Ojala Mulls $150M Redo Of Fort Worth Housing Complex

An affordable housing complex in Fort Worth’s Near Southside neighborhood is poised for a major overhaul.

Dallas-based Ojala Partners is mulling a $150 million redevelopment of the 152-unit Siddons Place, at 250 Pennsylvania Avenue, possibly quadrupling the number of apartments on site, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.

Ojala filed a pre-development study to obtain feedback from the city. Plans are preliminary and subject to change.The developer is working with the nonprofit that manages the complex now, indicating it will remain affordable.

Siddons Place, comprising seven three-story buildings on 7.4 acres, is reserved for renters earning 60 percent or less of the city’s annual median income. The complex, built in 1998, is about 97 percent leased, according to an appraisal report from last summer.

The Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs has the property listed for sale on its website for $45.7 million, the outlet reported.

The proposed redevelopment would expand the property’s size from roughly 322,000 square feet to about 500,000 square feet. The 650 apartments would be organized into two campuses of four-story buildings surrounding two five-level parking garages.

While details remain scarce, the project would prolong a successful partnership between Ojala and Fort Worth Housing Solutions, which manages Siddons Place and serves as Fort Worth’s public housing authority. In 2020, the venture repurposed an old hotel in North Fort Worth into a homeless shelter, called Casa de Esperanza.

Fort Worth Housing Solutions is also working to revitalize the city’s Stop Six neighborhood with a 210-unit housing complex, 166 of which will be earmarked for low-income residents.

Multifamily developments in Dallas-Fort Worth exploded in the years following the pandemic, but construction activity has started to cool in recent months. Multifamily building permits in the Dallas area dropped 11 percent year-over year in November. While 671,000 units are slated for delivery this year, which would set a record, new supply is expected to wane after that.

—Quinn Donoghue