Aloft hotel planned for One City Place in Downtown Fort Worth

April 22,2016

By Sandra Baker

An Aloft hotel could be coming to six floors in One City Place in downtown Fort Worth.

Spire Realty Group has filed for a state permit review on the project, which consists of 180 guest rooms on floors 8 through 13 at 300 W. Third St. The project is called Aloft Fort Worth Downtown.

Construction is expected to begin June 1 and be completed in March 2017, according to the filing. The cost of construction was placed at $4.5 million.

Aloft is an ultra-modern Starwood Hotels and Resorts brand, with 211 hotels worldwide. There are currently eight Aloft hotels in Texas, including locations in Dallas, Irving, Frisco and Plano. Several more are planned to open this year and next, including on Lamar Boulevard in Arlington, near Dallas Love Field and Richardson, according to the company’s website.

In 2010, Dallas-based Spire bought the building, and the matching 19-story office tower to the north, once headquarters for Tandy Corp., which was renamed RadioShack. The north tower, Two City Place, had been renovated by a previous owner.

Spire immediately demolished the building between the towers that housed the former Fort Worth Outlet Mall and ice rink and built a parking garage, annex building and a pedestrian walkway.

Spire incorporated the possibility for a hotel lobby into the design of the parking garage and the two-story annex on the north side of One City Place. Avanti restaurant has opened in the annex, Wild Salsa is under construction, and a Hooters is planned. Earlier this year, the Hooters plan raised the ire of several tenants in the Sundance West apartment building across Throckmorton Street.

The previous developers planned residences for One City Place, but Spire said it would redo it as offices or a hotel at the time it bought the property. Texas Capital Bank is on the street level, but it’s not known how many other tenants are in the building.

Jon Ruff, Spire Realty’s president, could not be reached for comment Friday. Ryan Johnson, an asset manager with Spire, also did not return a phone call seeking comment on the proposed project.

RadioShack sold the property in 2001 to PNL, which renamed it City Place. Tandy Corp. built the landmark towers in 1976 and 1978. The south tower has been vacant since RadioShack moved out in 2005.