Housing Project Set To Go Up Over Fort Worth Train Station Parking Lot

FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) - Fort Worth is getting closer to its first development built on the idea that you won't have to drive to get home or go to work.

The 10-story Katy Lofts project, with half of its 240 units set aside as affordable housing, is set to go up south of downtown, on top of what's now the parking lot for the Trinity Metro T&P Station.

The project is a collaboration between Fort Worth Housing Solutions and RMGM Developers. Trinity Metro owns the land where the mixed-used project will be built.

The project would be the city's first transit-oriented development, built at the end of the route for the new Tex-Rail train that runs to DFW airport beginning in January.

It would also include a hotel, retail space and parking to replace the current spaces at the location along Main and Vickery.

"You could park your car here if you work at the airport," said Michael Bennett, who designed the project with Bennett Benner Partners. "You could get on the train and ride straight to the airport, get off at Terminal B, and never have to move your car."

While it's the first of its kind in Fort Worth, other projects are developing along the 27-mile commuter line, including hundreds of town homes and apartments in North Richland Hills, and a 100-million dollar hotel and train station in Grapevine.

"I think even in this area you're going to see other parcels of land around this start to develop like this, mixed use, residential, because they're going to want to be close to the train stations," Bennett said.

With public agencies involved, details on financing are still being worked out, but the project could break ground by Spring 2019.