Fort Worth is embarking on an estimated $2.5 billion in downtown development, according to the Fort Worth Report.
The projects, including a Texas A&M campus, convention center projects, and a new-look Omni hotel, will reshape the southeastern sector of downtown, the FWR reported last week.
Andy Taft, president of the business advocacy group Downtown Fort Worth Inc., said the total is a record for downtown development. He told residents in a meeting on August 9 that he expects more to come.
“There is a lot of land in the immediately adjacent area that can also be redeveloped as well,” Taft told the Fort Worth Report. “We are highly confident that there will be, at a minimum, in all likelihood, more hospitality and more residential built.”
More than $800 million of the $2.5 billion in development will come from government projects. Those include the convention center, City Hall projects, and three Texas A&M buildings. Another $700 million will come from hospitality spending, including the Omni expansion.
The convention center renovation will allow the city to become more competitive in attracting business meetings and another hotel. The redo also will straighten Commerce Street, which curves around the site, and create three new blocks downtown across from the center.
Mike Crum, director of public events for the City of Fort Worth, said the first phase of the convention center upgrade will focus on the back-of-house facilities. It should be complete by December 2024.
“The second phase will modernize and expand the venue’s customer-facing facilities,” he told the Fort Worth Report.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, the Texas A&M University System broke ground on its law and education building in June. The eight-story building will be the home to a School of Law and other academic offerings from Texas A&M University, Texas A&M Health, and Tarleton State University.
“It’s not often you break ground on one building while announcing potential tenants for a second building still on the drawing boards,” Texas A&M System Chancellor John Sharp said in a statement to The Dallas Express. “It just demonstrates the commitment of the A&M System and our community partners to get this game-changer up and running quickly.”
The Texas A&M-Fort Worth campus spending is expected to total $350 million, per the Fort Worth Report.
“I think it’s safe to say that Texas A&M has never seen anything they didn’t want to grow,” Taft told the FWR. “So, Texas A&M, over the years, will grow as well.”
After the groundbreaking, Texas A&M-Fort Worth campus director Kim McCuistion told The Dallas Express that the university’s vision for downtown was coming true after much deliberation and planning.
“We are on an accelerated timeline in order to bring the resources of the Texas A&M system to North Texas,” McCuistion said. “The groundbreaking was incredible and very exciting. The vision started to become a reality. Being able to break ground and see the parking lot take shape was extremely exciting.”
The Omni Fort Worth Hotel expansion will cost $217 million, break ground in spring 2024, and be complete in 2026, General Manager Larry Auth told the Fort Worth Report. It will increase in size from 618 guest rooms to 1,000, he added, with meeting space going from 50,000 to 110,000 square feet.
“We have a couple of different restaurant options we will add off the Lancaster side that will create and activate that corridor,” he said, per the FWR. “We’re very excited about that.”
