This story originally appeared on fortworthreport.org.
By McKinnon Rice
Fort Worth City Council waived development fees for all phases of Texas A&M’s downtown campus construction.
Roger Venables, the city staff member who is the liaison to the downtown campus project, said in a statement that the estimated development fees for the Research and Innovation Building are about $1.3 million. He noted the total amount covered by the waiver cannot be calculated exactly since design plans for the campus are not yet complete.
City Council previously approved $800,000 in waived fees in December 2024 for the nearly completed Law and Education Building and planned Research and Innovation Building. However, fee estimates for the campus have since grown, leading the Texas A&M University System to request a waiver for all fees, according to a City Council document. The agenda item passed unanimously without discussion.
The waiver covers fees for a range of items such as building permits and temporary street closures. Total building costs for the campus’s first two buildings will exceed $500 million, said Bobby Ahdieh, chief operating officer of Texas A&M-Fort Worth.
Construction on the Research and Innovation Building — which will be home to state agencies administered by Texas A&M, classrooms, labs and other spaces — is expected to begin this summer.
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