Fort Worth Business Press, May 12, 2014 Vol. 26, No. 18 | Page 23

fwbusinesspress.com | May 12 - 18, 2014

23

considering buildings that have firstfloor retail fronting Vickery, multiple
levels of parking that would serve TRE
riders and tenants in the new buildings, and multiple levels of apartments on top, Guajardo said.
“We think between 200 and 250
apartments, one and two bedrooms,”
he said.
The complex would include a strong
component of lower-priced rents, “but
we don’t know the actual ratio yet,” he
said.
The city’s plans for the central city,
its 16 urban villages, and transit-oriented development call for a mix of
reduced-rate and market-rate housing.
“We want that mix of income,”
Burghdoff said.
It’s not clear yet whether the lower
rents would be aimed at the market’s
deepest need.
City staff members estimate there’s
a surplus of rental units in Fort Worth
for people who make between 60 and
80 percent of the area’s median income.
Guajardo says the group doesn’t
know yet what the median income
around the site is.
“We will do a market study and
make some determinations based on
the data that we get,” Guajardo said.
But there’s a shortage of 16,000
units that people making 30 percent
or less of the area median income can
afford, the staff estimates.
“We have not made any income decisions yet,” Guajardo said. “We’re going to look at supplying the units that
address the needs that exist.”
What’s next after the workshop? “If
everything is still positive, we would
probably come to some more firm
agreement” between the Housing Authority and The T, Guajardo said.
Down the road, for the project to
come off the drawing board, “there
would be a significant level of private
financing” repayable through the project’s cash flow, he said.
Under the current discussions, the
site wouldn’t need to be rezoned.
The Near Southside zoning allows
for up to 10 stories if the building is
mixed-use. If a single use, the zoning
allows up to five stories.
The Housing Authority has been
interested in transit-oriented development for years, Guajardo said. It
zeroed in on The T site after surveying locations across the market for a
potential first project, he said.
The next potential area for transitoriented development is around the
Intermodal Transportation Center
downtown, Burghdoff said.
“That’s the next area that’s ripe for
development,” she said. Most of the
key lots there are privately owned,
making the proposition tougher for
the agencies to get involved, she said. n

photo by scott nishimura

uSouth side from page 9

This area south of the T&P station could become a mixed-use complex.