Leaders Say ‘Strings Are Starting To Tie Together’ As Fort Worth Awaits Billions In New Investment
Overshadowed for years by its overachieving sister to the east, Fort Worth is coming into its own, and city leaders and those helping shape its development future have a hard time containing their enthusiasm.
“All the strings are starting to tie together,” Merriman Anderson Architects principal and Director of Design John Carruth said last week at Bisnow’s Tarrant County State of the Market event at the Hotel Drover in the historic Fort Worth Stockyards. “It's really exciting to see these projects continue to stitch together the urban fabric that is so valuable and so beautiful in Fort Worth.”
Fort Worth is on track to hit more than 1 million residents this year, making it the second-fastest-growing city in the U.S. and a budding magnet for corporate relocations and investor buy-in from some of the state’s top developers and institutions.
The city is also gearing up for $2B in development activity in its downtown area, what Fort Worth Economic Development Director Robert Sturns called a “generational project” to reimagine Panther Island as a mixed-use waterfront district, the continued boom of AllianceTexas, already home to 574 companies and valued at $15.3B at the close of 2023, and the industrial potential of 12,000 shovel-ready acres at Walsh Ranch and Veale Ranch in west Fort Worth.
“Fort Worth is a city of 350 square miles, and on any given day, it feels like 300 square miles of that are under development somewhere, right?” Sturns said. “As we look around the city, it's not $100M deals or $200M deals, it's half a billion, it’s a billion, it's $2B. These are the types of things that we're dealing with now.”
Even a challenging capital market, high interest rates and market fluctuations haven't slowed deal flow significantly, Sturns said, a testament to the fact that Fort Worth “didn't get too hot, and we haven't gotten too cool as it relates to the overall development.”
City leaders are especially enthused about a torrent of development underway downtown, including Texas A&M’s new urban research campus, a $95M expansion of the city’s convention center, the redevelopment of the city’s Central Library, Crescent Fort Worth’s $275M mixed-use development and the expansion of the Omni Fort Worth hotel.
Thousands of new apartments are in the works, and the $150M Deco 969, the city’s first high-rise residential tower in 20 years, opened last month. The city is also hoping to bring a high-speed rail connection from Arlington to Dallas to the area, although the fate of that project is still up in the air.
But the city and the development community have their sights set on other areas of Fort Worth. In May, newly formed Crescendo Development, led by Northern Crain Realty co-Manager Will Northern, acquired 160 acres in Woodhaven on Fort Worth’s east side for $8.5M in a foreclosure auction, with plans to work with residents to redevelop the neglected corner, which suffers from high crime and substandard housing.
Earlier this year, the city also resumed its search for a master developer to take over the Evans and Rosedale project in the Historic Southside after it canceled a $70M contract with Hoque Global. The city has been working to redevelop 36 parcels east of Interstate 35 and north of East Rosedale Street for more than 20 years.
In both cases, city officials are involved and working with residents to ensure buy-in, Sturns said.
“It's great to have all these high-growth, high-job areas that are happening,” he said. “We want to continue that, but we also want to make sure that our struggling areas are getting to enjoy some of the fruits of all this development activity that we're seeing across the community.”
Significant activity is also happening on a 300-acre arm along the Trinity River extending from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport into Fort Worth city limits, said John Brookby, vice president of commercial development for the airport. Over the past several years, American Airlines has invested millions in operational buildings on the property, including a $250M, 600-room flight crew amenity center and hotel last year.
As for what is driving people and business to the city, panelists pointed to affordable housing, a low crime rate, access to quality education and a steady pipeline of graduates from Texas A&M and Texas Christian University.
The city also has a strong brand based on its cowboy, Old West ethos.
“Some people love it, some people hate it, but it has Western heritage, and it's not trying to be like any other city in the entire state of Texas or any other city across the entire country,” Trademark Property Co. partner Chad Colley said, adding that extends to the warmth of its residents. “I mean, try walking down a sidewalk in Fort Worth and having somebody not say hello to you. Doesn't happen. Try it in New York and see what happens. Little different story.”
But a business-friendly government willing to solve problems and lead on urban development — to go a bit cowboy itself — has been the most critical factor, panelists said.
“The one thing I'll say about the city of Fort Worth is it's bold,” Colley said. “The administration here, when they know they want something, they get it.”
“We are seeking to make deals,” Sturns said. “We are seeking to find a solution, instead of putting up roadblocks to say, ‘No, you can't do that.’”
