Downtown: Fort Worth Planner Pleased By Downtown's Success

April 4,2014

Reposted from the Fort Worth Business Press .

It’s one thing to plan the future. It’s quite another to watch that future unfold, something that still takes Andy Taft’s breath away.
“What we’ve seen in downtown is amazing,” said Taft, president of Downtown Fort Worth Inc., marveling at the urban center that once stood in the shadow of livelier suburban activity.

Now the suburbs compete with downtown for retailers, residents and tourists as the nation’s 16th largest city celebrates its urban heart. Fort Worth’s latest success is Sundance Square Plaza, the cultural epicenter of the 35-block Sundance Square development.

Featuring Bird Café, Taco Diner and Del Frisco’s Grille overlooking an umbrella-shaded courtyard, the plaza bordered by Third, Fourth, Commerce and Houston streets has drawn crowds since debuting beneath cloudless morning skies last November.

Since then, project planners and city leaders have watched crowds flock to the space.

“It exceeded our expectations,” said Taft, who helped set the vision for downtown just a month later when the City Council approved a 10-year strategic plan released by Downtown Fort Worth Inc., a nonprofit downtown advocacy group, in partnership with the city and the Fort Worth Transportation Authority, or The T. The 65-page document outlined a “pedestrian-first” approach in advancing transportation, open space and public art, and business development and housing, among other priorities. The strategic-planning process occurs every decade as planners conduct public meetings before hammering out goals for the next 10 years.

With Sundance Square Plaza teeming with activity and downtown named the nation’s top downtown for 2014 by the website Livability.com, folks near and far are coming to Cowtown. The Fort Worth Business Press asked Taft for his perspective on such accolades and on a community standing tall in the saddle.

Read the full article here.