Texas A&M Fort Worth scores another multimillion dollar gift for downtown campus
October 9,2024
See full Fort Worth Report article by Shomial Ahmad here.
Texas A&M Fort Worth scores another multimillion dollar gift for downtown campus
While the maroon-and-white Texas A&M University flag flies high atop a construction crane downtown, funding for the Texas A&M Fort Worth campus is reaching new heights.
The Leo Potishman Foundation pledged $2 million for the development of Texas A&M Fort Worth. The foundation, started by the family of prominent Fort Worth businessman Leo Potishman, was a founding donor of the TCU Burnett School of Medicine and supported stadium development at Texas Wesleyan University and scholarships for students at Tarrant County College.
John Sharp, chancellor of the Texas A&M University System, said the gift from another Fort Worth institution is the sign of continued local support for the creation of a three-building campus in southeast downtown, near the Fort Worth Convention Center currently under renovation.
“Fort Worth and the Texas A&M System are a natural fit,” Sharp said in a statement. “The community’s support for the new campus is surpassing our expectations, and we look forward to helping boost the local and regional economy.”
Potishman, a prominent Fort Worth businessman who died in 1981, started Transit Grain and Commission Company in 1921 and manufactured Vit-A-Way supplements that were sold nationwide to increase milk and meat yields in livestock, according to research by the late Mike Nichols, author of “Lost Fort Worth.”
Potishman was also a longtime board member of the Lena Pope Home, where there is a walking path named in his honor. The Potishman Foundation also established the Potishman-Wells Scholarship at Tarleton State University, a scholarship honoring his best friend Clyde Wells, longtime chair of the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents.
“Leo Potishman was among the legendary figures who helped build the key institutions that comprise our city today,” said Robert Ahdieh, chief operating officer of Texas A&M Fort Worth. “That legacy — along with the natural extension of his work in food and agriculture to the nutrition and agriculture programs Texas A&M Fort Worth will bring to town — make this an especially meaningful gift for the innovation campus we are building.”
The gift follows several other major gifts from foundations with Fort Worth roots. This July, the Ryan Foundation gifted $2 million to the campus. In May, the Amon G. Carter Foundation donated $10.75 million, including $5 million in cash and 0.8 of an acre in downtown Fort Worth valued at $5.75 million. In February, the Sid Richardson Foundation committed $2.5 million to support engineering programs at Texas A&M Fort Worth.
In September, the city authorized project development bonds that will not exceed $18 million. The money to service the debt paid for by the bonds ultimately will be paid by the Texas A&M University System. Also the city transferred $2.35 million that was set aside for Texas A&M Fort Worth from COVID-19 relief dollars to aid in the construction of the campus.
Texas A&M Fort Worth, a planned three-building campus, will anchor a technology and innovation district that the city is planning for the area around the convention center.
Last summer, officials broke ground on the nearly $200 million Law and Education Building. This summer, the Texas A&M University System approved the beginning of the design phase for the second building, the $260 million Research and Innovation Building. The third building, the Gateway Building, will be at the site where the current Texas A&M University School of Law building stands.
From Interstate 30, you can see the risers and the beams of the Law and Education Building. By the end of this year, officials expect to host a ceremony to celebrate the placement of the final beam.
This 3.5-acre campus will be no optical illusion. Potishman, who doubled as an amateur magician, is helping fund the reality of an urban university campus in downtown.
Shomial Ahmad is a higher education reporter for the Fort Worth Report, in partnership with Open Campus. Contact her at shomial.ahmad@fortworthreport.org.
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This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Location Mentioned: Texas A&M Fort Worth