Texas A&M Begins Plans for Expanding Fort Worth Campus
August 2,2024
See full Fort Worth Inc. article by Fort Worth, Inc. Staff here.
The grand design and ultimate manifestation of everything Texas A&M-Fort Worth will be is moving forward.
The Texas A&M University System’s Board of Regents on Thursday authorized system leaders to begin the design of the second building for the downtown research campus, the Research & Innovation Building A.
The building could cost up to $260 million, including 150,000 gross-square-feet of offices and lab space for the Texas A&M System at an estimated cost of $150 million. The remainder would be for private sector partners as well as parking that could be used by campus tenants and the public.
Among the tenants of that building will be Texas A&M Transportation Institute, Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station, Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service, Texas A&M AgriLife Research and the Texas Division of Emergency Management.
“Our state agencies bring a whole different dynamic to the campus, whether through research, workforce training or other services to the community and local businesses,” said Chancellor John Sharp, who announced in July that he would retire in June 2025. “The A&M System is here to support the regional economy.”
Sharp in collaboration with school, city, and county leaders, announced in 2022 the A&M system's intention to build a $350 million campus in downtown Fort Worth. That figure has grown, beginning with the system's board voting to increase the size and budget of the Law and Education Building currently under construction.
The increase was in response to greater-than-expected demand for space there.
Last summer, the A&M broke ground on an eight-story, $180 million Law & Education Building to house its education components.
The now-approximately 225,000-square-foot building — an estimated nine floors — will house programs in law, engineering, business and health sciences, among others. After breaking ground last June, it is slated for completion by January 2026. Two other facilities, the Research and Innovation building and the Gateway conference center and offices, will also be constructed in the years to follow. Those will be financed with city-issued bonds secured by leases to the A&M System and private sector development firms.
Thursday’s vote authorizes the design of the Research & Innovation Building A, which primarily will be home to A&M system agencies participating in the research campus in southeast downtown, near the expanding Fort Worth Convention Center.
The Law & Education Building is being paid for with bonds backed by the Permanent University Fund. The Research & Innovation Building A is being financed with a combination of tenant leases, donations and parking revenue.
Long-range plans leave space for future expansion for Research & Innovation Building B. Also, the existing law school will eventually be demolished and replaced with a multi-purpose community building called the Gateway Building.
Location Mentioned: Texas A&M Fort Worth