FORT WORTH, Texas — This article was originally published by our content partners at the Dallas Business Journal. You can read the original article here.
Developers are planning a $2 billion development on more than 140 acres spanning far east Fort Worth and Grand Prairie.
The project, called River Central, would entail a 140-room hotel, 120,000 square feet of offices, a 56,000-square-foot concert venue, 60,000 square feet of retail, 125 townhomes, 1,200 apartments and 50 acres of open space. The development will be near the CentrePort rail station, which is 4.8 miles from Dallas Fort Worth International Airport.
Plans are working their way through City Hall, and a member of the development team recently provided Dallas Business Journal with updates on the timing and design of River Central.
The Fort Worth Zoning Commission unanimously recommended rezoning 25 acres from agricultural to high-intensity mixed use at 3500, 3508 and 3518 State Highway 360 during an Oct. 9 meeting. Fort Worth City Council could vote on the rezoning Nov. 12.
Ken Schaumburg, one of the partners on the development and owner of Fort Worth-based Schaumburg Architects PC, said during the Oct. 9 zoning commission meeting that the project is in both Fort Worth and Grand Prairie along 3 miles of the Trinity River.
"This is a true transit-oriented development," Schaumburg said.
Schaumburg said engineering work is about 80% complete and has cost about $5 million so far. He expects to break ground in 12 to 15 months. Schaumburg said the developers have several grocers interested in the project, but no retail partners have been confirmed.
Gensler is the architecture firm on the project.
David Hasenzahl, principal at Hasen Design Build & Development and a managing partner for River Central, called it a floodplain reclamation project, entailing collaboration with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Army Corps of Engineers.
The total site acreage comes out to about 400 acres, but development will only be on about 140 of those, he said. He estimated the property will be valued at $2 billion at full buildout. The development will be high-density, with buildings ranging from five to 10 floors. Proximity to rail, highways and the airport is key, he said.
Zoning and a public improvement district have already been approved in Grand Prairie, so Hasenzahl said that is where development will likely occur first with retail and multifamily.
Hasenzahl compared what's planned to Clearfork, a mixed-use development with apartments, restaurants, stores and offices southwest of downtown Fort Worth.
"It'll definitely be high-end," Hasenzahl said. "It'll be more of a destination."
With the close proximity to the CentrePort Trinity Railway Express station, the team expects "we can make that some type of destination where it's not just a living space, but a bigger, grander destination," Hasenzahl said.
More and more development in Dallas-Fort Worth is occurring near transit stations as the region becomes more dense. In DFW, 31 development projects were built within a quarter mile of a Dallas Area Rapid Transit station between 2019 and 2021, with a total property value of $980.1 million, according to a study by the University of North Texas Economics Research Group. In North Richland Hills, northeast of Fort Worth, a $59 million transit-oriented community is being planned.