony Landrum last year announced condominiums and apartments in his multi-use project planned for the former Bank One Tower. Ken Schaumburg recently opened for-sale townhomes in Fort Worth South in the medical district. Struhs has purchased the land directly east of Pecan Place for more condominiums.

“Pecan Place is our precursor to a much larger deal on the river,” Struhs said. “We’ve assembled 30 acres across from Belknap along the bluff. We already own the land and have done all the zoning, so we’re just working now on infrastructure.”

The development, called Trinity Bluff, calls for about 1,700 residential units, including townhouses, condominiums and apartments. A partnership made up of Struhs and Rudy Renda called Wide Open Spaces will develop the project during the next six years, and they are hopeful of beginning construction on the first units by the end of summer, Struhs said.

The Pecan Place condominiums are 1,900 to 2,500 square feet. Three of the nine units are sold; the remaining units range in price from $465,000 to $552,000. The luxury homes have waxed concrete floors, granite countertops, 12-foot ceilings and custom stained pecan cabinets. Clay Brants of Brants Realtors is the broker.

Contact Petersen at jpetersen@bizpress.com