Downtown News

City of Fort Worth finds perfect use for former Pier 1 building

The structure was built in 2004.

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The city of Fort Worth has found the perfect thing to put in the former Pier 1 downtown: a new City Hall.

According to a release, the city will buy the Pier 1 building at 100 Energy Way and use it to replace the current City Hall at 200 Texas St.

There were already plans to build a new City Hall next to the current one, but the city determined that buying the Pier 1 building would be cheaper.

"As we have begun to plan for the renovation of City Hall, the cost-savings provided by the purchase of this building is simply too significant to pass up," Mayor Betsy Price said in a statement. "This is a prudent financial decision."

The city estimated that the purchase would save tens of millions of dollars. The cost of building new was $200 million. The purchase is expected to be completed by February 2021, and move-in will take place in 2022, which is sooner than if a new building had been built.

"The new City Hall location presents unique opportunities as the City of Fort Worth has grown exponentially since the 1971 construction of the current facility," said the release. City Hall currently has 600 employees.

The new building will provide additional square footage and better efficiency by consolidating services into one location, said City Manager David Cooke in a statement.

"While the purchase of an existing property was not part of the City's original plan, purchasing this property provides a solution to the City's real estate needs sooner without new construction and will result in savings for taxpayers for years to come," Cooke said.

The current City Hall will be repurposed into another municipal building.

The Pier 1 structure was built in 2004, and was also once headquarters for Chesapeake Energy. Pier 1 declared bankruptcy in May.

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Death Penalty

Tarrant County man gets death for murder of convenience store owner

Tarrant County Sheriff's Office

Christopher Turner

A man received the death penalty for his 2020 cold-blooded execution of a convenience store owner.

According to a release from the office of Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney Phil Sorrells, a Tarrant County jury sentenced Christopher Karon Turner, 48, to death on November 20 for executing convenience store owner Anwar Ali during a robbery. Tarrant County Assistant District Attorneys Charles Boulware and Allenna Bangs represented the state.

On March 27, 2020, at around 6:15 am, Turner, a convicted felon, wore a surgical mask and a glove and entered the Super Big Country Mart in an unincorporated area of Tarrant County south of Fort Worth. There, he held a gun to the back of Anwar Ali, the 62-year-old store owner, and walked him through the store.

Ali did everything Turner demanded, including opening the cash register to give him money. And yet Turner forced Ali into the bathroom and onto his knees, and shot him in the neck. Ali was discovered, dead in the bathroom, about an hour later.

Turner fled the store in Ali's Toyota minivan with the money from the register and Ali's wallet. In the van, he found more than $50,000 cash in a black bag. Over the next few days, Turner went on a shopping spree, buying cars, jewelry, drugs, clothes, and more. He and others used cash and a credit card that belonged to Ali.

Turner fled to Colorado where U.S. Marshals arrested him. On his body they found a firearm which was determined to be the murder weapon.

"This was a premeditated, cold-blooded murder," Boulware told the jury. "From the moment he was charged with this crime, he has tried to escape responsibility."

Bangs noted that before this trial began, Turner obtained the names of jurors and their telephone numbers, and gave them to an inmate charged with murder. At the trial on November 20, as Bangs addressed the jury, Turner tried to hold up a sign to the jury but was handcuffed by Sheriff's deputies who removed him from the courtroom, while he yelled out "she lied."

Ali came to the United States from Pakistan decades ago to pursue the American dream. Ali's son, Hussein, spoke in the courtroom after the death penalty was announced. "Thank you for giving us justice," Ali said. "I hope there are no more devils like this person."