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Dallas-based JPI is progressing with construction of a multifamily and townhome development in an area of Fort Worth that is experiencing new growth.
JPI started work on Jefferson Ridglea Village last year, clearing 52 single-family rental homes to make way for the development. Located at 5837 Calmont Ave., the multifamily development will have 377 apartment units as well as 20 townhomes. The project is two blocks away from Camp Bowie Boulevard, a major thoroughfare that stretches 9 miles from the Ridglea Hills area to city’s Museum District and popular West Seventh District.
Miller Sylvan, senior vice president and development partner at JPI, said construction teams recently installed utilities and started pouring building slabs for the roughly $80 million project. This phase of vertical construction means residents will soon see the structure of Jefferson Ridglea Village start to take shape.
Construction is expected to wrap up at the beginning of next year. Sylvan said proximity to jobs was a major factor for the location of Jefferson Ridglea Village, along with the vibrancy along the Camp Bowie corridor.
"Camp Bowie is just a great character area with great restaurants, and just such a good feel that our residents can walk to, which is, I think, very appealing," he said.
About 65% of units will be one-bedroom, 30% two-bedrooms and 5% three-bedrooms, Sylvan said. Typical renters of their buildings are in their mid-30s and are on their last stop before buying a house, or empty nesters or those at retirement age who want to downsize.
To be sensitive to other residents in the area, Sylvan said the development scales down the closer it is to nearby houses, from four stories by the I-30 service road to three-story townhomes on the south side of the development near single-family residences.
Lydia Guajardo Rickard, executive director of Camp Bowie District Inc., said Jefferson Ridglea Village is one piece of the area’s growth. She describes Camp Bowie as a "major artery" in the city.
Jefferson Ridglea Village will be the first multifamily development in the area in nearly two decades, she said. Popular coffee shop La La Land Kind Cafe is opening its first Fort Worth shop at 5733 Camp Bowie Blvd., less than a mile away from the apartments and townhomes. She’s also seen a new fitness studio and pet services move in nearby.
"We will have a full block of turnover happen in this immediate area," she said. "You also are starting to see interest peak in some of the strip centers around there of businesses that are locating there that are really primed for this, I guess you might say, addition of a new demographic into the neighborhood."
Infrastructure is being added too. The city is working on a $2.4 million road project to add new road striping, pedestrian curb ramps and new signage that will eventually lead to a road widening. The Fort Worth Fire Department is relocating its Station 16 nearby at 5701 Lovell Ave. Construction of the new station will cost an estimated $9.5 million, according to a Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation filing.
"[The fire station] is really a true unifier and intersecting point for people," Guajardo Rickard said. "It serves as the hub of where Camp Bowie comes to meet Como, comes to meet Ridglea, and all those places kind of in between."