City leaders to discuss hotel plans for Fort Worth neighborhood

FORT WORTH, Texas - Fort Worth city leaders will meet Tuesday night to discuss a proposed hotel to be built along Magnolia Avenue.

Businesses in the area are excited about the plans. But visitors and those who live nearby aren't as thrilled.

The Fort Worth City Council will vote on zoning changes at the meeting that would allow a six-story hotel to go up in the Fairmount neighborhood. It would be built on the northern edge up against a backdrop of taller buildings in the hospital district.

Rich Keeler has lived in the Fairmount neighborhood 13 years. He's not dead set against the hotel and worries about what would come next since the hotel would only be three blocks away from his home.

"I'm not opposed to the hotel itself, just the sheer size of it,” he said. “I just don't think anyone is looking at this holistically to say, ‘Where do we want to be 10 years from now?’"

Robbie Werner's business has done well. She thinks a new hotel would bring more customers to her and everyone else.

"We have been growing five years since being this area and feel like continued growth would benefit from something like that in the neighborhood,” she said.

There are taller historic buildings near the corner, but none are higher than the 138-room hotel would go up near the corner of Magnolia and Henderson.

West Magnolia Avenue is a stretch of historic buildings, restaurants and shops that also attracts music, art and visitors.

Shaina Starks lives in the neighborhood but is also a business owner. It's hard to pick sides.

"I do want to see the area grow,” she said. “Be really hard to know exactly what the impact would be until it happens and see what it does to the area."

What both sides agree on is they want the area to grow. It’s just a question of how. The zoning change is expected to be approved Tuesday night.