Kelle Moulton/Real Estate Council of Greater Fort Worth
From left, Bobby Ahdieh, John Goff, Omar Blaik, and Alex Feldman.
There is a first rule to the concept of Innovation Districts, according to the Emmett “Doc” Brown of Innovation Districts.
“Well,” said the erudite Omar Blaik, with the seemingly somewhat steady patience of a seasoned professor breaking down a complex idea into a digestible part, the first thing is “we don’t call it an Innovation District.”
When Doc Brown, the eccentric inventor introduced to us years ago in “Back to the Future,” known for his deep understanding of interconnected systems, speaks, people listen.
Blaik, CEO of U3 Advisors and a consultant working for the Fort Worth-Tarrant County Innovation Partnership, clarified his position. The correct term is “mixed-use” districts, which, to the listener, doesn’t sound innovative at all. That sounds like your standard walkable mixed-use development.
It sounds like a case of tuh-MAY-toh, tuh-MAH-toh, though I wasn’t about to challenge Mr. Blaik on it. His opinion was far weightier and informed than mine and he was quite adamant about what he thought about it.
It was tantamount to asking Schwarzenegger in his prime Conan-the-Barbarian-seeking-revenge-against-the-sorcerer years for an arm wrestle. Hard pass.
At any rate, he made his remarks during a pre-Thanksgiving lunchtime roundtable titled, coincidentally, “Innovation Districts: How Universities and Anchor Institutions Can Leverage Real Estate for Economic Growth.” It was hosted by the Greater Real Estate Council of Fort Worth at Palmwood Events downtown at the Frost Bank building.
In addition to Blaik, John Goff, chairman of Crescent Real Estate, and Texas A&M School of Law Dean Bobby Ahdieh were panelists with Alex Feldman, managing director of U3 Advisors, serving as moderator.
The focus was the transformation of the once quiet and for years desolate southeast corner of downtown into full bloom as the campus of Texas A&M-Fort Worth and, as Goff said, something “much more than that.”
More than that in much the same way Caravaggio turned a blank canvas into The Calling of Saint Matthew or something similarly extraordinary.
Actually, Goff said that during a recent meeting A&M President Mark Welsh said the Fort Worth campus would become the “single most significant campus [in the A&M system] outside of College Station.”
And rather than the three original buildings planned for the campus, our roundtable broke the news that we’re now looking at five buildings down there.
“Innovation Districts are Mixed-Use Districts that are productive, not just consumptive,” said Blaik. “It needs to have life. It needs to have restaurants. It needs to have housing. It needs to have office and commercial. It needs to have research and university settings.”
“The productive part of it is how do you leverage the research of an institution, married with the industry to actually incubate startups and economic development growth that is based on the marriage of research and industry. I think, at the most basic element of it, it's a mixed-use district.”
With Texas A&M-Fort Worth as its anchor, this Innovation District will be a remarkable ecosystem all its own, a hub where academia, business, and industry converge in groundbreaking collaboration, fostering innovation, entrepreneurship, and economic growth through a marriage of things that don’t ordinarily attract — public, private, educational, and real estate interests.
It's a catalytic event. Texas A&M is one of the largest research institutions in the U.S. with "well over a billion dollars now in annual research dollars."
"A significant part of that is already being directed into Fort Worth," Goff said. That's because some A&M programs are already here.
Ahdieh ticked off the top of his head A&M programs that will be in Fort Worth: engineering; the new School of Performance, Visualization, and Fine Arts; "a bunch" of health sciences programs in biotech, and medicine, and nursing, as well as, it appears, pharmacy.
"Our business school will have a bit of a presence here," Ahdieh added.
Eight state agencies operate under the A&M system. "Five of those agencies have already committed to have space here," Ahdieh said.
ProbablyMonsters is one company that has already moved into space in Fort Worth because of Texas A&M. Another one who has its eye here is Eden Green, which specializes in vertical farming technology, changing the way we farm and feed communities. Ahdieh said the university is in talks with CEO Eddy Badrina about a collaboration.
"But in both of these areas and other areas, the notion is not to stop there," Ahdieh said. "The notion is that we make Fort Worth a capital for gaming and visualization for the country and the world. Eddy's aspiration is to sort of move the central node for innovation in controlled-environment agriculture from Amsterdam to Fort Worth.
"Once we do that, then other companies will follow as well."
The first three buildings are scheduled to be all delivered by 2028 or 2029. The first will open the first half of 2026.
Goff and others with the Fort Worth-Tarrant County Innovation Partnership have toured best-in-class innovation districts. Kendall Square, Goff said, stood out. "I'm not saying we're gonna replicate what they did there, but we did have some terrific takeaways from visiting that campus and talking to the leaders there and how it was developed," Goff said.
Blaik, the CEO of U3 Advisors, is here for a reason. He knows Innovation Districts, or whatever. He’s built them, and he seems to be the ideal guy to help guide the development of this one.
He established U3 Ventures LLC in 2006, rooted in the belief that anchor institutions are pivotal to fostering sustainable community and economic growth within their cities. U3 was originally commissioned by Downtown Fort Worth, Inc. to conduct the original and second Texas A&M study. His presence here made for a natural marriage when the A&M project evolved.
Before forming U3 Advisors, Blaik worked as a vice president of facilities and real estate at University of Pennsylvania.
Blaik oversaw more than $2 billion in construction and $700 million in real estate investment, transforming both the campus and its West Philadelphia neighborhood into a vibrant community. His efforts earned Penn the Urban Land Institute's Global Award of Excellence in 2003.
U3 Advisors has spearheaded revitalization projects across cities like Detroit, Memphis, and Chicago, aiming to integrate urban life with the institutional energy of universities. Blaik emphasized the philosophy, sharing insight given him by University of Maryland President Wallace Loh, who noted that creating a lively urban district not only attracts top talent but also entices companies seeking dynamic environments. (U3 worked with the university and College Park, Maryland.)
“One of the things [about] a mixed-use district around the university is the ability to create this third place. It's not the classroom, it's not the lab, it's really this third place that allows for the energy of an institution to be leveraged in the marketplace.”
Blaik also noted that Fort Worth is unlike many of those other places he has been. Rather than an industrial has-been, we’re trending upward. People banging down the doors to get here and the economy ascending.
So, let’s agree to disagree on “Innovation District” or “Mixed-Use District.”
I think a better term for all this is the Renaissance, a symbolic and real rebirth of this old cattle town of the West. Where history meets the future and ideas flourish in a modern frontier.
Can the Enlightenment be far behind?
Florence, Venice, and Paris are so yesterday. In the 21st century, it’s Fort Vaut — for-voh.
All led by Aggies just a few blocks from Hell’s Half Acre.
What a time to be alive.