Oncor Building Apartment Conversion, 115 West 7th Street

A 16-story International Style tower that Fort Worth National Bank built in 1952 is being converted into about 330 apartments, and the ground-floor tenants are staying open through the whole job.

Project Scope

The building runs roughly 300,000 square feet over 16 floors. Preston M. Geren & Associates designed it in rust-colored Denton brick in a slab-and-tower form, and it was once the largest commercial building in the city. Fort Worth designated it a Historic and Cultural Landmark in 2024, so the mid-century exterior stays intact.

Chicago-based 3L Real Estate bought the tower in 2023 after Oncor vacated in 2021, and this is the firm’s thirteenth acquisition and second North Texas project. Hasen of Fort Worth is the general contractor and Bennett Partners is handling architecture and interiors. The unit mix runs studio through two-bedroom, with 20 percent held below market for ten years. New program includes light-filled atriums, a fitness center and a business center. The city approved roughly $4 million in TIF Zone No. 8 infrastructure reimbursements in April 2026. No total project value has been published.

The complication is that The Capital Grille, Little Red Wasp and a PlainsCapital Bank branch all remain in operation on the ground floor for the duration.

Why It Matters

Keeping a steakhouse and a bank branch trading underneath an occupied-to-vacant conversion is a logistics problem, not a design one. Every riser the residential floors need has to be routed around active commercial kitchen and vault space, demolition noise has to be scheduled against restaurant service hours, and life-safety separations between the retail podium and the residential stack have to be maintained in phases rather than achieved once at the end.

Fort Worth is also a useful data point on whether conversions work outside the coastal markets that get the coverage. The economics here rest on a low acquisition basis, a landmark designation that unlocks state and federal historic credits, and a municipal TIF contribution. Take away any one of those three and the deal probably doesn’t pencil.

Project Team & Details