The latest proof of the good that comes from the redevelopment and preservation of historic properties is a real dandy.<\/p>\n
Wilks Development officials and city stakeholders gathered on Thursday to pull back the curtain on the repurposed Public Market Building in downtown Fort Worth.<\/p>\n
The $54 million Harden at Public Market is an active senior living facility of 199 rooms in a new five-story structure that sits behind the historic landmark. Its first residents will begin moving in next month.<\/p>\n
The inside of the original building, constructed in 1930, has yet to be finished out.<\/p>\n
Jenna and Micah Kinard are partnering with Wilks to bring three concepts to the almost 20,000-square-foot building that served as a farmers market when it was constructed more than 90 years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were out here yesterday and I took a moment to look at the downtown Fort Worth skyline,\u201d said Kyle Wilks, CEO of Wilks Development. \u201cWhen you look down there, what you see is a lot of sacrifice, a lot of work. People who have come before us to make the city what it is today.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust knowing that we can now say that we’re a small thread in the fabric of the community of Fort Worth \u2026 we’re so fortunate to be in that fabric. I want to thank my fellow Fort Worthians for all the things they do, for all the sacrifices that they make now and before we ever came along to make the city of Fort Worth this great community.\u201d<\/p>\n
The celebration on Thursday included a band and a number of food stations \u2014 including chef Juan Rodriguez serving up, as memory serves, paella. (A reporter with a fading memory is not an ideal combo.) The Bubble Bus Co. manned the bar. Two Ford Cabriolets, stylish two-door convertibles popular in the early 1930s, greeted visitors.<\/p>\n
The Public Market suffered a sad and lonely existence for decades in the southwest downtown corridor before Wilks acquired it from Bob Simpson in 2015.<\/p>\n
The name of the building is an homage to the original developer, John J. Harden of Oklahoma City. He built the structure at 1400 Henderson St. in 1930. B. Gaylord Noftsger designed the Spanish Colonial Revival building, used by local farmers and vendors, as well as other businesses, but it closed in 1941, a victim of the Great Depression.<\/p>\n
The market was built to give farmers a central marketing place and to clear streets of parked produce wagons.<\/p>\n
The property was listed as a Texas historic landmark in 1980 and placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. Because of those designations, Wilks was able to use historic tax credits available to developers who renovate historic properties.<\/p>\n
The redevelopment of the building was designed by Boka Powell. NE Construction was the general contractor. Work on the project began in June 2023.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you’re restoring a building that is almost a hundred years old, this building gave us little presents to open every day,\u201d Wilks said. \u201cSometimes those presents are great and sometimes they’re very costly.\u201d<\/p>\n
The inside of the Public Market represents more promise for the enthused masses. The buildout is expected to be completed later in the fall.<\/p>\n
The centerpiece will be upscale dining with what the team is calling \u201cTexas flair.\u201d Madrone will feature chef\u2019s tasting menus and private dining experiences with a focus on seasonal, locally sourced ingredients.<\/p>\n
Madrone is a Texas evergreen tree that thrives in West Texas, and the flavor of the restaurant will be uniquely Texana, with a focus on seasonal native ingredients providing, said Jenna Kinard, \u201ca taste of Texas in an elevated way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Complementing the restaurant will be Willow, a cocktail bar and lounge with a premium liquor locker program.<\/p>\n
On the building\u2019s north side will be the Public Market Caf\u00e9 & Goods, which will feature freshly baked goods, coffee, and locally made products. The Kinards plan to grow hydroponic produce on-site, including microgreens, herbs, and tomatoes, while curating goods from regional farmers and makers, a tribute to the building\u2019s origins.<\/p>\n
Jenna Kinard has established herself as a chef in Southern-influenced cuisine through roles as executive chef of Max’s Wine Dive, Hotel Drover’s 97 West, and Jellico’s at the Westin Southlake. She was also the winner of Fort Worth Magazine\u2019s Top Chef competition in 2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat an honor it is to get to steward such a historic building, such a historic place that has meant a great deal to so many people for many, many years,\u201d Kinard says. \u201cWe\u2019re being very intentional about building relationships within each concept and honoring what Public Market was to begin with. That\u2019s the heartbeat of every concept.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The latest proof of the good that comes from the redevelopment and preservation of historic properties is a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":240885,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5138],"tags":[5229,12047,7371,7372,76111,13814,128733,20349,358,128735,7453,3187,67,586,132,5230,128736,68,2969,128734],"class_list":{"0":"post-240884","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-downtown-fort-worth","10":"tag-fort-worth","11":"tag-fortworth","12":"tag-historic-preservation","13":"tag-john-henry","14":"tag-public-market","15":"tag-senior-living","16":"tag-texas","17":"tag-the-harden-at-public-market","18":"tag-top-story","19":"tag-tx","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-united-states-of-america","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","24":"tag-urban-redevelopment","25":"tag-us","26":"tag-usa","27":"tag-wilks-development"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115235397599220071","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}