The clock was ticking for the fate of the Kimbell Milling Company building, but a new buyer has hit the pause button — potentially saving the historic building from demolition.
Bruce Conti’s Kimbell Place LLC purchased the endangered building from the Cenikor Foundation for $10 on Sept. 16, according to a special warranty deed reviewed by the Fort Worth Report.
The sale took place just over two months after the city granted a six-month delay on the demolition process, allowing interested parties to seek alternatives for the site.
As of this year, the 3.6199-acre property had an appraised value of $7.3 million, according to the appraisal district.
The 25,000-square-foot building was constructed in 1929 and once served as the headquarters for a company owned by Kay Kimbell, namesake of the famed art museum in the Cultural District.
Plans for the site have not yet been made public, and representatives from Kimbell Place LLC were unable to speak before publication.
However, Cenikor’s early marketing for the property was targeted toward multifamily, industrial and mixed-use developers, as well as rehabilitation, hospital and art studio groups, according to city documents. The building is not far from the burgeoning South Main Street and Near Southside neighborhoods, which have attracted new apartment and retail developments in recent years.
Regardless of the use, the building’s sale is a positive step forward that provides another opportunity for owners to seek higher levels of historic designations, said Jerre Tracy, the executive director of Historic Fort Worth, a nonprofit that advocates for preservation. Those designations would open up access to grant funding and further protection for the building, she said.
“Kay Kimbell is still important to us every single day. We’re so lucky in Fort Worth to have that museum, and so, as a result, you don’t want to see (that presence) lessened in any way,” she said. “It’s wonderful that that building is now going to have a future. We don’t know fully what that future will be, but having a future is kind of key to having another opportunity.”
The site gained its demolition delay designation from the City Council in 1995, which offers the lowest level of protection for historic properties by triggering a hold period when a demolition request is made.
The Cenikor Foundation sought a permit for demolition after concluding it was “the only feasible and safe path forward.”
“Ownership has attempted a years-long period marketing 2109 S. Main St. at below-market prices as well as investing in the abatement of all contaminated materials within the property hoping to entice a buyer or tenant,” the foundation wrote in its application to the city. “Unfortunately, there have been no reasonable offers and the property has become a liability due to squatters constantly occupying and damaging the property.”
Historic Fort Worth sounded the alarms and sent an email to its list-serv of nearly 6,000 people following the city’s Historic and Cultural Landmarks Commission meeting in July, Tracy said.
“It’s just the power of sending to the public who follows us, and we’ve seen that before,” she said, noting the historic reuse of Shannon’s Funeral Home at 2717 Avenue B in the Polytechnic neighborhood. “It’s nice to see that it’s a vehicle to get to a new owner, which we wouldn’t have dreamed of when we started doing that.”
Fellow preservation advocate and Northern Crain partner and broker, Will Northern, was also happy to learn of the property’s sale.
“Historic preservation takes unique investors that can be patient,” he said. “Fort Worth is fortunate to have a community that supports historic preservation and sees the value in preserving the fabric of our city’s history through real estate.”
The building’s sale is a step toward protection, but it doesn’t mean preservation is assured, cautioned Lorelei Willett, historic preservation officer for the city of Fort Worth.
“If the new owner would like to do something, if they would like to demolish or if they want to upgrade the designation to historic and cultural, then you know that they’re just going to be conversations that we have to have,” she said.
However, Willett said, she hopes the new owners will take advantage of the resources and connections within the city and Historic Fort Worth to consider potential options for the site.
“It’s definitely a unique building,” she said, adding that the site is a “really fascinating and a really interesting reuse or rehabilitation project considering its location over here by Fairmount and the Magnolia corridor … the hospital, all of that, so we will see.”
Marcheta Fornoff covers arts and culture for the Fort Worth Report. Reach her at marcheta.fornoff@fortworthreport.org. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.