Historic downtown Fort Worth building trades hands for redevelopment
October 29,2025
See full Dallas Business Journal article by Seth Bodine here.
A historic building has sold in downtown Fort Worth, an area that is seeing a wave of development and real estate interest.
One Century Plaza at 827 Houston St. sold Oct. 20 for an undisclosed price, according to Joe Santelli, senior director of investments at The Santelli Group at Marcus & Millichap, which helped broker the deal. The building is less than a mile away from the Fort Worth Convention Center, which is undergoing a $700 million upgrade, and the future Texas A&M campus.
The five-story building was completed in 1905 by brothers W.T. and George Reynolds for their company, Reynolds Land and Cattle Co., according to a Fort Worth architecture website. It became the headquarters of Century Life in 1950 but the company eventually moved out and the building was renamed.
Santelli did not disclose the buyer or seller but said the long-vacant building was sold by a local private investment group to a local development group interested in redeveloping the property.
The former owner was a hotel developer, MLand Lodging LLC, according to deed records. The firm bought the 25,000-square-foot building in 2015 with a $2.17 million loan. The latest sale hasn't appeared in public records yet — that can take around seven to 10 days following the signing of the deed, according to the Tarrant County Clerk's Office. The building was most recently appraised by Tarrant Appraisal District for $1.9 million. Such appraised values are often lower than actual market value.
"It was time to bring new life to the project, so the owners decided to sell," Santelli wrote in an email. "We saw a tremendous amount of activity and interest right out of the gate, given the location and the rare amenity of dedicated parking that came with the property. This transaction was a perfect example of the momentum we’ve been experiencing in downtown Fort Worth lately."
Santelli said major developments such as the Fort Worth Convention Center and Texas A&M campus have driven more interest in the area. But he noted another major draw is the chance to own buildings with "architecturally significant designs" and "irreplaceable locations." Down the street from One Century Plaza, Dallas-based Eagle Equity Inc. purchased 913 Houston St. from FTW Blu Hotels LLC in April. Near the beginning of the year, a local firm purchased the W.T. Grant department store building at 611 Houston St. from Austin-based Sabot Development Ltd. and Austin-based entity Loose Boot Holdings LLC.
Most of downtown Fort Worth's development pipeline is for hotel and residential construction, according to Downtown Fort Worth Inc.'s most recent state of downtown report for 2024.
Locations Mentioned: Fort Worth Convention Center, Texas A&M Fort Worth