Texas A&M
An artist's rendering of the downtown campus.
The Aggies were in town on Thursday to drive more stakes in the ground.
They ain't going anywhere.
Texas A&M chancellor John Sharp and A&M President Katherine Banks and dozens of dignitaries gathered on the second floor of the Burnett Plaza to formally christen the Aggies’ intention to develop a campus in Fort Worth.
The three-building complex, to be built on four blocks of the southeast corridor of downtown now has a name, announced by Sharp, in a mid-afternoon reception featuring wine and hors d’oevres in what amounted to a marital engagement party.
It’ll be called Texas A&M-Fort Worth.
That it sits on the old Hell’s Half Acre is an Aggie joke waiting to manifest. You know full well the Aggies were in Hell’s Half Acre raising, well, hell.
Sharp also announced that Stantec would serve as the architect of record for the first building, the Law & Education Building. Stantec will provide lab planning services on the project in partnership with the design architect, Pelli Clarke & Partners.
The construction management teams on the first building will include Turner Construction Company, CARCON Industries, Fort Worth-based Source Building Group Inc., and Dikita Enterprises.
Workers will break ground on the Law & Education Building this summer. It is expected to be completed by 2025. All three buildings are expected to be completed in five or six years.
“A top-10 public research institution ensures Fort Worth’s future is rooted in the next economy driven by an educated workforce, whether it be lawyers, engineers, health care professionals or technology workers whose jobs don’t even exist today,” said Chancellor Sharp. “Thanks to our partners, the city of Fort Worth and Tarrant County, the Texas A&M System is investing in a unique public-private sector endeavor that will be a magnet for economic growth for the North Texas region.”
The campus is being called transformational as a catalyst for economic growth in the city and region. Construction for the campus will also coincide with a renovated Fort Worth Convention Center and the streets that surround it.
Texas A&M got its start in Fort Worth with the purchase of the Texas Wesleyan Law School in 2013. Two years ago, Fort Worth and Tarrant County officials, along with representatives of the business community, specifically Fort Worth Now, an organization led by billionaire developer John Goff, invited the Texas A&M System to bring its research and academic infrastructure to the city. Fort Worth is the largest Texas city without a Tier 1 research university, according to officials.
Until now.
“I may be a tea-sip,” Goff said of his education at the University of Texas, “but I can tell you that when it comes to Fort Worth and Tarrant County, I am totally agnostic. I am 100% onboard.
“This was the No. 1 focus of mine personally, as well as Fort Worth Now, to get this deal done. It is a game changer. This will have so much impact. I can’t tell you how many companies have embraced this and are chomping at the bit to be a partner.”
Fort Worth Now has been renamed the Fort Worth Tarrant County Innovation Partnership.
The high-rise complex will include classrooms, labs, and flexible research and maker spaces that can be used by the public and private sectors for academic programs, workforce training and collaborative research in the fields of engineering, emergency management communications, agriculture, health sciences and visualization, among others.
The Texas A&M System will construct the Law & Education Building. It will be financed with bonds backed by the Permanent University Fund and other sources.
The other two facilities, the Research and Innovation building and the Gateway conference center and offices, will be financed with city-issued bonds secured by leases to the A&M System and private sector development firms.
The Fort Worth City Council last week approved an interlocal agreement that spells out the general terms and conditions the city and Texas A&M will follow in developing the downtown campus.
The Research & Innovation Local Government Corp., also approved by City Council, will oversee a large portion of the campus, including construction of the Research and Innovation Building, Gateway Conference Center and a campus plaza.
A developer, who is yet to be chosen, will be responsible for developing and leasing the space for the private firms. Start dates for the two buildings have not been announced.
“Today, we are here to celebrate A&M’s continued nature of being both big and bold and their dreams of a Fort Worth campus,” said Councilwoman Elizabeth Beck, who represented the city in Mayor Mattie Parker’s stead. Parker was in Washington, D.C., for the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
“A&M could have updated their law school and call it a day. Instead, they decided to dream big and invest physically with three buildings, culturally, educationally, and economically in our community.”
Beck stamped her remarks by quoting Daniel Burnham, one of America's great urban planners: “Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men.”
U.S. Rep. Kay Granger (R-Fort Worth) and U.S. Rep. Marc Veasey (D-Fort Worth) were also present. The 80-year-old Granger, a 13-term member of the House and currently the chairwoman of the powerful Appropriations Committee, made what appeared to be some news by saying she would remain in Congress until the project is complete.
“This will be something we will always remember,” Granger said. “A great negotiation is one where each partner secretly thinks he made a better deal than the other one. Texas A&M and Fort Worth are both getting an incredible deal.”
