Fort Worth's Development Pipeline Going Full Throttle

Fort Worth is forging ahead on roughly $290 million of new developments from longtime corporate residents and another $60 million in a new courts building. The trio of projects has precipitated the predicted domino effect, Ben Loughry, managing director in Fort Worth for New York City-based Integra Realty Resources, tells GlobeSt.com.

Granted, RadioShack's late 2004 move to a $200-million, 900,000-sf campus on the banks of the Trinity River and Pier I Imports' planned midyear relocation to a $90-million, 440,000-sf headquarters will put some 1.5 million sf on the market in the CBD, but the backfill plans that are churning are more than promising. "It's a wonderful opportunity for a corporate move to Fort Worth," Loughry says. And, he's hearing there has been significant interest on that front from out-of-state corporations toying with relocation. He acknowledges it's been about 15 years since the city's had that kind of vacancy, but he fully expects the backfill to be swift due to the buildings' key locations in the CBD core.

The dual corporate campus developments prompted a $2-million allocation to study additional Trinity River development and opened doors of opportunity along nearby Seventh Street, where multifamily developers spent this year jockeying for position. Additional news about a $110-million redevelopment plan at the 45-acre Montgomery Ward site reportedly will come in early January. Meanwhile, plans are progressing for a multi-million-dollar convention center hotel and a big ticket renovation at the Ramada Plaza.

"Everybody right now has a positive attitude," Loughry says of the city's unusual leverage in difficult times that were mortared by city-funded incentives to stay. "We're fortunate that we kept the companies here. It was a pivotal point."

Not be overlooked is spin-off revenue that will come from the drilling of the Barnett Shale in the county's northeast quadrant. "That's fresh money," Loughry says of a prosperity pipeline being filled by the same kind of capital that gave the city its start. Some reserves, he says, have been known to generate $250,000 a month. The Barnett Shale's revenue impact has yet to be publicly addressed, but it will "create a lot of reinvestment for Fort Worth, not just for the economy but the arts too," he says, pointing to the historical give-back by wealthy residents.

"It's a sleepy little town that not a lot of people are aware of," Loughry says, "We're just humming along and doing our deal and kind of quietly building a foundation. We don't look for a lot of attention and that's fine.