'A great day:' $35 million will help restore this Fort Worth neighborhood

Apr. 23--FORT WORTH -- One of the last vestiges of public housing in Fort Worth -- Cavile Place --will redeveloped into nearly 1,000 mix-income townhouses and apartments thanks to a $35 million federal investment announced Thursday.

The money from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development should spur nearly $345 million in activity in the Stop Six neighborhood with the hope that the hodgepodge of vacant lots will transform into a bustling community, according to Fort Worth Housing Solutions.

The housing authority, a developer and consultants have spent much of the past year meeting with Stop Six and Cavile Place residents about the potential to reinvigorate the area. The 300 units at the 1950s-era Cavile Place will shutter, and the project will be bulldozed as the housing authority looks to place 990 townhomes and apartments across Stop Six with a focus on mixing income levels.

The $35 million federal Choice Neighborhood grant that Fort Worth Housing Solutions won locks the housing authority into providing homes first to former Cavile Place residents before opening the doors to others.

Mary-Margaret Lemons, president of Fort Housing Solutions, called the announcement "a great day." The novel coronavirus outbreak created some anxiety the project would be delayed.

"We been working for, gosh, 10 years to come up with a plan for Cavile Place," she said. "We kept hitting the same road block and that was finding funding."

Like with Butler Place near downtown Fort Worth, the housing authority has been transferring residents to homes around the city using low-income housing vouchers. About 22 residents remain in Cavile, Lemons said. Once they find homes elsewhere, demolition will begin with the goal to start construction on the first phase in 2021.

The project is divided in six phases, each with a mix of housing for various incomes and commercial space. The first phase will focus on low-income senior housing, she said.

In addition to the 300 units for former Cavile Place residents, 351 will be for those making roughly 60% of the area's median income. They wouldn't qualify for a housing voucher but also don't make enough to afford a market rate apartment. Less than 300 units would be rented at market rate.

Once completed the area around Cavile Place will look quite a bit different.

Designs from St. Louis-based McCormack Baron Salazar, a developer that specializes in building mixed-income housing in urban neighborhoods, show buildings lining Amanda and Rosedale with a mix of shops at street level and apartments above. The hope is development will anchor future growth and bring stores and restaurants to the east Fort Worth neighborhood.

The existing Cavile Place lot will be developed into a mix of townhouse-style homes and walk-up apartment buildings. A new "community hub" will open at the corner of Avenue G and Liberty Street that will be home to a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development EnVision Center, a one-stop-shop of sorts for residents to find resources like job training and health care. It will replace the HUD center at the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center.

"Winning the Choice Neighborhood Initiative grant is a game-changer that will transform the face of Stop Six and the entire Southeast Fort Worth area," Councilwoman Gyna Bivens said in a statement. "This grant allows Fort Worth Housing Solutions and the City of Fort Worth to jointly focus beyond simply replacing housing units after Cavile is demolished, to also focus on those things that provide a sense of neighborhood, such as schools, community policing, faith institutions and commercial development like a grocery store."

More funding will be needed.

The city may commit up to $14 million in future bond money for improvements to the community center and a little more than $11 million for housing, city officials said in October when the housing authority applied for the HUD grant. Fort Worth Housing Solutions requested about $25 million for streets, sidewalks and other infrastructure but the city could only commit to about $1.5 million at the time. The city plans to spend roughly $15 million on other infrastructure in Stop Six.

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