Work Underway On Fort Worth's Next 'Hot' Neighborhood

FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) - A multi-million dollar makeover has started on what could be Fort Worth's next hot neighborhood.

Just two miles east of downtown, two blocks from Airport Freeway, and right off the Trinity River, the Six Points urban village has been positioned as ripe for redevelopment.

The challenge of overcoming old buildings and infrastructure though will be an even bumpier road for the rest of the year.

Fort Worth has started a project planned for more than a decade, tearing up streets, and adding new sidewalks, parking and bike lanes.

The city is spending nearly $6.4 million on the project, with about $1.7 million coming from the federal government.

And yet business owners up and down Race Street are committed to seeing the end of it.

"We saw the potential, and just figured why not, let's just take a risk and just jump in while we can," Tara McCartney said Thursday.

She started her store, Kneady Doughnuts in March, knowing the construction project was about to start. The store opened in the same spot as a burger restaurant where she used to work. The promise of the end of the project though, is what she says they're depending on.

"We knew this was the next place, and it's even a little funkier and cool," said Cindy Crowder-Wheeler, owner at Tributary Café.

The popular restaurant already pulls in lunch crowds from downtown. The promise of more customers, is going up across the street, in the form of a mixed-use apartment building, another reason to ride out the road work.

"We don't want to be a year from now, the place that we look at and say, 'Oh I wish we would have been there'," she said.

The first phase of the project focuses on Race Street between Sylvania and Riverside. It should be finished by the end of the year.

A second phase, taking the work west toward Oakhurst Scenic Dr., and a few blocks of Sylvania, will extend into Spring 2019.