FORT WORTH, Texas — This article was originally published by our content partners at the Dallas Business Journal. Read the original article here.
Fort Worth officials describe Panther Island as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: more than 500 acres of developable land, both publicly and privately owned, just a stone's throw from downtown.
But uncertainty around the timeline for necessary flood control measures and infrastructure improvements has largely prevented developers from making solid plans.
That's starting to change.
With new funding for flood control and a 234-page report full of recommendations in their hands, Fort Worth leaders believe they've cleared some of the longtime hurdles that have given developers pause.
Turning the Panther Island opportunity into reality will still require considerable work. But dirt could turn sooner than some might think. Just ask Sarah LanCarte, founder of real estate firm LanCarte Commercial and co-founding parter at Tillar Partners.
LanCarte, who's done multiple deals on Panther Island, sees momentum building. Last year, she represented a Houston-based firm that sold 25 acres to Seco Ventures in an area known as Upstream at Panther Island. And Fort Worth-based Tillar Partners plans to bring a $120 million multi-use project to about 12 acres at 529 N. Throckmorton St., with office space, retail and parking.
"Panther Island is super complicated — all of the utility infrastructure, the [U.S. Army] Corps of Engineers, I mean, every single component," LanCarte said. "I think people are really rallying together to try to figure it out for the city. But I do think you'll start seeing private development in the next 18 months."
Who owns Panther Island?
Public entities including the Tarrant Regional Water District and Tarrant County College District own 383 acres on Panther Island, according to a March report by HR&A. Private landowners control 74 acres.
Panther Island has received $443 million in federal funding since 2022 to support flood control along the Trinity River as part of the Central City Flood Control Project. The overall cost estimate for the project surpasses $1 billion.
Developers have long been interested in Panther Island, which used to be home to heavy industry including a power plant. But uncertainty around timing and infrastructure made it hard for private companies to commit to a project, said Robert Sturns, Fort Worth's economic development director.
Federal support for flood control "was really, I think, what helped us get to kick off this next phase to begin to move some development activity forward," he said.
Now, plans for development are starting to take shape. Consulting firm HR&A Advisors was hired to collect and condense information from Fort Worth stakeholders and create recommendations for the area’s future development. The firm released a 234-page final report in March, following up on preliminary findings released last year.
The report provides an early vision of what development could look like on the island, and the city is already adopting some of its recommendations.
The Tarrant County Water District officials voted in June to demolish an old baseball field on the island where icons such as Babe Ruth once played, as recommended in the consultant's report. Sources told WFAA at least one group is planning a mixed-use development anchored by a new ballpark.
"This organization is open to looking at what the opportunities are," water board member Paxton Motheral told WFAA. "This would not close the door on opportunity for sports here."
Where could development start?
While existing levees and infrastructure mean some parts of Panther Island cannot be developed until the flood control project is completed, HR&A identified some areas that will be ready sooner.
The south island can’t be developed until the Central City Project is completed and levees are removed to prevent flooding and elevation issues, and parts of the north island will have limited development due to the construction of a new wastewater main, the report states. However, parts of the north island’s interior can be developed before levees are removed. HR&A broke up the island into zones to map out where development can start.
The first zone is along North Main Street, which the report notes will mark the first corners of development at Main Street and Fourth Street to create "a high-impact, low investment option for the first phase of development on the island."
Fort Worth officials are adopting recommendations in the report to make development in that area a reality. The city council and zoning commission approved an amendment that would raise the maximum building height to 20 stories and remove a rule that prohibits floor plates greater than 16,000 square feet above 96 feet in height for towers along roughly eight blocks of North Main Street. The development on the bulk of the island is restricted to five stories.
Dana Burghdoff, Fort Worth assistant city manager, said the change was proposed in part because that area falls in the early development zone. The city also wants to focus density along North Main Street, flagged as a "significant thoroughfare" in the report, in order to support higher frequency transit, she said.
The last development to deliver in the area was the Encore apartments in 2018. The 300-unit community has a canal system running through the middle.
But Burghdoff said there are plans for more, which she is excited to see be announced "in the next couple of months."
In that zone, which encompasses about 12 acres, Tarrant Water District and Tarrant County College own 4 acres, according to the report. Austin-based Seco, Encore Panther Island and other private owners own 8 acres.
Upcoming changes
More changes to the form-based code governing land use on Panther Island are incoming, Burghdoff said. Several areas are currently required to be two-thirds residential development. While that might make sense in some areas, she said the city might consider other uses such as entertainment, office and hotel. She said the city will seek a zoning consultant to help with that process.
From an economic development standpoint, Sturns said there are areas where commercial makes more sense than residential. His department is talking to different companies and clients looking for opportunities and trying to offer areas where they think that type of development can occur. He describes the effort as a collaboration between the city, land owners, the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce and Fort Worth Economic Development Partnership.
“We've really spent some time kind of driving down on, how do we attract some of those specific uses?” he said. “And going out and kind of actively marketing the site, in coordination with the property owners.”
Sturns called Panther Island a singular opportunity and said public engagement is an important factor so the transformation can be beneficial for generations to come.
"We definitely want to make sure that the residents that have raised families in that neighborhood and grown up in those areas have an opportunity as they see some of this development happen — that they're able to take advantage of it and enjoy the fruits of all the labor that we're trying to bring forward with it," he said.
Bowie Holland — who is on the city's development advisory committee, chairs the Fort Worth Real Estate Council's governmental affairs committee and is listed as a key island stakeholder in the report — feels the city has embraced the HR&A recommendations. He expects there will be a governance structure to help guide the vision for Panther Island forward. He points to Near South Side Inc. and the recently created Fort Worth Stockyards Inc. as an example.
"Those will be regulatory entities that will kind of protect the vision of what a year-plus worth of stakeholder engagement brought together, but also let the market have plenty of say in what gets built there," Holland said. "The market has the ultimate vote on what comes."
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