Two city-owned office buildings, a parking garage and nearby lots in downtown Fort Worth could soon belong to a company run by the great-grandchildren of Frank Kent, the auto dealer whose name has been tied to Cowtown commerce for nearly a century. Fort Worth City Council is set to consider approval of the sale to Jun Crown Properties, with a vote scheduled for its Oct. 13 meeting.
The proposed deal covers the Lone Star Gas Company building at 908 Monroe St., the Gordon Swift Building at 900 Monroe St., a 338-space parking garage at 319 W. 10th St., and nearby parking lots, according to Fort Worth Report. Jun Crown Properties has offered $4.3 million for the properties as a single as-is transaction and put down $50,000 in earnest money, per the same report. A letter of intent was signed on Sept. 1, and the sale is expected to close by Nov. 5, 2026, pending council approval. The proposed sale report was set to be heard by council during its work session Tuesday.
Who's Behind Jun Crown Properties
Jun Crown is run by twins Will Churchill and Corrie Watson, who are Frank Kent's great-grandchildren, the outlet's report notes. The company is connected to Kent & Co. Property, which traces its roots back to Frank Kent Motor Co., the dealership Kent founded in 1935. Kent himself was a World War I veteran whose name has anchored the family's local business ventures for generations.
The twins' portfolio extends beyond downtown. Jun Crown Properties was among the early investors on Magnolia Avenue on Fort Worth's Near Southside, where the company invested in a mixed-use building at 1109-1121 W. Magnolia Ave. — the original home of Heim Barbecue and Cherry Coffee. The pair have also expanded into a wine business and are invested in a building complex on Jim Wright Freeway in White Settlement that is being developed into a light industrial park aimed at entrepreneurs and corporate headquarters.
A Sign Worth Saving
Part of what makes this sale distinctive is what comes with it: the Lone Star Gas headquarters carries a historic designation, having been designed by architect Wyatt C. Hedrick in 1929 and expanded with three additional floors in 1957. Atop the building sits the Lone Star Gas logo's Blue Flame sign, installed in 1959. Before the sale closes, the city will repair and reinstall the sign, after which the buyer takes over its upkeep.
A Fort Worth architecture forum thread titled “Blue Flame atop Lone Star Gas Bldg” was started by a user going by Urbndwlr in November 2004.
Fort Worth's Downtown Office Push
This isn't the city's first attempt to offload downtown real estate. Fort Worth put three buildings and parking lots on the market in 2024, a package managed by JLL, which described the properties at the time as the largest site available in the city's central business district. Those three buildings amounted to 222,239 square feet across 1.32 acres. The moves followed nearly 1,600 city employees relocating to the new city hall at 100 Fort Worth Trail, freeing up older downtown real estate for private buyers.
The federal government is also shedding downtown Fort Worth office space. The U.S. government announced on Sept. 10 that it was listing the Fritz G. Lanham Federal Building at 819 Taylor St. for sale.
The timing lines up with a broader recovery in the Dallas-Fort Worth office market. The region recorded 3.6 million square feet of leasing activity in the first quarter of 2026, exceeding its five-year quarterly average of 3.0 million square feet, according to Savills. That quarter included Oncor Electric Delivery Company's 176,816-square-foot renewal in Fort Worth's Central Business District — a sign that even large legacy tenants are choosing to stay put downtown rather than relocate.
Momentum carried into the first half of the year. DFW office tenants leased 7.6 million square feet during the first six months of 2026, up nearly 13% from the same period in 2025, according to Yahoo Finance. Overall office availability across the region declined to 26% from 28.1% a year earlier, while asking rents averaged $34.44 per square foot, up from $32.89. Roughly 2.5 million square feet of sublease inventory also disappeared from the market over the past year, while downtown Dallas, by contrast, posted a weaker 33.9% availability rate, underscoring how uneven the region's recovery remains between submarkets.
Bob Francis, business editor for the Fort Worth Report, authored the original report on the proposed sale. Whether council members approve the deal at the Oct. 13 meeting will determine if the Kent family's latest venture adds a slice of downtown Fort Worth history to its growing portfolio.
