Celebrity Chef News

Luxury hotel with famed chef headed for Fort Worth's Cultural District

It'll be like a Fort Worth cousin of the Ritz.

Photo courtesy of Crescent

A major mixed-use project is in the works for Fort Worth's Cultural District that will feature a luxury hotel and Dallas' top chef.

Located at the corner of Camp Bowie and Van Cliburn and adjacent to Fort Worth's museums, Dickies Arena, and Will Rogers Coliseum, the project will include: premier boutique hotel with a chef-driven restaurant; luxury residential; and an office building.

According to a release, the project is from Fort Worth-based Crescent Real Estate LLC, which owns the Ritz-Carlton Dallas, and will boast some similarities to the Ritz-Carlton, including its combination of hotel-and-residential.

Like the Ritz, it'll also have a chef-driven restaurant like Fearing's, the acclaimed Southwestern restaurant from chef Dean Fearing, whose many accolades include numerous nods for best chef and best restaurant in CultureMap's annual Tastemaker Awards.

Chef Fearing will oversee the restaurant in the Fort Worth project, but he says it won't be called Fearing's.

"We have so many people from Fort Worth who come and eat with us at Fearing's, and I don't want to mimic that," he says. "It'll go a different direction but it will definitely be my food."

That said, there are some Fearing's dishes he can't not serve.

"I guarantee it'll have tortilla soup, which has been a signature since we opened Fearing's in 2007, and probably a couple of other favorites, too," he says. "But we want Fort Worth to be its own restaurant and have some fun with it. What a beautiful project this is going to be, it's really what Fort Worth needs."

Crescent Chairman John Goff, who has lived in Fort Worth since 1981, says they're excited to bring a first-class mixed-use project to the Cultural District.

"The Crescent brand is known around the country for our luxury hotel, office, and residential properties," he says. "We are going to build the finest hotel in the city that we hope will become the living room of Fort Worth. We can’t wait to bring the Crescent brand to Fort Worth in a major way."

The office building will become the new headquarters for Goff's ventures including Crescent Real Estate, Goff Capital Inc., Contango Oil & Gas, and Canyon Ranch.

Features at the hotel will include:

200 rooms
restaurant
rooftop lounge
8,000 square feet of ballroom/meeting space
landscaped courtyard that will host outdoor dining, events and social activities.

There will also be 175 luxury residential units.

Groundbreaking is scheduled to take place in summer 2021, and the project will open mid-2023.

hotels openings

Elite address

One Texas community makes list of the richest small towns in America

Photo courtesy of Compass

Bunker Hill Village is a coveted address in the Houston area.

An upscale community in Texas is among the top 10 richest towns in America, according to a new 2024 report. The community is Bunker Hill Village in Houston, and it's home to the richest residents in Texas. Sorry, Colonial Hills.

The analysis, by loan provider TitleMax, lists the 50 richest small towns — one from each state — using median household income data from the U.S. Census Bureau. In Bunker Hill Village, the median household income is about $250,000, the report says.

Of course, "small town" is a bit of a misnomer for Bunker Hill Village. Situated 13 miles west of downtown Houston, Bunker Hill joins five other communities – Hunters Creek, HiIlshire, Hedwig, Piney Point, and Spring Valley – to make up Houston's iconic Memorial Villages. In 2023, Bunker Hill was ranked the third-most expensive Houston neighborhood, with homes on the market for upwards of $2.7 million.

Notably, the area is home to Houston's only Frank Lloyd Wright-designed house.

"We are very proud of our quiet, wooded environment, and as a community, we work hard to preserve it for future generations," the city's website says.

The study found that more than half (56.5 percent) of the 1,250-home community make over $200,000 a year, while the enclave's median household income amounts to $247,188.

To put that into perspective, TitleMax revealed that the national median household income is $67,521. The Census Bureau's 2023 American Community Survey estimates the median income of a household in Texas came out to $75,780 in 2023.

Bunker Hill joins the likes of Houston's Bellaire and West University Place as some of the most affluent suburbs in America. The North Texas suburb of Southlake also made it on that list.

The No. 1 slot went to Monte Sereno, a suburb of San Jose, California with a median household income of more than $250,000, according to the report.

"While many people consider cities to be the epicenters of the rich, many retreat to small towns that offer safety, beauty, and privacy," the report's author wrote.

These are the top 10 wealthiest small towns in America, with their median household incomes:

No. 1 – Monte Sereno, California ($250,000-plus)
No. 2 – Cherry Hills Village, Colorado ($250,000-plus)
No. 3 – Mission Hills, Kansas ($250,000-plus)
No. 4 – Short Hills, New Jersey ($250,000-plus)
No. 5 – Scarsdale, New York ($250,000-plus)
No. 6 – Belle Meade, Tennessee ($250,000-plus)
No. 7 – Glencoe, Illinois ($248,851)
No. 8 – Bunker Hill Village, Texas ($247,188)
No. 9 – Clyde Hill, Washington ($238,958)
No. 10 – Chevy Chase Village, Maryland ($238,333)

The full report can be found on titlemax.com.

reports real estate houston