First phase of this $345 million Stop Six senior living facility is open for business
A years-long project to remake Fort Worth’s Stop Six neighborhood took a major step forward Monday after the senior living community Cowan Place officially opened for business.
It is the first project completed as part of the Stop Six Neighborhood Choice Initiative, which aims to replace the 300-unit Cavile Place public housing public housing project with roughly 1,000 mixed income units along with 12,000 square feet of commercial space in the historic east Fort Worth neighborhood.
The 174-unit complex at 5400 E. Rosedale St. will serve residents 62 and older. It will include a library, fitness studio, salon, and spaces for private meeting with medical professionals.
The new building will be a staple in the neighborhood, said Fort Worth Mayor Pro Tem Gyna Bivens, who spoke at a ribbon cutting ceremony Monday.
The tower portion of the four-story building can glow blue during Dunbar High School games, and will glow pink during October in recognition of breast cancer awareness month, she said.
Most important for Bivens is what the building will do for older residents in Stop Six.
“You shouldn’t have to move away to have a nice place to live,” she said.
The neighborhood redevelopment program received a $35 million grant in April 2020 from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. It covers roughly 10% of the estimated $335 million that could be invested in the multi-phase project.
The city of Fort Worth is also investing $25.7 million as part of the 2022 bond to build a community center and aquatics facility in Stop Six. Designs for the aquatic center are still in the early phases, but the plan is to have the pool be eight lanes wide and 25 yards long, said Scott Penn, a project manager for the city’s parks department.
The next phase of the project, Hughes House, broke ground in June. The four-story complex, named for legendary Dunbar basketball coach Robert Hughes Sr., will have 162 apartments of which 145 will be set aside for affordable housing. It’s expected to be complete by the end of 2024.
