Cowtown Vets to get New Clinic

Beginning in 2001 veterans in Fort Worth needing outpatient medical services will be served in a new $50,000,000.00 facility at the corner of I-20 and Campus Drive. The Dallas Morning News reports that Duke Realty Corp. has won a contract to develop and manage the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ new clinic.

Construction of the 213,029-square-foot building is slated to begin in the late fall. and will reportedly be the largest outpatient clinic development scheduled by the VA. The clinic will include surgical rooms and outpatient recovery rooms.

Fixing up Woodhaven

A real estate developer has made a second multi-million dollar apartment purchase in Cowtown's Woodhaven area. Carlos & Costanzo LLC recently closed on the 176-unit Willows of Woodhaven complex. The company is promising to fix up the complex, telling Globe Street that plans call for spending $200,000.00 on improvements in an attempt to boost the property's meager 62% occupancy rate.

The latest acquisition, which reportedly valued the complex at $3,850,000.00, is next door to the 208-unit Huntington Apartments which the firm purchased back in April at a reported cost of $3,100,000.00

While the single family housing market has slowed down, developers and apartment analysts remain bullish about the Metroplex rental market, citing a strong economy and continued job growth.

The Woodhaven area has seen its share of troubles over the years but Carlos Vaz, a partner in Carlos & Costanzo sees brighter days for the eastside, telling Globe Street, "The area is going to get better."

Let's hope he's right.

From Cowtown to Boomtown

CNNMoney.com has a pretty evenhanded article about the natural gas boom here in Cowtown:.

Welcome to Texas's newest boomtown, a city of 686,000 that just happens to sit on top of a giant natural gas field known as the Barnett Shale. With demand for natural gas rising... exploration companies have kicked off a drilling frenzy in Fort Worth.

The upside is palpable around town. Once-struggling oilmen and big landowners are suddenly flush with gas money, while thousands of average homeowners are now collecting modest monthly royalty checks...."It's created a new wealth in our city," declares Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief. "It's inoculated our economy. We find ourselves being an island in a sea of recession around us."

But the downside is palpable, too, especially in battles over the siting of almost a thousand (so far) natural gas wells - many of them incongruously close to parks, churches, and homes. The incursion of large-scale drilling into the city's daily life has raised questions not only about environmental and safety risks, but also the eyesores, noise and truck-traffic that gas exploration generates.

But of more interest to me was the profile of Aubrey McClendon, CEO of Chesapeake Energy the article linked to.

Mr. McCLendon, who is worth more than $3,000,000,000.00 is not one to shy away from a fight. When Jodi Rell, governor of Connecticut accused Chesapeake of "unconscionable fleecing of U.S. citizens" Mr. McClendon fired off a public, five-page rebuttal that basically called the governor a liar.

If Cowtown residents think a few yard signs will make energy companies like Chesapeake go away, they greatly underestimate the determination of people like Aubrey McClendon.