City of Fort Worth looking to sell downtown buildings to Kent family group
A local business group with a long history in Fort Worth is set to acquire properties that span one expanded city block in downtown near a hot spot of recent development.
Fort Worth City Council will be asked on Oct. 13 to approve the sale of four city-owned properties once used as city offices. The properties are within walking distance of the growing Texas A&M-Fort Worth campus and Fort Worth Convention Center.
Jun Crown Properties has offered to purchase all four properties as a single transaction and in their as-is condition for $4.3 million with $50,000 in earnest money. Jun Crown Properties is an entity connected to Kent & Co. Property, which traces its roots back to the historic Frank Kent Motor Co., an automotive empire founded by World War I veteran Frank Kent in 1935.
A report on the proposed sale will be heard by the city council during the Sept. 29 work session.
A letter-of-intent on the property was signed Sept. 1 and the council will need to vote on the sales during its Oct. 13 meeting. The sale is expected to close by Nov. 5, subject to council approval.
The city put the three buildings and parking lots on the market in 2024 using real estate broker JLL to manage the sales. The three buildings amount to 222,239 square feet over 1.32 acres, according to an information sheet on the property. When initially marketing the area in 2024, JLL described the properties as the largest site available in the city’s central business district.
The properties include the Lone Star Gas Company Building at 908 Monroe St., the building next door at 900 Monroe St. known as the Gordon Swift Building, a 338-space parking garage at 319 W. 10th St. and nearby parking lots.
Nearly 1,600 employees who once officed in the building have moved to the new city hall at 100 Fort Worth Trail, leaving the city-owned properties available for sale.
Jun Crown Properties were among the early investors on Magnolia Avenue on the city’s Near Southside, including the landmark mixed-use building at 1109-1121 W. Magnolia Ave., the original location of Heim Barbecue and Cherry Coffee.
Jun Crown is now run by Kent’s great-grandchildren, twins Will Churchill and Corrie Watson, who have expanded into other ventures, including a wine business. They are also invested in a complex of buildings on Jim Wright Freeway in White Settlement, creating a light industrial park for entrepreneurs and house for their corporate headquarters.
The most iconic of the buildings being sold is the former Lone Star Gas headquarters. The original four-story building holds a historic designation and was designed in 1929 by architect Wyatt C. Hedrick. An additional three floors designed by Hedrick were added in 1957, according to the Fort Worth Architecture site.
In 1959, the signature blue flame neon sign of the Lone Star Gas logo was installed on top of the building. Before the closing date of the sale, the city will repair and reinstall the neon blue flame sign. Going forward, the buyer will be responsible for the sign’s upkeep.
Those buildings are not the only government-related sites for sale downtown. On Sept. 10, 2026, the U.S. government announced it listed the Fritz G. Lanham Federal Building at 819 Taylor St. for sale.
Bob Francis is business editor for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at bob.francis@fortworthreport.org.
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