Reconstructing Berry

Story by Managing Editor Laura Head

The appearances of Berry Street and University Drive are as opposite as their paths. On University Drive from Interstate 30 south to its intersection with Berry Street, the rolling hills of the curving road are lined with old trees. But Berry Street, lined with fast food restaurants and parking lots, is a different picture.

Empty buildings dot both sides of the street. Those that formerly housed the Family Christian Bookstore, Video Update, Blockbuster Music, Berry Street Grill and the Back Porch restaurant now stand vacant as businesses go bankrupt or their owners look for more suitable locations.

In recent years, University Drive has become home to Einstein Bros Bagels, Melissa’s Thoughts The Greek Shoppe and Panera Bread. The University Parks shopping center has several new shops, including the soon-to-open Jacadi, a French chain with infant clothing and supplies.

On Berry Street, Walgreen’s, Dunkin’ Donuts and Baskin Robbins and Weinerschnitzel have opened. The building that once housed Chicken Express reopened as a Pizza Hut.

Don Mills, vice chancellor for student affairs, said last semester that the longer blocks of University Drive, combined with traffic bound for the University Parks shopping center, the Fort Worth Zoo and TCU, have led to the increased development on University.

“Berry Street is a much different story,” said Mills, who represents TCU in efforts to clean up Berry Street. “It’s a very long corridor. The area we’re talking about — from Evans Street to University Drive — is about 2 1/2 miles long. You have a street that is designed to get people from one point to another and not to stop.”

A rotting Berry

But Berry Street wasn’t always this way. Mills said that years ago, the street was widened, parking was taken away and a median was taken out.

“It became more of a thoroughfare than a community retail street,” he said.

Linda Clark, chairwoman of the Berry Street Initiative, said the decline of the surrounding neighborhood and also the development of Hulen Street and Hulen Mall — which opened in August 1977 — have also contributed to the decline of Berry Street.

“We used to be able to buy anything from panty hose to tuxedos on Berry Street,” she said. “Over the years, that became impossible, and you couldn’t purchase anything unless you went to Hulen.”

Clark said that when the Stripling and Cox department store near Berry Street closed about five years ago, the community became concerned that Berry Street would decline even more and eventually become a bad neighborhood.

“To stop that, we met with city officials and decided to form the (Berry Street Initiative),” Clark said.

The Berry Street Initiative began in 1996 with a neighborhood group’s decision to clean up the area. Now business owners, property owners, members of the neighborhood association and Fort Worth city officials are involved with the initiative.

On the road to reconstruction

In 1998, voters approved spending $1.5 million to improve Berry Street. The Fort Worth City Council voted in February 1999 to hire the Goodman Corp., a Houston-based development firm, to plan the redevelopment of Berry Street.

City Councilwoman Wendy Davis, who represents the district that includes Berry Street, said the Goodman Corp. is being paid about $300,000 of the original $1.5 million. She said another $1.5 million has come from state and federal grants, putting the total raised so far at about $3 million.

Davis said the entire project will cost about $14 million, and the city will continue to apply for money from the state and federal governments.

She said taxes might be raised in the area.

“The increased taxes will go right back into the same corridor instead of putting (them) into the general fund,” she said.

Beautifying Berry

Clark said the Goodman Corp. has completed its plan for the street, which was the first phase of the Berry Street Initiative. According to the plan, which the Goodman Corp. released in June, ideas for Berry Street include narrowing the street, creating a median and moving stores closer to the street with parking behind the stores.

Mills said this would make Berry Street look similar to what it did before the street was widened.

Also included are plans for mixed-use zoning, which would allow shops and restaurants on the first floor of a building and housing on upper floors.

The Goodman Corp. plan also suggests directional signs with a common design to differentiate between three future parts of Berry Street: the Village, the Commons and the Park. The Village, a residential area, would be the area between University Drive and Eighth Avenue. The Commons, a warehouse district, would be the area between Hemphill and Evans streets, and the Park would be developed as green space at Interstate 35 and Berry Street.

Clark said the Berry Street Initiative is now in its second phase: preliminary engineering.

“As we move into the next level, we’ll begin construction,” Clark said.

She said she did not know when the actual construction on Berry Street would begin, nor did she know which would be the first step in the project. Clark said the development process should be completed within a 20-year time frame.

Davis said the city instituted an enterprise zone, which offers incentives for businesses to develop in a certain area. The incentives include sales tax abatements, forgiveness of city permitting fees and a community-facility agreement, in which the city pays more than its share of certain fees if the business agrees to comply with the Berry Street development plans.

“The entirety of Berry Street is included in that (enterprise zone),” she said.

Mills said parking facilities and public transportation will be vital to the development process because he said that, on average, people are willing to walk for five minutes, or one-half mile.

“You can walk at Disney World all day and don’t think anything of it because it’s interesting, and there are things to look at,” Mills said. “If we make (Berry Street) interesting, people won’t mind walking. That’s the theory behind it.”

Clark said another goal of the initiative is to attract businesses that will draw TCU students, such as a gym, a club or bar, dry cleaners and independent restaurants. She said other possibilities include an Old Navy clothing store and an Ikea furniture store.

Mills said TCU’s interest in developing Berry Street was natural because of the street’s proximity to the university.

“The area that has been (targeted for development) is roughly from Paschal High School to Merida Avenue, which would be great for TCU because that’s on the corner of our campus,” Mills said.

Staking a claim

TCU has already purchased some buildings on and near Berry Street. The former Colonial Cafeteria was renovated and is now the Institute of Behavioral Research. The former Bank of America building — at 3100 W. Berry St., just west of Boston Market — is the Human Resources building. TCU’s Secrest-Wible Building at 3015 Merida Ave. replaced the Shannon Funeral Chapel.

Area business owners credit the initial success of the Berry Street Initiative to TCU, which has been acquiring property on Berry Street for several years.

Marvin Schuster, owner of Saint Anthony’s Books and Gifts at 3121 McCart Ave., said TCU is the key factor in improving Berry Street.
“(It has) ensured the success by controlling the property,” Schuster said. “It works two ways because TCU doesn’t want to become a college in the midst of a decaying area.”

Rick Kubes, one of the owners of Kubes Jewelry at 2700 W. Berry St., said the efforts to improve Berry Street have been led by TCU.

“TCU has done a tremendous job of kickstarting the physical changes to the street through the buildings they’ve purchased and the parking lots they’ve built and the landscaping they’ve done,” Kubes said. “We refurbished the exterior of our store because we saw TCU was a great partner. Whatever they do, they do it first class.”

Mills said TCU may be interested in the development of Berry Street, but the university cannot be the leader of the efforts.

“What it’s going to take is not an Eckerd’s or a Kubes; it’s going to take a developer,” he said. “That’s what developers do best; they know what can work. TCU is pretty good at education, but we’re not developers.”

Clark said several businesses — including El Chico’s, Steak and Ale and Pier 1 Imports — had locations on Berry Street in the past.
“The list goes on and on of (businesses) that had their start on Berry Street but found the traffic of Hulen more attractive,” Clark said. “Now we have to get back to how it used to be.”

Laura Head
l.a.head@student.tcu.edu