T&P LOFTS, Fort Worth, TX
So after selling Urban Living for the past few years as a Realtor in Fort Worth I have recently been approached by fate to experience it for myself. After my first week of residence at the T&P Lofts I have to say that fate is on my side. Given the trajectory of my life over the past 30 years I would never have imagined having the opportunity, much less the desire to move into a condo in the downtown district of Fort Worth. From what I can tell so far though, it's a choice I should have always placed at the top of my wish list. Urban living may be a bit different in Fort Worth than in some other big towns I've heard about. My hometown's downtown has all the charm and uniqueness of San Antonio, Boston or San Fran and is equally walkable.
So how did I end up here? Well a divorce after 27 years was probably the BIG impetus, but it's the things that arrived together in that package that set my mind on trying out the urban lifestyle. The relatively high cost per square foot of living in the city's center means that you don't need to bring much stuff. How swell for me because baby' momma kept most of the spoils of suburban life, the tools, law n mower, house-full of furniture. The day after she changed the locks I had to buy socks before I could go back to work. Many of the people around me downtown now have the same detachment from "stuff" that the divorce instilled in me. Some for the same reason as me, and some for entirely different reasons... deliberate down-sizing upon retirement, temporarily here on business, just starting out with a good-paying job downtown... I want to meet someone down here though that just up and decided this is where they'd like to be and then made it happen. That's the person who's got it all figured out because they are focusing on "lifestyle" and not "life-stage" - living in the moment where they WANT to be, not where they are "supposed to be".
My point is, I had a misconception about urban living... I thought it was what you do when you fall into certain categories, based maybe on what you didn't have that made urban living the right choice for you; a family, a dog, an RV lots of nice furniture. My old way of thinking was "why would you want to live downtown unless you didn't have all of the good stuff?" As it turns out lots of downtown dwellers have dogs and they are some of the coolest canines I have ever seen. I think dogs really love to be in smaller venues with people nearby to observe and interact with. Parking an RV downtown might be a challenge, but I think the RV lifestyle is the flip-side of the Urban living proposition, like an "either-or" equation. We don't think negatively about buying an RV and setting out on a cross-country adventure... It's something lots of people only dream about, and that's how I am coming to see my new urban adventure. Sure, the choices that brought me here were not my own, but thankfully I'll say that they were better for me than some of the choices I have made for myself.
So let's get started. I'm learning more about the history of my beloved hometown than I knew before. It's amazing to me to think about the people that have used the space I'm currently in for lives lived in a different century. To think that FDR boarded the train at the platform below my window and that Elvis stopped in the diner downstairs to eat and sign autographs. That WWII soldiers arrived home to tearful reunions with family in the plaza downstairs and other's boarded the train there leaving their home for the last time. I can walk out the brass encrusted revolving door of the T&P Lofts past a wedding taking place under the towering gilded ceilings onto the streets of Fort Worth where modern glass buildings frame the heart and soul of Fort Worth; the revitalized Sundance Square.
I'm a Realtor® in Fort Worth, and I sell traditional homes, loving what I do but wanting to introduce some folks to Urban Living whenever I have the opportunity. Here's a list of all of the condo's around me in downtown Fort Worth. I'll be looking at them all a bit closer in the coming months and learning more about the historic area that they occupy. I'll check in with you from time to time with my reports. Talk Soon, Tim
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