Historic Public Market Building Has a New Purpose in Downtown

Published March 4, 2022, in Fort Worth Magazine

Written by: John Henry 

There is finally a plan for the iconic, albeit lonely, Fort Worth Public Market Building that has sat vacant in the southwest corner of downtown for almost 20 years.

Emerging from the cobwebs and rising from the vacant lot behind the historic edifice will be The Harden at Public Market, an active senior living facility of 199 rooms in a five-story structure that will include a parking garage.

Inside the actual old Public Market will be amenities for residents, including a fitness center, shared working space, a lounge, as well as the leasing office for the property. Also, a coffee shop/café from a to-be-determined vendor will be located in about the same place as a bakery that set up shop there long ago, said Mark Dabney, an architect with BOKA Powell.

“Remarkably, the building is still in very good shape,” Dabney said in a presentation to the city of Fort Worth’s Downtown Design Review Board, which approved unanimously a “certificate of appropriateness” for the design plans and affiliated easement and right-of-way requests.

View the full article here.