UT Arlington
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University and student leaders, and Walsh Companies executives take their turn at shoveling dirt. University President Jennifer Cowley stands in the center.
In every era and incarnation, the Walsh Ranch in far west Fort Worth has long been a home to big, ambitious ideas.
Some six and seven decades ago, on parts of this very property, Lewis Marshall — then general manager of the Walsh Ranches — developed a renowned cattle operation, churning out what became the largest Charolais herd in North America.
Today, those rolling hills just a smidge east of where Interstates 20 and 30 converge serve as a living classroom and laboratory for a big idea on urban development, anchored by a university churning out professionals for 21st-century North Texas with academic programs aligning with the workforce development needs of a rapidly expanding local economy.
Officials from the University of Texas at Arlington joined representatives from the city of Fort Worth and Parker and Tarrant counties to break ground on the future UTA West — a 51-acre campus taking shape amid the dynamic landscape and promising expanse of the Walsh Ranch development.
“At UTA, we say we dream big,” said UTA President Jennifer Cowley in prepared remarks to a crowd gathered in a hospitality tent, shielded from the whims and wind of Mother Nature in full spring bloom and volatility. "We’re standing, literally, at the border of the second-fastest-growing major city in the country. This area is growing fast, and so is the need for access to a top-tier university. We know the people of Fort Worth and Parker County want a national research university to provide workforce development and R&D support to area businesses—and to keep their great students close by.”
UTA West will be constructed in two phases on North and South parcels.
UTA plans to open the North Campus, the first phase, in the Fall 2028.
The North Campus will consist of up to five buildings totaling about 930,000 square feet, with parking structures of about 1,589 spaces.
The North Campus will be an $800 million development, officials have said.
The South Campus could include up to nine buildings and enrollment up to 12,000 students at full build-out.
“At its founding, Fort Worth sat on the physical frontier of a fast-growing young state and country, and today it stands as an epicenter of economic development and prosperity," said UT System Chancellor James B. Milliken, who was kept away from the ceremony on Thursday because of weather. "We are honored to have UT Arlington play a leadership role in opening new fields of opportunity and development of the region."
UTA West aligns with history.
Lewis Marshall, who died in 2009 at age 92 and worked for the Walsh Ranches for 47 years, had a bachelor’s from Texas A&M and a master’s from the University of Nebraska in range management. He also taught at Nebraska. He met F. Howard Walsh through the Soil Conservation Service.
UTA’s roots are in ag, too.
Then called Arlington State College, the school was under the Texas A&M System until Gov. John Connally, with prodding from Arlington Mayor Tom Vandergriff and Fort Worth business leaders, forced a divorce in 1965.
At issue was A&M providing sufficient funding — or, in this case, insufficient funding — for desperately needed structures for a university bursting at the seams and with, well, big ideas.
"You don't seem to understand,” J. Lee Johnson III of the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce told A&M President Earl Rudder, “Our need is immediate. … The baby [ASC] is big enough to spank the mother [A&M]."
That separation was a transformative event for the region.
UTA alumni make a $22.7 billion economic impact on the region, according to the school. With 41,000 students, it is one of the largest universities in the state. The university reached Tier 1 status as a research university in 2021.
The UT System Board of Regents approved a plan to purchase the property in Walsh Ranch through the Permanent University Fund, the unique and enduring mother lode established in the 1876 Texas Constitution.
The expansion aligns with transformative growth taking place in the west.
Walsh, a 7,200-acre development, is one of the largest developments underway in the country within minutes of a major city center.
Developers expect that 80,000 people will one day reside between Walsh and the nearby Veale Ranch. In projections generated by the North Central Texas Council of governments, southwest Fort Worth is expected to grow by 90,000 in the developments around the Chisholm Trail Parkway by 2045. Moreover, Parker County's population has boomed to close to 150,000, up from 82,000 in 2000. Weatherford alone has grown to 40,000, up from 19,000 in 2000.
Ryan Dickerson, CEO of Walsh Companies, noted the words attributed to the late U.S. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who is purported to have said that the way to build a great city is simple, “Create a great university and wait 200 years.”
There is a way to circumvent Moynihan’s timeframe, however, Dickerson said.
“Partner with a world-class university like the University of Texas Arlington. That way we all don't have to wait 200 years. … The primary mission of the Walsh family is to create a great world-class urban development. And UTA is now and in the future a significant part of that story.”
UTA’s new campus will expand the university’s footprint in Fort Worth.
In 1986, the UTA Research Institute (UTARI) was established in east Fort Worth. Today, the facility conducts $16 million annually in research focused on advanced controls and sensors, airborne computing networks, automation and intelligent systems, bio-signal processing, biomedical technologies, and predictive performance.
In 2007, the UTA Fort Worth Center was established in downtown Fort Worth. The center, focused on serving working professionals by connecting education with careers, offers high-quality academic programs that meet the needs of students and the 21st-century workforce.
In 2023, the UTA Institute of Urban Studies, the principal research center for the College of Architecture, Planning, and Public Affairs, opened at UTA’s Fort Worth Center. The Institute’s mandated mission is to conduct research and provide technical assistance to city and county governments, governmental agencies, and nonprofit organizations and to offer education and teaching opportunities to individuals either already in or contemplating public service careers.
The Fort Worth City Council appropriated up to $4 million for infrastructure improvements associated with the development of UTA West.
Building world-class urban development and innovation district with a university as its anchor is becoming a common narrative in Fort Worth.
Texas Wesleyan is making new investments. Tarleton State is expanding its presence here. And, of course, TCU is training doctors in a new facility in the Hospital District.
And then there is the modern day Texas A&M System, with none of the inhibitions it showed 60 years ago with UTA, doing the same with the construction of a campus in downtown Fort Worth, transforming the once quiet and for years desolate southeast corner of downtown into something far more than just a mere university campus. It will be, officials have declared, a research ecosystem and hub of economic vitality and transformation.
A&M President Mark Welsh has reportedly said that the Fort Worth campus would become the “single most significant campus [in the A&M system] outside of College Station.”
And it’ll be here forever. Forever, by the way, is a long time.
“The groundbreaking of UTA West marks a transformative moment for Fort Worth and the surrounding region,” said Fort Worth City Councilmember Michael Crain. “This campus will not only expand access to world-class education but also serve as a critical driver for workforce development, aligning academic programs with the needs of our growing economy. By investing in the educational landscape, we are ensuring that Fort Worth remains at the forefront of innovation and opportunity, empowering future generations to thrive in a dynamic and competitive world.”