Tornado-Damaged Bank One Up For Sale; Tenants Get 30-Day Notice

In a surprise move, the owner of Ft. Worth’s prestigious 474,000-sf Bank One Tower has halted rehabilitation work from a March 28 tornado, terminated leases for three tenants and put the city’s fifth tallest building up for sale.

Loutex Fort Worth, a limited partnership, says “it is not prepared to rebuild” after spending millions of dollars in emergency repairs to the class A office building, including boarding up 3,200 of 3,400 glass windows shattered by a spring tornado. Ft. Worth officials previously assessed tornado damages citywide at $500 million, primarily to Central Business District structures.

“This very difficult decision was made … only after extensive analysis of the substantial hurdles to the re-opening of the tower,” Ron Cherry, Loutex Fort Worth’s managing partner, said in a press release issued yesterday. The major problem environmentally is the formation of molds within the walls and air conditioning system while the delivery lead-time for critical materials is too long. These factors prevent Loutex from expeditiously providing office space to its tenants, says Cherry.