Look out SouthSide...Here we come!!

Class would have started promptly at 8am, however Dr. Forgey wanted to wait until Jason made it so he didn't have to repeat himself...Well 10 minutes later we started and yes Dr. Forgey had to repeat himself as Jason strolled in about 8:35am.

There are 7 of us in the class broken into 3 teams and one quickly learns, the early bird always gets the worm...thus I was quick to pick my teammate Vishal Makan, AKA, "Metro".  We then were told what the game plan was for the Project.  We were to select a site in the Near SouthSide District of Fort Worth (also know as the Medical District) to either construct or to do an adaptive re-use on an existing building and convert it to a "flexible" 4-plex residential project.  Key word "flexible", in that at some point it may be turned into a commercial or retail space. 

So after an illustration of the ideas Dr. Forgey had in mind, we took a field trip to the SouthSide and were shown some of the projects that might be feasible to do.  We ultimately ended up at the Paris Coffee Shop for a bite to eat.  It's a landmark in SouthSide for breakfast.  I ate a waffle for the first time in years and yes it was very good.  We then came back to the classroom for a little more discussion about the project, namely the use of glass roll-up doors in both the front and back of the building.  We were then able to break into our teams and go forth and wander the neighborhood and find a site.  Vishal and I pretty much decided to do new construction so we went looking for vacant land.  We both immediately agreed it had to be in a place that had some Vibe to it.  Since neither of us were too familiar with the area we identified the boundaries of the TIF district and just drove it.  We ultimately found the spot - Magnolia between 7th and Fairmont, just three blocks from Baylor in the heart of the Vibe we were looking for.  A quick walk of the property and we believe it is about 21,000 sf and easily dividable in half.  We called the broker and it is going for $22 sf.  The broker is in town on Wed and will be meeting with us to discuss it further.  We have some preliminary ideas on how to go about the design in our heads and are considering talking with the Warrior Group to go modular.  We'll be setting up meetings with them to discuss it as well. 

We then came back to the class to discuss our projects and for Dr. Forgey to get an idea of whether or not we are headed in the right direction.  Metro and I were the first back and we told Dr. Forgey our thoughts and he was good with it.

Finally, we did one last field trip so each of the teams could discuss the project they picked.

Now comes the fun part...making it happen!!

Cheers,

J2M