It's Official: The Aggies Have Shovels in the Ground in Fort Worth

The Aggies called an assembly for mid-morning on the first official day of summer perhaps simply to prove that they and their partners intend to build an urban research campus in downtown Fort Worth come hell or high water.

The chancellor was there with lots of water to greet the hundreds who showed up to an empty parking lot partially covered and with fans working overtime to create the desperately-needed airflow to assuage the seemingly endless cycle of summer suffering under the thumb of, by every appearance, an irked Mother Nature and her generous serving of humidity.

And this was before it got hot. But we know better: There’s no crying in summer, particularly on this day.

The sweat was merely symbolic of the work that’s already been done here.

Texas A&M-Fort Worth broke ground Wednesday on the first building for its urban research campus in the southeast part of downtown — the $150 million, eight-story Law & Education Building, home to the Aggies’ law school, as well as other academic programs offered by A&M, A&M Health, and Tarleton State University.

The campus, which will include two other planned buildings, is being called a first-of-its-kind public-private collaboration intended to boost the regional economy while anchoring an innovation district in southeast downtown.

The guys who really broke a sweat on this day were in the adjacent parking lot, their tools of excavation already deployed. What comes out of that ground is being called transformative, as much so as what the wildcatters found in the dirt and brought back to Fort Worth all those years ago.

“As you may know, Fort Worth is not only the fastest growing large city in the United States of America, but it's the only large city without a Tier One research university in Texas,” A&M System Chancellor John Sharp said. “And we aim to rectify that.”

It’s like actually watching a flower bloom.

In addition to very important people wearing hard hats and embedding shovels into a mound of dirt set down for the occasion in an Aggie engineered plant box (just merely an assumption), news emerged during this gathering that the research campus was already bearing fruit.

Lockheed Martin announced on Wednesday that it would become the first company to sign a memorandum of understanding to discuss jointly developing education courses, workforce training and research programs, including the possibility of Lockheed researchers working alongside the staff and students at Texas A&M-Fort Worth.

“It’s not often you break ground on one building while announcing potential tenants for a second building still on the drawing boards,” Sharp said. “It just demonstrates the commitment of the A&M System and our community partners to get this game-changer up and running quickly.”

John Goff, the Fort Worth developer and chair of the Fort Worth-Tarrant County Innovation Partnership, followed by telling his audience that Elbit America and Alcon, both Fort Worth companies, have assured him, he said, that they, too, would be involved with Texas A&M-Fort Worth.

The city of Fort Worth and Tarrant County are collaborating with the Texas A&M System to construct two other buildings over four city blocks owned by the A&M System. The Research & Innovation Building is where several Texas A&M System agencies will work alongside private sector tenants. A third structure, the Gateway Building, will house offices, more classroom and meeting spaces, and a conference center.

Stantec is serving as the architect of record for the Law & Education Building. Stantec is also providing lab planning services on the project in partnership with the design architect, Pelli Clarke & Partners.

The construction management teams on the first building will include Turner Construction Company, CARCON Industries, Fort Worth-based Source Building Group Inc., and Dikita Enterprises.

The Law & Education Building is expected to be complete by 2025. The other two buildings are planned to be completed by 2027.

The first building is being financed with bonds backed by the Permanent University Fund and other sources. The other two buildings will be financed with city-issued bonds secured by leases to the A&M System and private sector development firms.

An entity called the Research & Innovation Local Government Corp., will oversee construction of the Research and Innovation Building, Gateway Conference Center, and a campus plaza.

“There is so much momentum in Fort Worth and a huge part of that catalyst, of course, is higher education and the presence of Texas A&M University here in Hell’s Half Acre in downtown Fort Worth.

“The Texas A&M System is building exactly what Fort Worth needs in this moment in our history. This groundbreaking today represents countless future careers in law, medical technology, nursing and engineering, all of which are vital to meeting the need for a highly-skilled workforce in Fort Worth and North Texas for decades to come.”

In addition to Parker, Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare also took part in the groundbreaking. Both gave addresses, as did Texas A&M School of Law Dean Bobby Ahdieh, among the first to see the possibilities in Fort Worth for A&M and the region; Bill Mahomes, chairman of the Texas A&M System Board of Regents; Texas A&M President M. Katherine Banks; Tarleton State President James Hurley, and Goff.

“As a longtime Dallas resident,” Mahomes said, “I must confess that I'm a little envious of Fort Worth today. Your beautiful city is about to have its own Texas A&M System campus right here in downtown and it's such a great, great fit.”

In attendance were Kenneth Barr, Mike Moncrief, and Betsy Price, all predecessors to Parker as Fort Worth mayors. Price and Goff were among those representatives from Fort Worth who brought the idea of downtown campus to Sharp in 2020. Former Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley and state Rep. Charlie Geren, among many others, were there, too. So was TCU President Daniel Pullin.

“This is going to be the center of innovation, not only for Fort Worth, but I think all of North Texas,” Goff said. “I'm thrilled to be a part of it. It was a team effort. I want to keep emphasizing that. I’ve got so many people to thank. We've got a lot of work yet to do, but I can assure you we're not going to let go.”

In other words, lots more sweat to go.