Fort Worth is getting its very own mullet.
Goldenrod Companies plans to build a sizable mixed-use project in the Cultural District, playfully dubbed "The Mullet." The development, located on University Drive across from the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, will feature about 125,000 square feet of office space, about 260 multifamily units and a roughly 170-room four-star hotel.
“We initially referred to it as The Mullet because, until a few weeks ago, we had the museums in the front and three bars in the back of the property,” said Brandon Schubert, head of Acquisitions at Goldenrod Companies. “And then it just kind of caught on.”
The Mullet will also feature about 30,000 square feet of restaurant and retail space. Design details and programming for the project aren’t finalized.
The building will rise between nine to 10 stories once completed. With initial site work slated for the fourth quarter this year, the company estimates the project’s delivery will be in the third quarter of 2025. The entire property measures about three acres.
Nebraska-based Goldenrod Companies is a commercial real estate development and investment firm with about $4 billion under management. The company is behind The Van Zandt, another high-profile mixed-use project located on West 7th Street.
Goldenrod initially announced The Van Zandt in 2022 and projected groundbreaking in the first quarter that year. Since then, the firm began acquiring additional properties adjacent to the original plot and have added to the scope of The Van Zandt.
The office portion of the project kept the same footprint, about 107,000 square feet. Expanding the site enabled Goldenrod to take off a level of parking and add additional multifamily to the project, growing the unit count from 149 units to 226 units.
The Van Zandt
The process of assembling additional properties for the project was time consuming, but has resulted in a superior design, Schubert said. The company anticipates delivery in early 2025.
“It saved money on costs on a per-foot and per-unit basis,” he said. “It also gave us more density. Everything costs so much now that you have to have the density to justify the costs. We’ve very bullish; the office hasn’t changed, although I think it lays out a lot better here for a corporate user.”
In a time when employee attraction and retention have become a priority, companies seek high-quality development in amenity rich environments. Fort Worth hasn’t seen as much office development as other parts of North Texas, and both The Van Zandt and The Mullet represent sizable chunks of new office space.
“How do you jump to the next best thing if there’s no new development?” said Chris Doggett, executive vice president at Stream Realty Partners.
Being patient and adding additional tracts of land for The Van Zandt has created a better project, he said.