A Fort Worth nonprofit aims to turn a more than 100-year-old historic building with a troubled past into a cultural hub that celebrates the area’s diverse community. 

Transform 1012 N. Main Street plans to convert the former Fort Worth headquarters of the Ku Klux Klan into a cultural arts center that will not only be a hub for the city’s residents but also aid in the revitalization of the surrounding community. However, the nonprofit organization said it won't shy away from acknowledging the building’s history.

“Our job is to bring awareness to what the building was but also what it is going to be,” Transform 1012 Interim Executive Director Kelly Allen Gray said. 

Located at 1012 N. Main St., the project is an ambitious adaptive reuse effort funded through grants and donations. Structurally, the existing 35K SF frame will be maintained while adding a 250-seat theater, two dance rehearsal spaces, galleries and classrooms across three levels. 

The adaptive reuse project was expected to cost around $43M when it was announced in 2022. As construction costs continue to skyrocket, Transform 1012 is setting out on a capital campaign to raise $70M to reach the construction phase. 

While the site’s past association with the KKK has adversely affected its value and that of adjacent properties, Transwestern Vice President Chris Corbin said Transform 1012’s project could shine a light on an area ready for new investment. 

"When you've got an adaptive reuse project like this, you're ridding the property from that dark shadow that it's had for decades," Corbin said. 

The project fits in with the larger revitalization efforts going on throughout the city’s Historic Northside neighborhood and the nearby $1.2B Panther Island project. 

Corbin expects that the finished Transform 1012 Center for Arts and Community Healing will increase investor and property-owner confidence in the area and prompt buyers to pay more for sites in the neighborhood. 

Telling The Building's Story

Transform 1012 was formed in 2019 by a coalition of nonprofits that represent groups targeted by the KKK during the klan's time in the building, including the city's Black, Hispanic, Jewish, Catholic, immigrant and LGBTQIA+ populations. The coalition includes groups such as DNAWorks, the Opal Lee Foundation, SOL Ballet Folklorico, The Welman Project, Window to Your World and the Transform 1012 Youth Council.

After the former KKK headquarters was sold by the organization in 1927, the building served as a warehouse, a boxing arena and a pecan processing plant until it was eventually abandoned in 1999. 

Transform 1012 acquired it at the beginning of 2022 through a donation from the previous owners, private investment group Sugarplum Holdings. Rainwater Charitable Foundation also helped cover the cost of the property via a grant. 

The nonprofit organization did not disclose the building's cost, but a 2019 bid to stabilize the property and bring it up to code was about $1.6M, according to The Dallas Morning News. 

The building may qualify for the National Register of Historic Places and local recognition as a historic and cultural landmark, but Fort Worth Development Services, which oversees the city's Historic Preservation department, says it hasn't been fully assessed for either.

Aside from the planned arts and cultural spaces, its redesign will include an exhibit showing its history with the KKK as well as information on the life of Fred Rouse, a Black butcher who was lynched in Fort Worth in 1921.

Fort Worth Mayor Pro Tem Carlos Flores said the adaptive reuse project in the city’s Northside area is an investment in the community’s future.

“Transform 1012 is an important part of understanding history while embracing new purpose using the Northside District’s redevelopment momentum,” Flores told Bisnow. 

Vision For Redevelopment

The project sits at the informal boundary between the Panther Island Project and the Historic Northside. 

The Panther Island Project aims to transform 800 acres of underused industrial property along the Trinity River into a mixed-use waterfront district. The Historic Northside is in the midst of a multiyear partnership with Main Street America to boost commercial vitality throughout the corridor. 

Transform 1012’s adaptive reuse project is expected to complement those larger initiatives. 

“The more opportunity for crowds to gather, adjacent businesses certainly benefit from that, whether it's retail or restaurants or hotels,” Corbin said. “It’s going to make a significant impact that will have a ripple effect from locally funded businesses all the way up to maybe nationally recognized concepts.”

While it’s difficult to quantify the property value increases these projects could bring, Corbin said he expects incremental gains as the area attracts artists and continues to mature. But increased investor confidence should bring more redevelopment projects in the years ahead.  

Multifamily developers already control land in the district and have plans in the works, according to Corbin.  

Gray said Transform 1012 is counting on that growth for the greater community as it aims to take advantage of a lively environment once its center is completed. 

Transform 1012 plans to use a rental model to help pay for the center's continued operation, and it may charge for some community events. The organization envisions hosting movie premieres, small concerts and other performing arts experiences. 

“You can have this amazing outdoor space that then allows you to be able to do smaller outdoor concerts with the Trinity River Bypass Channel literally running right behind you,” Gray said. 

“There's lots of ways to make Transform 1012 Center for Arts and Community Healing profitable in order to continue to do the work that we have been called to do for the community.”

Funding A New Legacy

The project has received significant federal funding and support from various foundations, Gray said. In 2022, the Biden administration provided $3M in funding, though the project later lost $110K after the Trump administration cut spending last year.

While the project’s capital campaign has a large goal, Gray said she is confident the organization will be ready to break ground late next year. The project is expected to have an 18-month construction timeline, which would set its opening around the summer of 2029.

Fort Worth-based The Projects Group serves as the owner's representative and is also providing project management services, while SpawGlass and Post L Group will be the construction managers at risk.

Transform 1012 has actively engaged with the community throughout the process, gathering feedback that helped shape the project's design. The group will have its next public conversation on Oct. 24 and will be soliciting oral histories from the community to be used in the center. 

Despite initial pushback against preserving the building, the community has come to embrace the transformation.

“The largest response that we have received is to transform that building that was intended for hate into something for healing,” Gray said.