FORT WORTH, Texas — This article was originally published in the Dallas Business Journal. You can read the original piece here.
The Fort Worth City Council on June 25 voted in favor of an incentives agreement that moves forward plans for a $630 million expansion historic Stockyards area.
Fort Worth Heritage LLC — a collaboration between Majestic Realty Co. and Hickman Cos. and development partner M2G Ventures — plan to add about 300,000 square feet of commercial space to the Stockyards, which sees about 9 million visitors a year. Construction is expected to be completed by 2032.
According to a June 11 presentation by the city's Economic Development Department, the development could include new hotels, a multifamily community, two underground garages and improvements to the area including green space and amenities.
Under the agreement, the city could give Fort Worth Heritage up to $75 million over 30 years, in the form of rebate grants on property taxes. In exchange, the developers would have to deliver a minimum of 300,000 square feet of commercial space, hotels with at least 500 combined rooms, a minimum 295-unit multifamily complex and two underground parking garages with a minimum 1,300 spaces. Fort Worth Heritage would also have to spend at least $630 million on public and private improvements, with $472.5 million of that on construction.
After the developers constructs the garages, they would sell them to the city for up to $126 million and lease them back for 30 years. The city gave Heritage incentives in 2014 for revitalization of the Stockyards, but the new agreement would take the 21 remaining grant payments and redirect them to the second phase of the project.
Additionally, Heritage would make $15 million in improvements to Cowtown Coliseum, with benefits for Fort Worth's bovine residents and the team that supports them at the Fort Worth Herd, including a new barn for the steers, horse stalls and steer pens, and dedicated parking for the Herd's vehicles and equipment.
The city will spend $382.9 million on the project between the cost of debt service to purchase the garage and the cost of pubic improvement, but the economic development department estimates the proceeds from the garages will bring that cost down to about $145.6 million. Council would also seek to establish a project financing zone, which would help finance the Cowtown Coliseum improvements.
Council also approved adding $100,000 to the Stockyards' public improvement district for Fort Worth Stockyards Inc., the organization that manages some of the improvements. The item was on the council's consent agenda.