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FORT WORTH-Landmark Tower is more than the target of a federal lawsuit by an insurance company disputing about $3 million in "soft costs" billed by the developer for damage from the March 2000 tornado.
For some of the bestknown architects, engineers and contractors in the Metroplex, the 30-story downtown icon formerly known as the Texas Building sits in a sea of red, ink with a promise that never came true.
"It got to be a joke around here. It was always two weeks away," said Dallas Taylor, president of TGS Architects Inc. in Dallas.
Today, more than two years after the twister ripped through downtown Fort Worth and closed the building indefinitely, the circa 1950s structure still sports a fictitious "Texas Star Bank" logo pasted to a Seventh Street window, a remnant of the time it was featured in the pilot film for Chuck Norris' defunct TV show, "Walker Texas Ranger."
And Connecticut investor Scott Christensen and the company he founded, Fort Worth-based FWTX Building L.L.C., still are discussing renovating the building and renaming it Landmark Tower.
FWTX's grandiose plan calls for retail, condos and luxury apartments and adding a parking garage, a penthouse and a four-sided digital clock on what would be the 31st floor.
Those plans were highlighted again Aug. 2, when Boston-based Lexington Insurance Co. filed suit in U.S. District Court in Dallas seeking a ruling on its policy limits after paying FWTX more than $5.3 million for tornado damage. The company challenged FWTX's claims for another $10 million in business losses, and declined to pay more than $3 million in "expense/soft costs."
Those soft costs, Lexington said, included $315,023.16 Christensen collected from his own company to act as a consultant, more than $900 in food and...