This story originally appeared on Fort Worth Inc.
By John Henry
The final cost to build the Texas A&M–Fort Worth campus in the southeast corner of downtown has yet to be determined, though there is consensus that the original estimate of roughly $350 million has now climbed to more than $1 billion.
Developers have added two other buildings, and ideas just keep flowing about what is possible down there.
However, no one is labeling this a boondoggle — the favored term of the Nellies born to be naysayers who spend entire lives, to borrow an analogy, looking at their shoelaces rather than the sky and the unlimited possibilities it symbolizes.
So, on the same day Hillwood released its annual economic impact report on its flagship development, AllianceTexas, Bobby Ahdieh and John Goff spent the lunch hour at the Fort Worth Club briefing business leaders on what they forecast as Fort Worth’s “next economic engine.”
And now they’re not the only ones making predictions about the planned innovation district in old Hell’s Half Acre, where once upon a time a great deal of business innovation went on in a red-light district.
Ahdieh, the Texas A&M University law dean and VP for professional schools and programs, said a recently completed economic impact analysis estimates that the campus being constructed by A&M, the city, and Tarrant County will generate 25,000 jobs, both directly and indirectly, and more than $3 billion annually.
“So, I began by saying this is Fort Worth’s next economic engine. I don’t mean that lightly,” Ahdieh says. “If we pull this off, if we can do this as a community together, the impact it will have in terms of our other goals would be significant.”
The leadership behind the project is too good and too smart not to pull it off. The Law and Education Building will open this summer. Groundbreaking on the second building will follow soon after. They expect to be moving ground on the third building in the fall. This all began as one building. Now it’s up to five and, Ahdieh says, “it’ll continue to grow.”
The conversation was part of the Cowtown Business & Capital Summit, an invitation-only executive forum held Tuesday.
It marked the second annual event, designed to bring together the city’s top business leaders, entrepreneurs, and innovators for a half-day of discussions and networking.
At its core, the summit focused on capital strategy, business growth, and innovation, providing a platform for substantive conversations about the challenges and opportunities facing today’s leaders.
It was hosted and supported by mFORCE Capital, Higginbotham, and the North Texas Community Foundation.
Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker delivered the morning’s keynote address, noting that only about half of the city’s 350 square miles of developable land has been built out.
“The development in Fort Worth is only going to escalate,” Goff says.
The Texas A&M development is a favorite topic for Ahdieh and Goff.
The defining feature of the innovation district will be its ability to leverage institutional research in partnership with industry to incubate startups and drive economic development rooted in the marriage of research and private enterprise.
The innovation district is, in essence, a mixed-use district built around that productive exchange. In addition to the university research hub and business component, housing, dining, and the like will all be part of it.
